(Pics by www.TommyGunImages.com )
As posted the other day Topock 66 was having a party with food and drink specials. The occasion was that they were filming a promotional video for the bar/restaurant. So once again we loaded up the boat, and decided to make a dinner run to Topock, with a night run back! We also got a few unsuspecting board members to make the journey with which were Shintooo, Hallett21, and we met Robert from safeglow whips at the bar.
About the time that we left the channel I discovered that both Hallett21 and Shintooo like to run their boats on the Rev Limiter the entire time. I gave them the brief "Hey I don't run this old boat that hard" speech in the no wake zone, but as you can see from the pics it didn't matter much. We ended up catching them at the No Wake Zones, but ultimately meeting them at the bar a few minutes afterwards.
This is a boat I passed on the way up to Topock. They looked like they were having a blast.
We finally arrived at Topock, and got the rigs all tied up, and ready to join the festivities.
This pic is classic. I didn't notice it until we were actually up on the patio, and of course I was too lazy to go check it out in person.. But there was no ropes on this side of the boat. I think this guy actually just drove this big cat up to the two finger docks and kinda "wedged" it in there. If there was a rope, it would just have to hold it in because it couldn't go side to side.
Anyone know what kind of boat this is? I really liked the layout / shape etc.. Doesn't look familiar to me?
When we arrived they had already craned the boat into the pool, and the band was playing. We ordered some food and drinks, and then went into the pool to cool down a bit (It was blazing that day). The food actually got delivered to the edge of the pool which I thought was a nice touch (not sure if they do that normally?).
After the sunset a bit, They lit that monster off and had a "cackle" fest, which of course included throwing flames from the zoomies.
Flame Shot
Shintooo and Hallett21 lost their sense of adventure on me and bailed around sunset for the ride home. Shintooo later told me they hit two sandbars on the way home (getting dark). Pretty sure Hallett21 made it without incident but he knows this section of the river pretty well.
We ended up staying late night (par for the course for us) and drove back with Robert from Safeglow whips following in his magic. Unfortunately at the docks we had an issue that resulted in breaking the base of my sternlight for my boat!! So we had Robert actually following us by looking at an I phone that was just being held off the transom. He said he couldn't see us period if we didn't have it there.
Bear in mind that we never exceeded even idle speeds on our way back.. It was yet another dark night, and this section of the river is extremely difficult (and not for the faint of heart) to navigate at night. Even when you are heading directly down the river it looks like the mountains are all closing in on you. I tried to rely on the GPS a little more this trip and that was a mistake.. At one point it was showing us dead middle of the river, and my bow Nav lights were lighting up reeds all along the shoreline.
Ironically enough we hit the same 2 sandbars that we hit on the first trip. I want to be clear when I say "we hit" it's about like idling up to a beach. It's just a "bump" and you turn off the key then walk off the bow and stand in the water for a few minutes before walking the boat around it, and continuing on.
We came across a boat that was floating with their drive all the way up pretty close to the actual main "sandbar" on the way back to Havasu. I asked them if they were ok and they replied "Do you know how to get to Havasu from here?" These people were scared out of their minds and they were wearing the orange life vests.
We had beached the boat while I was talking to them, and when we went to leave I had found out that we were in a kind of weird little spot that had sand shoals more or less surrounding us. Tom and I had to turn the boat around several times by hand until we could figure out how to get it out of there and back on the main river. While it's embarassing as hell to say we jumped back in the boat and started idling to what we thought was towards "Havasu."
The wife whom was manning the GPS at this point said "Dave I think you are going back to Topock?" I said "nonsense dear" Tom concurred, no possible way. Well GPS's don't lie, we idled for a minute or so, and we were actually heading north! That will give you somewhat of an idea of how easy it is to get disorientated on this journey at night can be.
We made a U-Turn and continued on back to Havasu and right as we were coming to the no wake zone (pretty late at night.. 1 - 2 am?) we saw a boat floating in the river. I was floored when the blue lights came on and it was the Cops! They idled up to us, and I figured I was going to get a ticket for no stern light for sure. They took one look and said "keep going" and on over to Robert's boat (whom had one of the first prototype boat whip lights on it that was bright as hell) and said "Keep going." They then went up to the last boat, and it turns out the boat we had come across had called the cops to come and rescue them. The cops weren't going that far up river though, so they were waiting for them by the mouth of the river. Those people must have been "spooked" something fierce though, because even after they followed us all the way down there, the cops ended up hooking a tow rope to them and towing them.
What I have pretty much decided after this trip, is I'm going to give the nightruns to Topock a rest for awhile in the Schiada. If someone wants to roll out in a Pontoon, or something with "docking lights" just so you can turn them on every now and again to get your bearings, then I'm in. For now though coming into the offseason, I think it's time we raise the bar and start planning OFFROAD EXCURSIONS TO TOPOCK!!
WHAT DID YOU THINK WE WEREN'T GOING TO THE BAR?
RD
As posted the other day Topock 66 was having a party with food and drink specials. The occasion was that they were filming a promotional video for the bar/restaurant. So once again we loaded up the boat, and decided to make a dinner run to Topock, with a night run back! We also got a few unsuspecting board members to make the journey with which were Shintooo, Hallett21, and we met Robert from safeglow whips at the bar.
About the time that we left the channel I discovered that both Hallett21 and Shintooo like to run their boats on the Rev Limiter the entire time. I gave them the brief "Hey I don't run this old boat that hard" speech in the no wake zone, but as you can see from the pics it didn't matter much. We ended up catching them at the No Wake Zones, but ultimately meeting them at the bar a few minutes afterwards.
This is a boat I passed on the way up to Topock. They looked like they were having a blast.
We finally arrived at Topock, and got the rigs all tied up, and ready to join the festivities.
This pic is classic. I didn't notice it until we were actually up on the patio, and of course I was too lazy to go check it out in person.. But there was no ropes on this side of the boat. I think this guy actually just drove this big cat up to the two finger docks and kinda "wedged" it in there. If there was a rope, it would just have to hold it in because it couldn't go side to side.
Anyone know what kind of boat this is? I really liked the layout / shape etc.. Doesn't look familiar to me?
When we arrived they had already craned the boat into the pool, and the band was playing. We ordered some food and drinks, and then went into the pool to cool down a bit (It was blazing that day). The food actually got delivered to the edge of the pool which I thought was a nice touch (not sure if they do that normally?).
After the sunset a bit, They lit that monster off and had a "cackle" fest, which of course included throwing flames from the zoomies.
Flame Shot
Shintooo and Hallett21 lost their sense of adventure on me and bailed around sunset for the ride home. Shintooo later told me they hit two sandbars on the way home (getting dark). Pretty sure Hallett21 made it without incident but he knows this section of the river pretty well.
We ended up staying late night (par for the course for us) and drove back with Robert from Safeglow whips following in his magic. Unfortunately at the docks we had an issue that resulted in breaking the base of my sternlight for my boat!! So we had Robert actually following us by looking at an I phone that was just being held off the transom. He said he couldn't see us period if we didn't have it there.
Bear in mind that we never exceeded even idle speeds on our way back.. It was yet another dark night, and this section of the river is extremely difficult (and not for the faint of heart) to navigate at night. Even when you are heading directly down the river it looks like the mountains are all closing in on you. I tried to rely on the GPS a little more this trip and that was a mistake.. At one point it was showing us dead middle of the river, and my bow Nav lights were lighting up reeds all along the shoreline.
Ironically enough we hit the same 2 sandbars that we hit on the first trip. I want to be clear when I say "we hit" it's about like idling up to a beach. It's just a "bump" and you turn off the key then walk off the bow and stand in the water for a few minutes before walking the boat around it, and continuing on.
We came across a boat that was floating with their drive all the way up pretty close to the actual main "sandbar" on the way back to Havasu. I asked them if they were ok and they replied "Do you know how to get to Havasu from here?" These people were scared out of their minds and they were wearing the orange life vests.
We had beached the boat while I was talking to them, and when we went to leave I had found out that we were in a kind of weird little spot that had sand shoals more or less surrounding us. Tom and I had to turn the boat around several times by hand until we could figure out how to get it out of there and back on the main river. While it's embarassing as hell to say we jumped back in the boat and started idling to what we thought was towards "Havasu."
The wife whom was manning the GPS at this point said "Dave I think you are going back to Topock?" I said "nonsense dear" Tom concurred, no possible way. Well GPS's don't lie, we idled for a minute or so, and we were actually heading north! That will give you somewhat of an idea of how easy it is to get disorientated on this journey at night can be.
We made a U-Turn and continued on back to Havasu and right as we were coming to the no wake zone (pretty late at night.. 1 - 2 am?) we saw a boat floating in the river. I was floored when the blue lights came on and it was the Cops! They idled up to us, and I figured I was going to get a ticket for no stern light for sure. They took one look and said "keep going" and on over to Robert's boat (whom had one of the first prototype boat whip lights on it that was bright as hell) and said "Keep going." They then went up to the last boat, and it turns out the boat we had come across had called the cops to come and rescue them. The cops weren't going that far up river though, so they were waiting for them by the mouth of the river. Those people must have been "spooked" something fierce though, because even after they followed us all the way down there, the cops ended up hooking a tow rope to them and towing them.
What I have pretty much decided after this trip, is I'm going to give the nightruns to Topock a rest for awhile in the Schiada. If someone wants to roll out in a Pontoon, or something with "docking lights" just so you can turn them on every now and again to get your bearings, then I'm in. For now though coming into the offseason, I think it's time we raise the bar and start planning OFFROAD EXCURSIONS TO TOPOCK!!
WHAT DID YOU THINK WE WEREN'T GOING TO THE BAR?
RD
