All was going well until I realized I forgot [insert important item here]!

[captainhook]

I'm always paranoid that I'm going to forget something when preparing for a boating trip. I grew up on the water and I know what it's like to not have something you need and being stuck out there (thanks Dad, for making me row with a shovel more times than I can remember!).

So this past weekend I get everything all hooked up (hitched on first attempt!), remember to get all of the kid's life jackets (I forgot the baby's last time!), rafts, tube, bags. Check, check, check, check. I remembered to fill up the fresh water washdown, button the windshield holder strap, all plugs are in, batteries are turned on, all bags aboard. Get everyone loaded up into the truck and I always do one last walkaround of the whole trailer, and as I'm walking I'm thinking, "this seemed too easy, what am I missing?" Everything seemed to be in order, so we take off.

As we pull out, wife decided to tell me that I placed the lawn tractor I am selling by the road on the wrong angle. "No one can see it!" I try to explain to her that she isn't the target market for a bright green and yellow John Deere tractor for sale on the side of the road and if you're looking for one of those, you will certainly see it. As we're arguing back and forth, I miss the gas station and have to turn around. We get to the gas station and I realized I don't have 5 bucks cash for the ramp fee. Finally get all of this settled and take off again to the river.

I pull into the ramp and the ramps are both open, great! So I back right in around dozens of parked cars, launch the boat and put two thirds of my kids in it while the wife holds it. Get back in the truck and my son and I go to park on the other side because the lot is full. I get out, start pulling him out of his car seat and that's when I remembered it--I know what I forgot now. I FORGOT THE KEYS TO THE BOAT AT HOME. I hang my head in shame and walk over to the wife and tell her I forgot the keys, ("How do you forget the KEYS for the boat??" she says) and that she will have to wait while I go home and get them. We considered pulling the boat back out but after the ordeal of three kids, packing, launching, etc. we opted to go anyway. I empty my pockets and jump in the water, pull the boat over to one of the slips. I was home and back in 27 minutes and we still had a great day.

This was worse than the time I forgot the baby's life jacket, or the time when we were going on the SeaDoo and I forgot both life jackets. I think maybe I need to make a list...

 

[bronze_10]

I leave an extra set hidden in the boat.... but that sounds like my life!

 

[Gym]

Glad to hear you were able to rescue your day @captainhook. There is not a person on this forum that hasn't forgotten something at one time or another. With the added concern of three young kids and all their gear I surprised you remembered the boat. I also left my keys at the house. We launch by hand so I had the boat in the water before I realized. I had to leave the wife tied to the courtesy dock (in the boat) run a mile and a half to the house for the keys and a mile and a half back. Pretty sweaty when I returned. Since then I leave a spare set of keys and safety lanyard hidden in the boat.

 

[BigN8]

In my previous career I worked for a large commercial roofing contractor as a salesman/project manager. I had a lead to give a quote for a new roof on a good size warehouse building down near Waco (2 hour drive from the office). At the time all of us sales guys drove 1/2 ton pickups and we had these ladder racks that were on the passenger side of the truck called "weekender ladder racks" We all carried 32' aluminum ladders. It was a Monday and I had taken my ladder and rack off the truck for the previous weekend.

I hit the road and head to Waco with lead in hand. The whole time I had this nagging feeling I had forgotten something. I arrive at the building, back up around the back to setup my ladder, and just as I exit the truck it hits me. I forgot my f'ing ladder!!! Luckily I had the racks in the back of the truck, so I drove to a United Rental and rented a ladder for about an hour then returned it.

I never told anyone at the office I had forgotten the ladder and drove 2 hours without it!

 

[MikeyL]

@captainhook: I hope you'll take this in the spirit intended.
But whille I am sorry all of this happened, I laughed my butt off reading what and how you wrote this.
Just wanted you to know a bunch of us are enjoying a good laugh over this.
Most lkely because it reminds us of all of the d**m things we have done.
<d**b translates as dumb ............ LOL>
So glad you decided to share this with us.
Sincere best wishes, Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[captainhook]

@captainhook: I hope you'll take this in the spirit intended.
But whille I am sorry all of this happened, I laughed my butt off reading what and how you wrote this.
Just wanted you to know a bunch of us are enjoying a good laugh over this.
Most lkely because it reminds us of all of the d**m things we have done.
So glad you decided to share this with us.
Sincere best wishes, Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

That's exactly why I posted! I figured I can't be the only one who forgets things. The list of items to bring is so long I really should be writing it down.

 

[itsdgm]

one of the funniest memories that I have of my dad is watching him pedal his bike up the street (about 1/4 mike) on his way to work only to turn around and start riding back. I yelled to mom to come outside because dad was coming back home for some unknown reason. When he arrived he asked my mom to go and get his "memory pills" because he didn't take them with his breakfast. She quickly replied that he did in fact already take them earlier while eating. He quickly replied "I guess those things don't really work that well then, do they?"

 

[arew~SX230]

The wallet, its always the #&$@ing wallet!!!!

 

[Julian]

Been there....done that....but with an hour and a half round trip to get the f'ing keys! So we have a checklist on the fridge for boating now.....with all the REQUIRED items....reads something like:

Boat KEYS (YOU IDIOT)
Cooler
Towels
GPS
XM Radio (we have a portable XM Onyx that plugs into stereo in boat and at home)
Snacks
Tubes/Boards/Skis etc
Life Jackets
Ropes
Hitch (boat lives in a slip...I've forgotten to take the hitch when I went to pull it out! D'Oh!!!)

 

[Wayloncle]

I forgot my camper keys one trip, I was about 2 hours from home. Luckily I had left the front door unlocked but my outdoor kitchen door was locked and that is where all the beer was:-( and I had a lock for my hitch latch. So I took a pair of pliers and grabbed the kitchen door lock and twisted it until it opened (mostly out of frustration from my wife reminding me how cool I was for leaving the keys at home). To Unhook the camper, again luckily, I had not used my locking receiver pin, so I pulled my pin out and drove the truck away from the camper, which turned out to be a good lesson, I hardly ever take my camper hitch off my camper now, if I'm on level ground I leave my truck in neutral and pull it back by hand and slide the hitch into the receiver, it is easier than it sounds.

I've forgotten other things but that was the worst. No telling how many times I have forgotten stuff in the boat only to remember when I finish zipping up my cover ratchets:-/

 

[Evildwarf]

I forgot the entire family one day and had the boat all to myself for the afternoon...

 

[Big Shasta]

I was waiting for you to say PLUG...LOL....I forgot the cleanout plugs once. It idles out of the slip just fine. But not so much when you go to gas it.

We would trailer every year to Lake Martin (about 5 hours tow) I went over everything 10 times starting a week before that trip every year. Not having keys would have sucked something awful.

 

[jetboater4life]

I am usually good for for forgetting something once or twice a year. This year, just like you, it was the boat keys. Each time out to the lake before I thought, gee I really should distribute those two extra sets I had made at Ace hardware between the truck and boat. Fortunately, like you my round trip is about a half hour. The worst thing about it was that it was towards the end of the day and we had another family with kids with us. I was steaming mad during the ride back and ever since my spare keys are hidden in the boat and truck.

 

[captainhook]

I forgot the cleanout plugs once. It idles out of the slip just fine. But not so much when you go to gas it.

Oh I did that once last year at the public ramp. I looked like a complete fool on my second voyage out after buying the boat. For about five to ten minutes (which felt like an hour), I actually thought there was something wrong with the boat. My four year old had some nice comments for me that day. "Daddy, maybe we should go back to the dock." Fortunately I figured it out but I always make a habit of letting the engines warm up nicely so it would've been a long swim back (but not my first time swimming a boat back to shore!).

 

[treeskier]

Many years ago I worked as a salesman for a water well drilling company and had to transport some records from an office we closed to another location and used one of the larger trucks to do so. Sales and field operations didn't necessarily get along ... they called us carpet people. The shop supervisor made a point of treating me like a 2 year old in explaining where to go and how if I need fuel to go to a truck stop where I would have all of the clearances needed for a real truck this was the largest vehicle you could drive without a CDL...blah, blah, blah. I drove 560 miles round trip with no issues. I pulled into the locked yard on Saturday opened the 14foot shop door to pull in the 12 foot truck...unfortunately I only opened the door about 11 feet and drove in the shop taking a section of the over head door with me.

 

[Wayloncle]

Oh I did that once last year at the public ramp. I looked like a complete fool on my second voyage out after buying the boat. For about five to ten minutes (which felt like an hour), I actually thought there was something wrong with the boat. My four year old had some nice comments for me that day. "Daddy, maybe we should go back to the dock." Fortunately I figured it out but I always make a habit of letting the engines warm up nicely so it would've been a long swim back (but not my first time swimming a boat back to shore!).

The one and only time (so far) I have forgotten the clean out plugs was my second trip out as well, I had read a lot on the forum before I ever bought the boat so I immediately knew what it was when I throttled up!

 

[jetboater4life]

I've only forgotten to install the clean out plugs once. They are always in the wet locker, but I still looked silly in front of all the ramp monkeys hanging out throwing bananas my way. On a few other occasions , I have remembered just before I turned the keys over to power off the trailer.

 

[craigm]

I posted this last spring on the other site under date night. Has a couple of oh I forgot in one trip.

Since we picked up the boat from the dealer last month, and put it in the water that afternoon, we have not been out in it. Between kids basketball, go kart racing and overall bad weather we have not had any chances. The 2013 AR240 is my seventh boat and I consider myself a very experienced boater having purchased a 1989 Celebrity 19' at 24 and had a consecutive string of boats up to 2010, a Supra 24 Launch.

Now it was Fathers day weekend and I was bound and determined to get out on the water. Based on the weather it looked like Friday was going to be the only day to accomplish this. I left work at 3:00, went home, changed clothes, packed the cooler and the wife and I headed to pick up the boat and launch it on the local lake to go to dinner.

By 4:10 we arrived at the lake, one we had never been to before even though we have lived near it for the last 25 years. The parking area was small at this particular ramp and one spot was left for the Suburban and trailer. We drove down to the one lane ramp, quickly pulled off the cover tossed the cooler and backed in. By now three more guys had shown up to launch so we hurried and got it off the trailer. My wife moved the boat around to the other side of the dock so now it was stern to the shore. I jumped in and flipped on the blower, wow it seamed quite and I thought Yamaha must have used a good quality unit, sadly no as I turned the key and found the battery completely dead. At this point my wife was on the verge of reminding me that we did not need another boat and it was a hassle for reasons like this. As I was about to put it back on the trailer and go home much to my surprise she said "you better unhook the trailer and go get another battery while I stay here and hold the boat". So I rushed to the nearest auto parts store grabbed a new battery $111, battery box $17, jumper cables $12 and flew back to the ramp. By now more people were coming to unload and load as we took up one side of the dock.

I jumped in the boat, new battery in hand, trying to remember under what seat the darn thing was and hooked up the jumper cables from one to the other and tried to start it. No luck, the connection was not good enough so I ran back to the Suburban grabbed the crescent, since I have not built out my onboard tool box yet, and switched the cables around and fired up both engine without an issue. As I was sitting there reveling in my success my wife asked for some random reason, "did you put the plug in the boat?" Rutrow, and after sitting about 45 minutes I flipped on the bilge and she poured out like Old Faithful. What to do now? My wife suggested that we go out deeper and I jump in the lake, as she had enough of this launch ramp, however I was fully clothed for dinner and had no suit on board. So I left the motors running, and if you remember was backed into the shoreline, headed to the truck had to re-hook up the trailer from the run to the auto parts store, and pulled back in line. By now a lady was yelling that they were late for a graduation and I should let them go ahead since we and been sitting there for an hour. I agreed, however at the same time the wife was yelling at me to help her as the motors were making a grinding sound. Well as she held the boat at the dock and the engines were running it clawed itself backward into the shore line picking up sand and other debris. I jumped from the Suburban ran onto the dock and into the boat to shut it off, bilge still running of course. Back to truck into water, pulled out boat, let some water drain, however others wanted to launch and pull out so quickly screwed the plug in, backed into water, parked trailer, ran back to boat started motors, cleared out impellers, and off drove off to dinner.

After that the boat worked flawlessly. I was able to park at a very crowded and tight dock area with no problem at the restaurant. We had nice dinner, then we slowly cruised around the lake for a couple of hours.

I am not sure what caused by memory fade, could be that I am almost 50, not having a boat the last five years, concerned about making a special night with the wife, whatever the case I feel I am back in the groove and launches and retrievals will be less than a minute as I and been down to in the past. Sure wish we had the spring loaded looking pin on the trailer for quick drive on an pull out. Oh well I can lean over the bow and hook it up. Overall I love my first Yamaha jet boat. Great value for what you get.

I hope this story of my date night helps in two ways, 1) shut off battery switch when not in use. 2) obviously put the plug in before you are in a hurry at the ramp. I have taught the kids since they were born "prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance". I don't think I will be sharing this story with them.

Enjoy every moment, God Bless.

 

[Glassman]

Heck, I just read through this whole thread and now I forgot what I was going to write!

 

[Ronnie]

My two cents just from my lunch and back trip so far today.

Forgot the spare quad copter battery at home, screw or and push on, a mile later realized I forgot the vests, head home to get them. Got out of the 5 zone post launch and realized the clean out plugs were not in. Tried to fly the quad copter but couldn't get it to work , forgot to plug the display to controller wire in. Now we are headed back hoping I have not forgotten anything else.