Favorite Boating Experience????

What's your favorite or most memorable boating trip(s) or boat ride(s)?

I have a few for different reasons.

My first trip to Havasu 2011, I learned to drive a 28 foot ELIminator. First time I ever drove a boat. It was right before DS and I was at the Islander. I spent about 30 minutes on the boat alone idling. I watched the monster boats and their drivers launching and putting their boats on the trailers with such precision, it was a great learning lesson. I learned the right spot to have the boat before taking my final ride toward the launch ramp and was able to get the boat on the trailer my first attempt. I knew there was a crowd watching and I was so nervous about making an ass of myself. It was a day I will never forget. That day, I knew I was hooked.

I've also had a few boat rides I will never forget. Riding in the Terminator doing 130+ for the first time, sitting in the open bow was literally breathtaking. My second most favorite boat ride was in No Limits a beautiful Outer Limits boat that I had my first ocean speed boat trip. It was as much fun as it was surprising to see us take on the huge waves with such ease at 90mph. Going bar hopping in it was a blast too! Driving a 22 ft (I'm not sure exactly how big, but that's about what I recall) Donzi at 70 mph at night on the lake was a blast, it was the first v-haul I drove. Such a huge difference in handling and turning. My first ride in a jet boat, I realized how much of a thrill it is to be going so fast and so close to the water. My first ride on a pontoon, what do you mean I can dance while we drive? That was awesome…I have some great pics from that trip. ;) These are just a few.


What are your favorites?

For me, that's easy. I want to say it was 1998/99'. We took our then 2yr old boat from almost the Overton arm of Lake Mead to Pierce's Ferry at the mouth of the Grand Canyon. The boys had to be 10 & 15 or so at the time. If I remember correctly it was around 75mi one way. I'm pretty sure we didn't even need to stop for gas on the way up, but we did stop at Overton on the way back. It was a midweek trip, so we saw maybe 3-4 boats the entire way. I am not a good navigator, which was apparent when we had to get out of the boat and turn it around when we hit the mud coming out of the Grand Canyon. The rafting boats coming out of the canyon should have been a clue LOL.

That was a great trip, one I will never forget. It was so peaceful, the water and weather was amazing. And it didn't even bother me that I shaved off a piece of the top of my foot as I hit the prop crawling back in to the boat after taking a dip LOL.

Being a childhood Huck Finn, mine would have been my first plywood flat bottomed v nose boat with 7.5 Evinrude complete with throttle/shift and steering wheel. I felt like King of the Kissimmee River in Fla.
No shirt no shoes and blistered every weekend, I think the highest SPF sunscreen was 4 or 8 and provided little protection. Hope I don't ever have to pay for my childhood ignorance for the last statement, I see the dermatologist twice annually, in fact I have an appt tomorrow.


CH3NO2

Mine was at Castaic when my son was a year old. The whole day was a blast to be on our boat with our son and his first boat ride. Needless to say it was scary when we would get up to 45mph and he would fall asleep instantly and when we slowed down he would wake up.

My second memorable boat trip was when my daughter was 2 months old and we took her to Lake Elsinore. It was just us and 1 other boat on the lake. Driving around the lake and looking down at my daughter in her carrier and seeing her smile is something I'll never forget.

The third time was Memorial Day weekend two years ago when I took my girlfriend for the first time. The first day was windy and rough and I thought she was going to hate it but she loved the rough water. The next couple of days the weather was calm and the so was the water. She asked if the water was going to get rough again because that was fun. I knew then she was a keeper. :-)

Did you have a pet dolphin?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stainless

Being a childhood Huck Finn, mine would have been my first plywood flat bottomed v nose boat with 7.5 Evinrude complete with throttle/shift and steering wheel. I felt like King of the Kissimmee River in Fla.
No shirt no shoes and blistered every weekend, I think the highest SPF sunscreen was 4 or 8 and provided little protection. Hope I don't ever have to pay for my childhood ignorance for the last statement, I see the dermatologist twice annually, in fact I have an appt tomorrow.


CH3NO2

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No, but I watched Flipper. :D


CH3NO2

All great stories, I've boated for over forty years and all have been on fresh water lakes until we moved to Florida 18 months ago, so the coolest now for us, must be tooling out into the GOM for our first time and the boat getting surrounded by 40-50 dolphins, we knew we weren't in the Midwest anymore, it was amazing.

This one and there was one other stop on their privite Inland as well. Need i say more.
http://www.ncl.com/cruises/7-Day-Wes...IAOCJGECCZMMIA
:buddies::beer:party::partyguy::3:

Camping on Lake mead, 2006. This was a great week :thumbsUp:

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And of course every other time I'm on the boat with my wife, friends and family.

1978 or so, my buddy and I were 17 and camping in the dirt at ah villa (la paz today) picked up by the double deck sundance boat loaded with topless women and free boones farm, oh what a day.

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Originally Posted by boatnam1

1978 or so, my buddy and I were 17 and camping in the dirt at ah villa (la paz today) picked up by the double deck sundance boat loaded with topless women and free boones farm, oh what a day.

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The Ah Villa had the best powder dirt on the river and some of the best around the clock entertainment as well...