Air Time in the Boat

Jon and I were swimming again for a recovery with Craig (mad dog) Dixon

at the wheel of the Avon, a pretty cool boat. It's a rigid hull

inflatable 17' with and eighty five horse motor, lots of get up and

go. The big round inflatable sides are great for this kind of work. If

you do bump against the sub, no harm done. But they do make for a

wide surface area, like a kite.

Craig sat on a snowmobile seat down the center-line and Jon and I

stood in the back holding onto the sissy bar at the rear of the seat

with one hand and a rope loop from the side of the boat in the

other. Real macho stuff.

We loved to go out in this boat. Craig liked to push it to the limit

and we were into it. Standing in the back when Craig gunned it over

the top of a wave, listening to the prop over-speed as the whole

boat went airborne was an awesome thrill. We did get some air time in

that thing.

On this day the wind was up to 30 knots or so, a bit breezy. The swell

had a long period so the wave tops were maybe 200' apart. Plenty of

time to accelerate and get the boat in the air. We did this right

alongside the ship just to give the beakers a show. Today they were

going to get an eye-full. Craig gunned it and got to the crest of the

wave just as the wind gusted. The nose of the boat pointed straight

up to the sky with Jon and I still standing in the back but now we

are horizontal. The boat climbed in the air with our momentum and then

seemed to hang there for the briefest of moments before gravity took

over. We landed square on the motor. The boat could have come back at

us and turned turtle but instead leaned forward to splash down on it's

hull. The motor never stalled and without a word Craig started driving

toward Alvin but at a much lower rate of speed. We did no more wave

jumping that day.