airduds
Well-known member
My wife, a friend, and I met up with two other boats in the Salt River between Homosassa and Ozello. The good news is when we pulled up next to them, they all said they saw me but couldn't hear me until I was very close to them. That makes seven that have told me my boat is the quietest they've seen.
We rode all over our usual places. I never had a moment's problem keeping up with the 13' open Diamondback w/520 cont/2-blade sens and the 13' open Diamondback w/383 2.09:1 and 2-blade sens. With I'm figuring ~650 lbs of butt, gas, and refreshment I was running good in deep water at around 3300-3400 rpm.
Now some bad. We wanted to go up to Peck's but the water was too high to get under the bridges. We rode up to the Salt River bridge and the first two boats hopped across the road next to the bridge with no problem. Just as I was getting ready to go, some guy in a black Dodge longbed truck stops and starts ranting and waving his arm out the window. I was going to go ahead and go but my wife stopped me. So we're sitting there doing slow circles and this guy is stopped (now holding up traffic) and flipping us off. I'm getting ready to go anyway and he makes it clear that if we get on the road he's going to ram us. Finally he gets out of his truck still yelling and flailing to talk to someone that has stopped behind him. There's now 8 or 10 cars/trucks back there with occasionally someone coming around - and traffic (lots of motorcycles) coming from the other direction.
With him out of the truck I figure I don't have to worry about getting rammed so I jumped on across.
When we came back later, the water was still too high. This is bad because where we cross the road is curved and thus banked. It's banked in the direction that makes going north easy but coming south is tough. It's made tougher because you have to go from higher ground down into ditch before climbing up the other side. I've personally seen several boat hung up here and two partially sunk because the guys let them slide back down the bank.
I wanted my wife and friend to get off because I didn't think I'd make it with them aboard. I wasn't real sure I could make it by myself. They didn't want to get off. My wife wanted to take the Gulf route home but that is a long, long way; so finally I thought what the hay, might as well find out what she's got.
I pulled down into the ditch as far as I could until the bow was about a foot from the other side and then nailed it. It jumped straight up the other bank but then started to hang just as the bow was getting ready to fall over the crest. I pulled back on the stick, the bow came a little to the left - twisting just enough to keep me from sticking, and then we were over. Crossing the road itself was a cakewalk.
All in all a great day, the deal with the guy in the truck notwithstanding. What gets me about this guy is we weren't near any houses or private property. To my knowledge that area isn't protected, and we've been crossing there for years at high water.
We rode all over our usual places. I never had a moment's problem keeping up with the 13' open Diamondback w/520 cont/2-blade sens and the 13' open Diamondback w/383 2.09:1 and 2-blade sens. With I'm figuring ~650 lbs of butt, gas, and refreshment I was running good in deep water at around 3300-3400 rpm.
Now some bad. We wanted to go up to Peck's but the water was too high to get under the bridges. We rode up to the Salt River bridge and the first two boats hopped across the road next to the bridge with no problem. Just as I was getting ready to go, some guy in a black Dodge longbed truck stops and starts ranting and waving his arm out the window. I was going to go ahead and go but my wife stopped me. So we're sitting there doing slow circles and this guy is stopped (now holding up traffic) and flipping us off. I'm getting ready to go anyway and he makes it clear that if we get on the road he's going to ram us. Finally he gets out of his truck still yelling and flailing to talk to someone that has stopped behind him. There's now 8 or 10 cars/trucks back there with occasionally someone coming around - and traffic (lots of motorcycles) coming from the other direction.
With him out of the truck I figure I don't have to worry about getting rammed so I jumped on across.
When we came back later, the water was still too high. This is bad because where we cross the road is curved and thus banked. It's banked in the direction that makes going north easy but coming south is tough. It's made tougher because you have to go from higher ground down into ditch before climbing up the other side. I've personally seen several boat hung up here and two partially sunk because the guys let them slide back down the bank.
I wanted my wife and friend to get off because I didn't think I'd make it with them aboard. I wasn't real sure I could make it by myself. They didn't want to get off. My wife wanted to take the Gulf route home but that is a long, long way; so finally I thought what the hay, might as well find out what she's got.
I pulled down into the ditch as far as I could until the bow was about a foot from the other side and then nailed it. It jumped straight up the other bank but then started to hang just as the bow was getting ready to fall over the crest. I pulled back on the stick, the bow came a little to the left - twisting just enough to keep me from sticking, and then we were over. Crossing the road itself was a cakewalk.
All in all a great day, the deal with the guy in the truck notwithstanding. What gets me about this guy is we weren't near any houses or private property. To my knowledge that area isn't protected, and we've been crossing there for years at high water.
