A month ago Buzz and I burned out the outboard motor on Buzz’s small fishing boat. For the two weeks following, we fished from my canoe instead. We caught fish, but we also wound up with stiff backs and sore butts from sitting in the same cramped positions too long. When we told a friend, Dennis, that we were catching fish, he wanted to join us, but he wasn’t interested in fishing from a canoe. He asked us why we didn’t just use Buzz’s boat as a rowboat.
As crazy as it sounds, it had never occurred to me to take a rowboat on the Mississippi River. In thirty years of fishing and paddling on the river, I’d never seen one. I have seen countless speedboats and motorized fishing boats. I’ve seen sailboats, houseboats, pontoon boats, airboats, canoes, kayaks, jet skis, barges, paddle steamers, even cruise ships, but not a single rowboat. This seems odd to me now that I think about it.
Rowboats, however, need oars, and Buzz didn’t have any. His boat has been in his family for seventy years, and somewhere along the way the oars got lost or broken. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) Buzz, Dennis, and I are all serious paddlers. Between us, we own over a dozen canoe paddles. Rather than buy a set of oars, we decided to take the boat out with paddles.
Going out in a rowboat without oars seems like something ten-year old kids would do. Apparently old men, too. At seventy-two years of age, I’m the youngest in the group. Buzz is seventy-six, and Dennis is already eighty, Still the three of us have paddled Buzz’s rowboat two times now, and we even brought a fourth guy with us the second time. One of us (Buzz) felt the need to share the adventure.
Navigating a small v-hull boat with canoe paddles is more difficult than I would have guessed. The boat never goes straight. Forward progress is slow. Wind is a factor. Both times we stayed well away from the main channel, so at least we didn’t have to deal with the current. We also avoided other boats, as we were afraid that other fishermen might ask us if we needed help. Were that to happen, we’d have to tell them, “No, thanks. We are out here like this on purpose.”
Recent Comments