Or “Can you leave your wet suit and thermal shirt on the sun deck and take off in your boat and have them still be there when you get to the dock?
The answer is no.
Tonight, I hit the lake with John and T-Bell for a quick set in the evening. John took a slalom set out in the main lake. I took a few foot runs in the bay. Actually managed a couple decent one-foots, but nothing significant. It was just nice to get out. The weekend weather didn’t cooperate much, windy, cool, cloudy, scattered showers, you name it. But Sunday was OK, 60, partly sunny and windy, but do-able.
I was the last to ski and once I got back into the boat, I pealed off my suit and shirt and just left then on the sun deck and proceeded to dry off and change as we idled back to the main lake. Once past the bridges, I was now dry and had forgotten that my stuff was still on the back of the boat, and not actually in the boat.
T-Bell passed the no-wake buoy and took off. About half way back to the landing, we hit a good wave, John’s water flew all over, and (unbeknownst to me) my suit and shirt probably flew off the back off the boat.
We get to the landing, trailer the boat, everyone starts handing stuff out of the boat, wiping it down, putting things in their vehicles and mine. Five minutes later we’re all ready to leave. I hop in my truck and drive home.
I get home about 630. I’m tired and hungry, so I just back the boat into the garage and go inside to start cooking some dinner. While cooking and eating, I start watching a show. I finish dinner and then finish the show. Its now about 730 and I head outside and get everything put away. I unhook the boat, put the truck in the garage and start emptying the it. Find my shorts and gloves. No suit, and no shirt. I hop up into the boat and check… No suit, no shirt.
Call John… Did you happen to grab my wetsuit? Nope.
Call T-Bell… Left a message about if she had grabbed my stuff… still haven’t heard anything yet.
Then I call John back and we decide to head down to lake to look for it. I grab a dry pair of shorts and life vest, just in case we see and it is floating out in the water a ways. I’m foolish enough to jump in with floatation when the water is cold and do some skiing, but not so stupid as to take a swim at dusk when I don’t have flotation on.
Now it is after 8 and the sun has been set for 20 minutes or so and it is getting pretty dark. John starts from the north end of the shoreline where we think it may be on and probable had about 20 minutes of looking in before I started from the south end. I walk about 100 yards of the shore, and who’d a thunk it, I see a wetsuit floating right along the shoreline. I grab a big stick and fish it out of the water. Needless to say, it stunk.
We finish looking, but there is no sign of the shirt.
So, realizing I may have lost both a $200 wetsuit and a $50 thermal shirt, coming out with only losing the $50 shirt feels pretty damn good.
One other thing, this is a mistake I’ll never make again.
Mad-City Wedge 