“Thanks.”
No problem.
Listen to the account of this old broad...me. I grew up on the Detroit River, operating boats, especially tiller-steer outboards up to 35 hp. Thousands of hours, the tiller and throttle were like an extension of my arm, could do anything blindfolded. Never had a problem once, despite operating inebriated, recklessly, in dangerous conditions through ice and waves, etc. in my teens and maybe later. As proof that youth trumps age and experience, my first accident was a few years ago at age 57. Was crouched putting my old ‘76 35 hp Johnson into neutral and overshot, went into slow forward. I gently tumbled over the transom, but held on as boat started slow circle clockwise, me hanging on right back side. My body kept away from the lower unit and prop at this angle, but push-button kill was on other side. Kept trying to place gear shift back into neutral but didn’t have enough strength to hold on and shift (age). Pants fell off, moving at enough clip that water was hard to fight, but was more worried about wrecking neighbors $200K muskie boat than anything. Missed it by mere inches a bunch of times. Did several minutes of clockwise circles, until I hit gearshift and it went into reverse. It straightened out, and luckily, I was in a canal and backed into the bank, where I was able to handhold around the bow to get to the kill switch. Later the fear of what would have happened if I fell on the other side, or was mid-river, got me shaky. Turns out this is the CIRCLE of DEATH, which happens when an un-helmed boat goes into a spin after such an event. Has caused many, many deaths. The poor person might land healthy and conscious in the water but has to evade a prop unless he can swim out from the circular path. I was so lucky it was in a canal, and not mid river...would have had to run out a tank, wait for help, or let go and try to evade the next pass. Or if it happened during cold water months. I wired a kill switch into the outboard and use it diligently. Also to show what age brings...went my whole life without forgetting two-cycle oil...then ran straight gas a few years ago that scored the cylinders.
Hell getting old.