Not sure it this is an oops story or not... you decide.

One Halloween while I lived on Maui, we had the opportunity to take our 48 ft cat and another 36ft cat on a sunset booze cruise/Halloween costume cruise. The passengers were dressed up, not the crews. Needless to say, all had a great time.

We had unloaded the passengers and were hanging out on the mooring, embibing on the local brew and bud..
When it came time to row ashore and deposit the trash, I had the fortune of helmsman. An 8 ft Avon with 6 crew aboard and myself at the oars, and 2 bags of trash. Now, this is where I have to say, the story becomes almost a fallicy.... if you werent there, you won't believe it.

The moon was full off the western sky, and the Maui Surf Hotel garden grass was full of luau guests, and the slack key guitars were a blaze!

As I was rowing in, I noticed our boat, the Mawee, rise and fall, and the Tenegra, the other boat, do the same... We are about 30 feet from shore when I observed this.

So, in my enebriated/smoked out state, I thought I could out-row the rogue wave that was about to crash on the shore. In my defense, had the deckhand (I was the 1st mate on this Halloween cruise) mention that I abruptly change direction and reverse course, the calamitious events that followed would surely have not transpired. Like it was his call?

Being the brave, buff, surfdog/seaman I thought I was, I could surely outrow towards shore, this rogue, one and only, shorebreak 5 foot wave that would eventually have it's way with us/me, wreaking havoc with trash and booze bottles, and a 6 inch gash in the side of the Avon!...

Ever been in a 8 ft dinghy going over the falls as a powerful wave hits the shallows, and watching the stern go over your head, upside down, as the crewmembers bail out for dear life, while you, as the oarsman, ship the oars and dive out for dear life????

I barely recovered from the head thwamp, and my boating bretheren and I were frantically picking up tidbits of trash, being careful not to steop on the huge shards of rum, vodka, and gin bottles that had found their way into the soft sides of our now-flat Avon!

And who would be at the shoreline???? All the freakin tourists laughing their arses off!!!!

One of the many unexpected "thrills of boating" was the day we discovered the famous Lake George tour boat "Mohican".

Locals know that the slab sided, early 20th century tour boat throws a monstrous but predictable wake. Roughly four feet tall, nicely spaced, and about TWELVE of them. But, being new to the lake, we didn't know that...yet.

So, late one afternoon, we're heading down the lake on a hazy, August afternoon---you know the days when the sky is hazy blue, the water is the same color, and you can't really see the horizon? Yea, one of those days.

We're at a fast cruise, heading into town, still north of the islands, when I look up and see what appears to be a large lump in the water. I stand up to get a better look and, squinting into the horizon, detect what increasingly looks like a monster wave. No boat in sight---the brain refuses to acknowledge the signal---until, just ahead, there is without any doubt a VERY LARGE WAKE!

I yank back the power---TOO LATE! Still north of 40, we climb up the face of the wake and launch full clear of the water. Vicki's standing with a death grip on the windshield, Paul's in the bow grabbing for ANYTHING, and I've got the strange sensation of stomach and bowels crowding the throat area.

And THAT'S when I discovered the joyous news that a Cobalt 226 has very civilized manners on re-entry. We touched down with a gentle 'swoosh', and an entry wake worthy of an olympic diver. And there we sat, doing a mental checklist of body parts as we watched the wakes coming, one after another.

All's well that ends well---but that was a scary day.

And then FLB and crew headed back to the dock for a nice change of undergarments.

And now you know...the restof the story!

About the third time I took the ol'Montery out, we headed for Newport Dunes in So Cal. The boat was new, we wuz lookin' cool, we go to the launch and stick 'er in the water but it wouldn't come off the trailer..........Wonderin' "What the Hell" is goin' on back there, we pulls 'er out and SOMEONE, (read: ME) forgot to undo the tie downs........DUH! Found that it floated a lot better if I took them off.