Launching or captaining a boat presents all sorts of opportunities to make a fool out of yourself but some people seem to go out of their way to increase the odds.
On the way back to the ramp last Sunday afternoon we fell in behind what appeared to be a 60's era 14' MFG that looked like it had been painted with a broom. We were in a narrow part of the channel where it wasn't really appropriate to pass. There were two guys in the boat, the cap'n was driving and looking dead ahead. The mate was scrubbing the boat with what look like a back brush. Every so often the mate would tell the cap'n to slow down and he would dip what looked like the botom of an old tackle box over the side and wash off where he had just scrubbed. This happened around half a dozen times; coming to a near stop in the middle of the channel to get a few splashes of water with both the cap'n and mate oblivious to the line of boats behind them. When they got to the ramp they tied to the very end of the finger dock while they fetched the truck even though there was room for at least three boats in front of them so we had to idle around waiting for them to haul out.
When I was winching my boat on the trailer I took my shoes off mostly out of habit. It was a good ramp so I could hook the winch line to the bow by standing on the trailer while still holding onto the winch post. While I'm doing this some cowboy who had just launched his hotrod jet boat takes off like Don Garlits up the ramp. I said to myself "what a maroon" and went about my business.
You ever see a chase scene in the movies where the hero gets out of his car and jumps into a docked boat and speeds away. (BTW, I get a kick out of these scenes . I mean, come on, there is no way your going to stay one step ahead of your pursuers if you need to hop into a docked boat.) Anyway, this guy must have watched too many movies 'cause took he off out of there like 007.
So I'm ready to haul out and I stop to pick up my shoes which I left by the rear wheels of the truck and they are gone! I'm getting senile but I know I left them there so I holler over to my son and ask if he knows where my shoes are and he just shrugs. Even though there was nobody else waiting I didn't want to linger on the ramp so I start to pull out minus my shoes. My son starts calling for me to stop and when I do he grabs the boat hook and starts fishing around off the other side of the dock. Before I can figure out what he's doing he pops up with one of my shoes in his hand! When the cowboy had ripped his trailer out it created a wave that had washed my shoe into the drink. After a little more searching I found the other one on the ramp under my Suburban up near the front tires which were about 20' from the waterline! I hope Mr. Hotshot left his plug out.
As far as number 2 above; when I was a kid my father always taught me that leaving you fenders out was very unseamanlike and embarrassing so it is something I always double check but I think half the other boats I seen out Sunday were dragging them over the side...
I guess time change, kind of like if I ever walked around with my pants down and my underwear sticking out my dad would have clobbered me!