Hey, don't forget me! I once worked as a deckhand on an Ohio River towboat. Make sure your houseboat has a paddlewheel!
Originally Posted by lustylad
the Belle of Louisville. that's a blast from my past. been on her many times. teen dances, cruises when i was an adult .. drinks!!! (not like we didn't sneak booze on the teen dances .. we did!)
the great pre-Derby race between the Belle and the Delta Queen.
i grew up on the Ohio River. i've been boating all my life. in 1977 we went out on a buddy's dad's boat, and he started "chasing wakes" of the Belle. what that means is "surfing wakes" in a boat. his boat was a 17 ft outboard. and he swamped it.
we were surfing the wakes of the Belle perfect then he got out of sync .. me and a buddy were in the front bow seats. suddenly the boat dipped and this huge wave came up. my buddy actually jumped out. i swear he was 20 feet in the air. i thought .. "yeah maybe i ought to bail out too" and got flattened by the wake. knocked me down into my seat.
it swamped the boat, killed the engine no electricity. .no bilge pump. FUCKED! lol. it sank. but not really. boats are fiberglass with lots of buoyancy. it did sink from the stern where the weight of the engine made it go down. we all could swim so not that big a deal. however we were in the middle of the Ohio River.
we got the life vests that floated out and some boater saw it all and came over, he towed it to shore, still 99% underwater and nose up.
so .. my buddy had to make that dreaded phone call to his dad ... "Dad, i sunk the boat" lol. this was back when there were these ancient artifacts known as phone booths ... lol.
so my buddies Dad shows up and to my amazement didn't kill him on the spot. my Dad would at least punched me into next week ... lol. and they got the boat out and had it repaired.
unfortunately for me, i lost my pants, didn't think of it while the boat was sinking, could have gotten them sooner, and lost the keys to my Mom's car at the bottom of the Ohio along with Ali's Gold medal ... it was gold keychain with mine and my brother's birth dates and names in the keyfob.
so she had to drive down with my Dad with the second set of keys to drive her car back to our house.
this car.
Yes. my Mom drove a 1970 blue Trans Am 400 Ram Air Firebird. until i wrecked it in 1978. but that's a story for another time.
bhahahahahaaa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Steamboat_Race