BajaNomad

personel watercraft

jimgrms - 1-25-2007 at 08:40 AM

Awhile back some one posted about 2 guys that were going to attemt to go from ensanada to san felipe by pwc . has any on heard any more about that ,???

vgabndo - 1-25-2007 at 12:20 PM

They didn't make it. Their research was SO poor that first they started from Alaska in long johns and GoreTex, they had to backtrack and buy dry suits. After being rescued, repaired, fed, housed, and directed by a huge bunch of generous people, and after explaining to a friend of mine that they were going to cross Central America by motoring up a river, across a lake and east down another river to the Gulf, they failed. They seemed unaware that they were not going to be allowed to jet ski the Panama Canal. They also demonstrated to my friend that they didn't know why the Canal had locks. When they finally got to the canal zone and were turned back, they hadn't traveled far enough to break the record, so they ran back and forth between Panama and some offshore islands untill they had enough miles to claim that it was the same as going to Miami.

The biggest problem they had, as I understand it, was that the PWC were four strokes, and they were so overloaded that when at rest with the engines off, salt water would backtrack up the exhaust pipes enter open valves and hydro-lock the engines. That's not a easy thing to correct when the only tools you've brought on your 13,000 mile stunt will fit in a pants pocket.

I understand that next they are going to enter the Baja Mil on a pocket rocket. (packing double) :lol:

[Edited on 1-25-2007 by vgabndo]

Cypress - 1-25-2007 at 12:34 PM

Those "water scooters" are obnoxious pieces of work.:bounce: They make a lot of noise. Next thing you know there will be a Baja 1,000 water scooter race.:no:

vgabndo - 1-25-2007 at 02:36 PM

A lot less noisy than a trophy truck, no dust, and gravity heals the race course almost instantly. Sounds good.

HOWEVER, we'd still have to deal with what we did going down this year. We faced dozens and dozens and dozens of extremely high speed vehicles, driven by hung over sleep deprived guys with their blood streams full of checkered flag fever pulling extremely wide trailers full of equipment back from the finish line. Nobody hit us, but it wasn't because they were on their own side of the road.:!: NOT fun.

jimgrms - 1-25-2007 at 02:37 PM

Those guys wern't wraped to tight ,kind of like the guy in san felipe
with the raft made of recycled trash that wanted to float to china ,, some people need keepers. thanks for the reply

DanO - 1-25-2007 at 07:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jimgrms
some people need keepers.



Ain't that the truth. :rolleyes:

Ill-Advised Misadventure.

MrBillM - 1-25-2007 at 08:27 PM

For an excellent tale of foolhardy misadventure on the ocean with a happy ending, read "Desperate Voyage" by John Caldwell.

It's his own story of being a Merchant Mariner who ends up stuck in Panama in 1946 at the end of WWII and his adventure trying to get back to his wife in Australia. Knowing absolutely nothing about sailing or sailboats, he buys a well-worn 29 foot sloop, teaches himself to sail, heads South and Almost makes it before losing the boat, being rescued and finally making it home.

Von - 1-25-2007 at 11:37 PM

Ive gone on my waverunner From La Barca,Rosarito to the coronado islands last year took me about 20minutes it was awesome!

jimgrms - 1-26-2007 at 08:15 AM

there was a program on tv some guys in florida outfited some pwc for fishing fish finders rod holders ect and a little thing they towed to keep thier catch , showed w,here they even fished the bahamas, seems to me they could have bought a used boat for way less money