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Blogs by Larry M. Lounsbury
A Duck's Story 1/29/2007 2:41:38 PM
The life of the misunderstood.My wife's Blog I love writing, especially funny stuff, so I want to tell the story of what happened to us this past summer. It was probably one of these situations that are funnier if you are actually there, but I will try and recount that day's events. Sorry it's so long, but when I start writing, I can't stop.
We have owned a boat for the last three years, but last summer bought a new one (not new, but new for us), as the original one was a little 15' trihull that would get flooded with even the smallest wave because the bow sits really low in the water. It didn't bother me too much, but scared the living daylights out of my daughter. It wasn't a big boat by any means, but it could move really fast as it had a 75hp outboard engine which is quite powerful for such a little boat. In an attempt to get her to come boating with us more often, we bought a 17' boat that had a different hull shape and sits much higher in the water. This boat has an 85hp engine. Although this boat is only two feet longer, it really made a difference (I guess size does matter ) and we were able to convince my daughter to actually come with us, instead of sitting home.
I guess there are quite a few funy things that have happened while boating, most of these centered on my ability, or lack thereof, at docking the boat, but that will be for another time. On this particular day we did the usual routine. I made up the picnic that we always bring, grabbed the swimsuits and towels, aqua shoes (hey, you never know what you're gong to step on) and headed off to our dock at the marina. Where our dock is situated, you have to go along a rather long outlet until you actually get to the lake. They have a 5mph speed limit, so it sometimes seems like it takes forever, but once you get to the actual lake, it really is quite fun. Our usual routine is to speed the boat up, do that for a few minutes and then go to the beach area, drop anchor and swim. I have to mention that this boat we now have works a little bit different that our trihull, and the first time my daughter came with us, the look on her face was priceless. I'm not trying to get too technical, but this boat has a planing hull which in effect means that as power and speed increase, the hull lifts itself up on top of its own bow wave. This causes the boat to displace much less water. As a result, there is much less wetted surface on the hull bottom, meaning much less friction as well. The speed of the boat will now increase at a great rate. With this hull, the more horsepower added, the faster the boat will go. The first time my husband and I went on the boat (we left the kids home as I didn't want them in the boat until I was sure it was safe and running well) I was really disappointed. I was used to my other little boat, so when I pushed the throttle on this boat for the fist time, it really didn't seem like it was doing much of anything, and actually felt like we were going to tip backwards. I was really mad at that point, thinking I had just wasted my money and this boat was junk. However, after some research, I found out that what the boat was doing was completely normal and it is not going to tip up, it just feels that way. Once it gets to a certain speed, the bow lowers and it will really fly. On this day we had done the usual routine and were at the beach area swimming and just enjoying the beautiful weather. I like to bring my mask and snorkel, and I know I probably look really silly, but it's fun. So here I am, having a good time when I hear these cute little quack quack sounds, and off in the distance I see a whole family of ducks heading our way. Now I swear these duck passed by several boats that were anchored at the beach in order to get over to us. I had fed them in the past, and I don't know how they knew it was us, but I swear they did. As they're approaching us, they had to pass by this one boat that had a guy, who I would say was probably in his late fifties, early sixties, and a teenage girl, who I'm assuming was his daughter. This guy is sitting on the back if his boat with his feet dangling in the water, while his daughter (I'll just call her that) is swimming. All of a sudden his legs start flailing and kicking and he's yelling "shoo, shoo." Now I'm thinking at this point that this guy is really being as ass. Poor little duckies! The ducks make their way over to us, and of course I have to give them a little bit of bread from my sandwiches. They were so cute, and there were little cute fuzzy ducklings also. Some of the older ducks would actually take the bread right out of your hand. I would also go under the water and watch their little legs swimming around. We fed them for a few minutes, and decided they had had enough (actually the would have ate all of our sandwiches if I would have let them). Of course, it's not easy getting rid of them when you start, and I'm a sucker for duck eyes, but I forced myself to stop. After about ten minutes I guess they finally got the point that we were not going to feed them any more and they started making their way back to wherever it was they came from. Unfortunately, they chose to swim near the guy in the boat again, who by this time had ventured into the water. All of a sudden I hear the commotion again. This guy is yelling and screaming, slapping the water like he's demented. "Shoo, shoo, go away" he's screaming at the top of his lungs. Now I'm really getting irritated. What is his problem? It's only ducks, but you would have thought that he was getting attacked by Jaws with the amount of noise he was making. I don't think ducks are too smart as they really didn't seem too concerned, and appeared in no hurry to go anywhere. I was thinking to myself, you better not hurt any of them. The guy then proceeds to climb back in his boat for safety, meanwhile still yelling at the ducks. He looked like he may have been looking for something in the boat to protect himself, but didn't find anything, so he sits down at the back of his boat, puts his feet back in the water and starts kicking and yelling again. His daughter meanwhile has been off a little way swimming around quite unconcerned. He then yells to her, all the while still flailing his legs, "Christine (made up name) get in this boat now, they'll peck your eyes out." I guess at this point I realize that the guy is not being an ass, he's genuinely afraid of these poor little ducks. I laughed so hard, tears were running down my cheeks. Now I have heard everything. Hey, if Alfred Hitchcock were still alive, maybe he could do a sequel and call it "The Ducks." Poor little things, their beaks are not even pointy.
