first world problems...but it still gets to me

we got this little bayliner, 19 foot boat
nice little boat, bought it a few years ago but with the baby being born last spring, we havent had it out in about 2 years
so i got it dusted off over the week and got ready to take it out today
since i wasnt sure how it would go, i decided to only take the boy out

so, hooked the boat up to the bronco (i know i know, should have bought a dodge)
managed to get her down to the boat launch with the truck only stalling out about 5 times, and i only had to turn the crank by hand 3 times to get the starter to mesh

got the boat in the water, and it ran allright but it didnt want to go into gear from idle without dying
i figured it would "clear" up after running it for a while
so, we got going, did allright
idled through the no wake zone, out into the big lake
and anchored it some 30 feet out from the beach

me and the boy jumped of, did some frisbeeing, some swimming and got going again...well, tried to

i fired her up and when i went to put her in gear, she stalled out

it did that to me 4 or 5 times, and i hadnt noticed that as it was stalling out, the current pushed it across my anchor line

i finally got her going, the drive rattled and shook and then it died on me

i jumped out and sure enough, my anchor line was wrapped around the drive and 2 or my 3 prop bladed were gone

so, we pulled her a close to the beach as we could, ran a new anchor line to the beach, grabbed the keys and started walking

luckily, there was a lady there who was willing to give us a ride back to the boatlaunch, so we could at least get the truck back home

so, we got in the truck, fired it up and drove about 50 foot before it backfired and stalled
at that point the carb caught fire and i was not about to get it going again

now, it had happened before that the starter would hit what i guess is a flat spot, and i would have to get down and turn the crank a few degrees by hand before it would catch again
but at this point, it just would not engage no matter how much i turned the crank

finally i had someone tow the bronco a few more feet out of the way (he didnt have much choice, if he was gonna get his boat out) and walked home

when we got there, i jumped into the charger to at least get the trailer home but as of right now...the boat and the truck are still stranded

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If he's anything like me he'll remember it forever. I've got dozens of these stories with my Dad. I always learned something and didn't feel the stress he did. You just gave him a life experience.