Stupid boating mistakes

[swampbilly 1980]

After a morning duckhuntn' we got back to the ramp to load up and go home. The wind had blown W/Northwest 20-30 for a few days and there wasn't enough water around to drown a cat. Backed the trailer down and it was low tide at the time so I had to back alot farther than usual. What I didn't realize is that I came back so far that the trailer wheels chocked themselves at the end of the concrete slab i.e... "END OF RAMP", but there was no sign. We had to pick the boat up and place it on the trailer and we got soaking wet and man, was it cold. Couldn't figure out why the trailer wouldn't come up. After 3 or 4 tries, got fustrated, locked in the hubs,got 'er in low lock and sidestepped the clutch. I watched my buddys' eyes get big as saucers when the trailer came up. The bumper on the truck had pulled out to a perfect V and at the point of the "V" was the trailer ball with the trailer connected to it. It was a funny thing to see. I unhooked the trailer and backed into a pine tree a few times to bend it back into place. We are talking about an 18" drop here folks at the end of that ramp and I still can't figure out how I didn't tear up more than what I did!