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Boat Wreck - Summer 2005I think it was July, maybe August, but Cara, Eric Keller, Quink, Dale, Mary and I were out cruising Lake Austin. We have been boarding earlier in the day...Kris Jakob was with us, we had just dropped him off, and we decided to go to Hula Hut for a couple of drinks. I think that drinks turned into shots of tequila and margaritas. We called Dale and Mary and we all decided to give Mary the Lake Austin home tour. We were cruising around, feeling really relaxed after those drinks, looking at all of the homes along the lake. We went around the island between 360 bridge and Hula Hut checking out the Million plus dollar homes. It started to get a little late in the day and the sky was cloudy...the wind started to pick up and the lake was becoming rough. We decided to head back to Hula Hut to drop Dale/Mary off and I was only going about 15 miles per hour when I looked back at Dale and he said "Aaron, you're going to kill us!" It was more of a calm statement than an alarmed raised voice type of yell. I turned around just in time to see a big dock had suddenly gotten in my way. It was too late to stear away from it or throw the boat in reverse. I just closed my eyes and hoped to either jump the entire thing and keep everyone in the boat. Luckily, no one was in front and we were going slow enough that bow was way up in the air, so we just kind of creeped right up on top of the dock and stayed there. 
We were all pretty calm given the circumstances...we realized quickly how lucky that we were. Our first reaction was to try to get the boat off the dock. We rocked it back and forth, pushed, pulled, and nothing was happening. Then, a couple of young guys cruised by in their outboard and attempted to help us by tying lines from their boat to the Tige. They gunned 2 boats at once, but the Tige wasn't going to budge. We then realized that the curved fins on the bottom of the boat were stuck on a huge pillar under the dock....we weren't pulling this thing out of there. 
After our individual efforts failed, we decided that we would have to involve the Lake Police, so we ditched all of the alcohol down the river. The first police boat arrived shortly after, and they again tried to pull the boat from the dock...wasn't happening. We agreed to load up in their boat, go home, and then try to get the boat out the next morning. 
Dale hanging out in the police boat...he looks fairly comfortable, like he's been there before. 
The phone rang at 6:30 when the officer told me they had freed the boat from the dock. It was pouring down rain, but he and 2 other offices went down to the lake with Axes, and cut my boat out of the dock. They drug my boat back to Police Marina and I found it tied up to the dock with an inch of water inside (mostly from rain). It started right up, so I drove it up on the boat trailer and took it home. The next day I took it up to the Ski Dock, an old employer of mine in the college days, and they quoted me $5K to fix it. I had a $500 deductable with my insurance company, so they gave me another quote of $5500 and we were all set. They fixed the boat, and I sold it for $5000 more than what I had purchased it for a few months later. Talk about a return...on a wrecked boat! |