The Boat…Chapter 6
Knowing that I had lost just about everything because of this little fiasco, the thought of my knife still in my pants pocket seemed ludicrous. But I figured, “what the heck?” I was dumbfounded. There in my left pocket was a quarter, two pennies AND a pocket knife. Unbelievable!
I used the knife to undo the knot and I was in business, again…sort of. I wrapped the rope around my waist and using the tree and rock it was sliding across, I tried inching the boat upwards. It actually moved. I felt elated that perhaps, if I was patient and moved along at a steady slow pace, I could finally get it to where I needed it. Sure enough, the nose of the boat was getting higher and higher until eventually the boat was resting in the position I needed it to be, in order to remove the water so it could once again float. There was just one small problem. While the nose of the boat was in the right spot, the rear of the boat was still two feet out into the lake AND still under water.
I tied off the front so it wouldn’t move and worked myself back down into the water at the aft of the boat. First, I tried pulling the boat sideways up out of the water. There was no way that was going to work. The boat was just to heavy. I noticed that the way the boat was positioned on this make shift runway, it appeared that I might be able to slide it forward along the runway until the rear of the boat was actually out of the water.
I moved around to the rear of the boat and tried pushing…not a quarter of an inch. I tried again…nothing. I stepped back, not literally, of course, and surveyed the situation again. There is no earthly reason this boat should not move, I thought. That’s when I noticed something I had done that prevented the boat from going anywhere, including forward. I had tied the front of the boat off so securely, that there was no way it was going to move. I knew I had to make my way back up the embankment to the stern.
Now, I had to pray that when I loosened the rope, the boat would stay put and not slide back down the edge, into the water. I untied the knot and let the rope out very slowly to see if it was going to stay in place. It wasn’t. With each section of rope I loosened, the boat would slip that amount down the side. OK, I thought, you’re just going to have to find a way to keep the boat from sliding downward, while still allowing for it to move forward.
I found a large rock that I hoped would do the trick. I placed the rock on the lake side of the boat, about half way down its side. I positioned it such that it was scrunched up between the side of the hill and a big root bulging out of the embankment. The rock was secure. At least enough to keep the boat from sliding…I hoped.
I made my way back to the stern of the “ship” and continued untying it. Ah ha! It worked. The boat was significantly loose, yet still wedged in between the rock and the dirt wall. Now, back down to the rear of the boat. All the time I was moving, I was looking at the position of the boat. There was absolutely no reason I shouldn’t be able to slide this thing up along the runway far enough to clear the water.
When I found my way to the lake again, I grabbed both back ends of the boat and pushed. It moved! Not much, at first, but enough. I pushed again, sustaining my surge to see how far I could get it to move. Low and behold, I actually felt the boat move four or five inches. Only one and a half more feet, I thought. I was encouraged.
After another shove and another half foot up the runway, the boat came to a stop. I was not to be denied! I turned around with my back up against the back of the boat. I scrunched down in a knee bent position to get as much leverage as I could. I grabbed the bottom of the boat with my hands and braced myself for one mighty shove. I’ve never really understood why Olympic Game power lifters yell when they go for that lift, but I also know that they are the “professionals” and obviously they know what they are doing. So decided I would give a mighty roar as I heaved the aircraft carrier forward. The very least that could happen is perhaps I could attract some attention from someone on this lake. Maybe even the road worker that was doing something to the dock where I had launched this boat only a few hours earlier. I have to say, I was a little puzzled by this guy, anyway. He had been working on this dock since before I had even arrived. In fact, after I had put the boat in the water, he offered to hold it while I parked the truck. He could obviously see what I was going through, for he was only about a quarter of a mile up down the lake and in easy view. Oh well, back to the problem at hand.
I jostled the boat around in my hands and braced my feet on the heavy rocks below. After a couple of long deep breaths, I shoved, putting every back muscle I had to work and roaring like a lion, to boot. In a flash the boat jumped up the runway again until it came to its final resting place. Somehow, I knew that this was as far as she was going to go.
When I turned around to face the boat, I could see that it hadn’t moved quite far enough. The corner of the boat was still in the water. That’s when it hit me. How stupid! What an ignoramus goof ball! Didn’t you go to college? I saw the answer to my problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment