#10 -The Near Prop Chop

#10- Day Off and Near Prop Chop
We both needed a mental health day off together from our demanding work, Cyndy as Nurse and I as teacher . It was early June, 1978. We had weathered the Blizzard , were immersed in the music making fun and frenzy of SeaBright and making all the detailed plans for our upcoming cross-country family RV odyssey. Bob and Lois had that ill fated pleasure craft detailed in “Joe Cool’s Fishing Adventure” moored at the boatyard just off Southern Artery, and we decided with Joe off to school on this mid-week dazzling morning, to have a day of playing maritime hookey. All packed up with gear and a picnic we parked in the lot and found that the tender was in use which we usually used to row out the very short distance to the mooring float. Somewhat impatient to get underway, I asked the manager if there was another row boat available and he said no just take the marina work boat with the 35 Johnson outboard. Though I had not used it before it seemed basic so we put our gear in. Cyndy took the bow and I pushed off into water deep enough to start the motor. Getting enough depth I pumped the ball from the tank to the motor to get the fuel flowing and then I gave a big tug on the pull start (it did not have the electric key start with the bigger motors we were used to .) As I hoped the motor roared to life - but shockingly the boat took off at full throttle in reverse doing wild corkscrews and to prevent being thrown out and chopped up in the prop we both hit the floor. (The newspaper headline flashed in my mind “Local Nurse and Teacher skip work and end up shredded-let that be a lesson to all! ’) Talk about an out of control malicious machine - shades of “Christine” and “Kill Dozer”! …I’m not sure who thought of it first –perhaps Cyndy , admittedly the more mechanical of our partnership may have yelled, “Pull the gas line out! I struggled on my knees , staying low and holdling on to the seat for dear life and, literally because the motor was closer than the gas can I threw myself upon it and yanked out the gas line like I was tearing its throat out \And just so , in seconds the last life blood gas ran through, it gave a death rattle and was dead. We dizzily got to our feet, shaking our heads at this crazed ride ,we looked up on the shore not 100 feet away and about a dozen guys who had been spectators were standing there with open mouthed dumfoundedness. I did not call out to them to avoid appearing foolish - “No problem we meant to do that” …instead I paddled the damn work boat out to ours and towed it back to the shore. By this time the manager was at the dock…”I guess the last person left the latch over in reverse and the throttle got stuck wide open. Wow,that was wild!”
“Guess so”- I whewed, and feeling quite fortunate that we had not collided with another boat or got thrown out and finely minced, we headed out past the shoreline , all the more ready for R&R. When we came in after a wonderful cruise and much laughter we took the row boat in this time…