A Day With Mr. Murphy--How Lucky Can One Get?

The problem with Murphy's Law is that, when it gets hold of you, it doesn't want to let go. Through breakfast, the trip to West Neck, and rigging my boat for a day's fishing, everything this morning was, as my pop used to say, "copacetic."

The picture started changing when I reached for the trim/tilt switch to raise the outboard enough to haul my boat to the ramp for launching. The trim/tilt seemed sluggish, but I chalked it up to my imagination and headed on down toward the ramp. Since I was the first and only person getting ready to launch, I took my time and made sure I didn't make any mistakes. When I was satisfied I hadn't overlooked anything, I got in the van, backed the trailer down the ramp, touched the brakes, and watched the boat slide gently into the water. I then secured it to the catwalk and parked my van.

Minutes later, I stepped aboard the boat, lowered the outboard (again noticing that the trim/tilt seemed sluggish), and turned the key. All I got was a groan--similar to the kind I usually make when I try to get out of a chair any more. After a couple of tries, I got the motor to spin fast enough to fire and let it warm up for a few minutes, as I mulled over the situation. I knew all the lights on my charger had showed green before I disconnected the power cord this morning, but I also am all too familiar with what a bad battery sounds like, and I knew that was the problem. To be on the safe side, I left the outboard running while I walked to the van and grabbed my jumper cables, just in case I might need to jump start the starting battery from one of my trolling-motor batteries later in the day.

With the jumper cables stored safely in my boat, I pulled away from the catwalk and headed to Albright's for a day's fishing. Off and on throughout the day, I kept checking whether the outboard would start, and I occasionally had to work with it as I had the first thing this morning.

Despite this distraction, I managed to find four bass, including this 1-3 and three dinks. All the fish went for crankbaits. I did feel a few fish with the chatterbaits I threw early, but they weren't in the taking mood.

After a couple hours in Albright's this morning, I ran into my friends Ray and Charlie, who were fishing out of Ray's boat. Said Charlie in an email to me this evening, "Not the best day, but it was nice not having to paddle." His totals for the day were seven dinks. Meanwhile, Ray boated three. His best weighed 1-7.

By 2:30, I had had enough and decided to head for West Neck. I arrived at the ramp just in time to have to wait behind a fella trying to load his aluminum boat on his trailer without getting his feet wet. After repeated failures, he finally sat down, removed his shoes and socks, and got the boat loaded, so I could have my turn. Thankfully, Mr. Murphy left this evolution alone, provided you disregard the splinter I ran in my thumb as I pulled up to the catwalk and grabbed it, and I had my boat loaded in no time.

Once I had found a shady spot to wipe down everything, I parked my van and retrieved my hydrometer from the storage shed so I could test my starting battery. Sure enough, while five of the cells tested good, one didn't, and it's going back to Walmart where I purchased it only about two months ago. On the way home this evening, I stopped at NAPA in Pungo and purchased a new battery from them. I was explaining my situation with the Walmart battery to the salesman, and he stopped me when he said, "Yeah, we know all about those 'Never Start' batteries."

Having left NAPA, I headed on home but, as luck would have it, had two more run-ins with Mr. Murphy before I pulled into my driveway. The first situation occurred when not one but two cars ran a Stop sign and raced through the intersection in front of me. The first one made it with no sweat, but had I been going any faster, with no maneuvering room, I would have broadsided the second idiot.

My second and final close call on the trip home came as I turned left onto the street where I live. A young impetuous dude on one of those blasted motor scooters was turning right onto the street I was coming off of. He looked left but missed seeing me entirely and nearly broadsided my van. Once I had parked in my driveway, I vowed that nothing short of a medical emergency would get me back out on the roadways this evening.

My one hope is that Mr. Murphy will find it more appealing to bother someone else tomorrow when I head back to West Neck to install my new battery and to return the bad one to Walmart with some clear-cut instructions on what they can do with it.