Gearhead
07-03-2006, 04:48 PM
I hope all you jetters are having as great of time as we have over the fourth holidays. We had a good number of pretty heavy hitting Cheyennes, Youngbloods, etc. show up at Broken Bow for a fun weekend.... But BEWARE the weekend almost ended in tradgedy for me.
The performance boats gathered in a great smooth cove out of the way of the lake traffic, etc. and visited and ran our boats, etc. Late in the evening my wife and I loaded our stuff back in the boat to head to the landing and camp where our host "Chop" was having a festive gathering.... pork tenderloin, roasted chicken, all the trimmings, deserts, etc.
As we left our "parking place" on the beach I idled out towards the holding area to let the engine warm a little and then turned towards the cove entry to check for traffic. This cove was about 400 ft. wide with only one boat idling in the middle of the cove entrance and a JET SKI idling to the left of him. I hit the throttle pretty good to get the boat to pop on top of the water then feathered back to cruise out at about 50. We waved at our friends on the beach and were just about to clear the entrance when from my left this JET SKI had jumped the wake behind the jet that was idling along and landed directly in front of me!!! This Jet Ski was about 10 to 15 feet directly in front of me with me running around 50! I turned to the left hard putting my boat on the left sponson just lifting the right sponson over the back of the Jet Ski! I felt the wake from the ski and thought I had hit it. I turned around and gassed back to the place of the near incident, hit the kill switch and dove in to see if anyone was hurt. The Jet Ski just idled towards their destination on the beach never stopping or looking back. I swam the distance up to the girl and asked if she was OK. (This scared the crap out of my wife and myself and I was almost in shock!) She said "What?", and I said "ARE YOU OK!", to she said "yes... why?" I replied, "Because I almost hit you out there!" She replied, "What? Was there a boat out there? I did not see one". Our whole group plus many others were pretty well shaken up as they had seen her run behind the boat and right out in front of me without even checking up! I was totally sober and sure was thankful that I could react so quickly, but still had some pretty bad dreams after the ordeal! I guess I would have been mad if it had not been such a close call. I just had to be thankful everyone was still alive!
Have FUN, BE SAFE.... Watch for all the other boats.... ESPECIALLY THE JET SKIS!!
The performance boats gathered in a great smooth cove out of the way of the lake traffic, etc. and visited and ran our boats, etc. Late in the evening my wife and I loaded our stuff back in the boat to head to the landing and camp where our host "Chop" was having a festive gathering.... pork tenderloin, roasted chicken, all the trimmings, deserts, etc.
As we left our "parking place" on the beach I idled out towards the holding area to let the engine warm a little and then turned towards the cove entry to check for traffic. This cove was about 400 ft. wide with only one boat idling in the middle of the cove entrance and a JET SKI idling to the left of him. I hit the throttle pretty good to get the boat to pop on top of the water then feathered back to cruise out at about 50. We waved at our friends on the beach and were just about to clear the entrance when from my left this JET SKI had jumped the wake behind the jet that was idling along and landed directly in front of me!!! This Jet Ski was about 10 to 15 feet directly in front of me with me running around 50! I turned to the left hard putting my boat on the left sponson just lifting the right sponson over the back of the Jet Ski! I felt the wake from the ski and thought I had hit it. I turned around and gassed back to the place of the near incident, hit the kill switch and dove in to see if anyone was hurt. The Jet Ski just idled towards their destination on the beach never stopping or looking back. I swam the distance up to the girl and asked if she was OK. (This scared the crap out of my wife and myself and I was almost in shock!) She said "What?", and I said "ARE YOU OK!", to she said "yes... why?" I replied, "Because I almost hit you out there!" She replied, "What? Was there a boat out there? I did not see one". Our whole group plus many others were pretty well shaken up as they had seen her run behind the boat and right out in front of me without even checking up! I was totally sober and sure was thankful that I could react so quickly, but still had some pretty bad dreams after the ordeal! I guess I would have been mad if it had not been such a close call. I just had to be thankful everyone was still alive!
Have FUN, BE SAFE.... Watch for all the other boats.... ESPECIALLY THE JET SKIS!!