Wassaw 2008

[tsubaki]

Well we once again tempted fate at hunting whitetail deer on a barrier island.
This is the first thread for you that want to catch up.
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...light=WASSAWAs
As mentioned in the previous thread this type of hunting is not without peril.
Not to forget the heat, cold, rain, rattlesnakes, sandgnats, mosquitoes, poor boating weather or God forbid having boat problems.
See, you must bring everything that you may need to survive for 4 days and nights, and to hunt with primitive weapons. This does mean all food, water and all camp materials you can tote. The only thing afforded to you is the use of the deer cooler to keep the harvest from rotting, everything else, you***8217;re on your own. If you wish to shower, bring such needed stuff, bathe in the river or go without.
This trip the temperatures ranged from 44 to 78 degrees, all in all very pleasant. No thunderstorms, or tropical influences to aggravate us.
We started the first day loading my neighbors boat, first sign of trouble was the batteries acting dead. After cleaning the terminals we are on our way. About half way to the boat ramp his alternator light comes on, I tell him lets go back and check it out. Well, bad alternator so we use my old truck to pull the boat hobo***8217;s to the ramp.
After leaving the ramp we noticed the boat wanted to list excessively on either side as if full of water, well we knew that wasn***8217;t possible and thought it was the amount of weight we loaded in it.
After about a 30-45 minute ride to the islands dock, we unloaded, anchored the boat (you are expected to stream anchor) pitched camp and headed to find a suitable hunting location. Naturally I want to go as far from other hunters as possible, so here we go on a 3 ¼ mile trek. Finding a couple of good possibilities for deer we put the stands up and returned to camp (no hunting allowed on the first day).




While at the prehunt meeting, I kept staring at the boat. One of the game wardens came up behind me and whispered ***8220;is it supposed to float like that?***8221; After telling him ***8220;no***8221; he volunteered to take me to it to see what the problem was. Getting to the boat we could see water was almost 4***8221; from the top of the transom, we got a leak! The boat is too full to run it out with the motor, so I just crank it up and let the bilge run (non automatic) for about an hour till we found the source.
Apparently, during the installation process, they pulled the hose for the bait tank tight and it took till now (as fate would have it) to break the barbed fitting off the pump. Being below the water line it quickly filled the inner bottom and deck with water. After removing the hose and having just enough to reconnect to the broken pump we figured it was best to beach it till we were comfortable with the ***8220;repair***8221;.