With lots of help from a fisherman who felt sorry for me after watching a half hour of failed attempts, I finally back my truck + jetski trailer down the boat ramp. Actually, random fisheman did it for me; I “assisted” by saying “izquierda” or “derecha”when he started to swerve toward the ramp’s edges. Not just me, it took him several tries. I mean mostly just me: he did it in 1/5 the time I spent failing.
More overconfident underskilled gringoing to try and get jetski off trailer. This requires 4 younger guys’ help and still takes a good half an hour. Ends up involving me entirely detaching the trailer to just push it in, getting stuck in the sand, and then frantically running to the truck for my spearfishing gear as one of 4 helpers holds the jetski. Either they just agreed to park my truck and reattach the trailer for me or I just gave my truck away.
The jetter starts right up, and I’m off!
Why am I barely moving? This is <3 mph, not 30+.
What is that rumbling?
Will this smoke stop soon?
Bros aboard a shiny fishing boat with several rods and another several spearguns each inform me that I have gravel in my impeller and need to disassemble things to remove it. In their opinion, I won’t be fishing today. I ignore them and rocket off towards Isla Cerralvo.
Nah. I’m smoking a lot and, while I wouldn’t argue if someone told me that a jetski has an impeller, that’s about the extent of my knowledge of them. The last time I rode a water motorcycle was ~20 years ago. Wildwood or Ocean City New Jersey or Maryland (who cares) I spent several hours going full speed then turning as hard as I could, shooting my brother Scott off in a straight line while the wet crotch rocket obediently turned. He swears to this day that he hit the shallow bay’s bottom hard enough to get stuck in the mud. I still recall flying over the front as a handlebar struck an inch from providing me with permanent contraception.
Getting out of water much less dramatic, thanks mainly to my 4 helpers. Also doesn’t hurt that the trailer is light enough to change direction during reversal by simply picking it up. I thank my aides and vow to give them some fish if I spear any.
I actually thought I was going to do this entire thing on my own.
But no fishing for me yet. Bros are spinning in the sand trying to pull their boat up the ramp with their Jeep (of course they have a Jeep). Alexander to the rescue. It’s going to be weird if I ever get a non-monster vehicle. Weird as in I’ll expect it to do all the things Alexander does, break it, and revert (advance?) to other surplus utility co behemoths.
I get 4 decent fish spearing within 10m of shore by Playa Central. Visibility poor but only at the surface. And, it improves as the sun sets / wind dies. My helpers are gone, so I’ve got a good excuse to make more fish jerky. Maybe I can actually read the jetski manual while the fish marinates.
Before bed, I activate my satellite emergency beacon subscription. $60 a year of insurance against reality crashing into the sizable gap between my ambitions and abilities.