3-18-2024
My Boating Experience
In Panama my diving buddy had a 10’ – 12’ john boat that we used when going on a dive in Gatun Lake on Sunday afternoons. It had an outboard motor, oars and fit nicely in the back of my 1973 Ford Pinto Station Wagon.
One Sunday afternoon around Easter 1976 we had quite an experience that almost took us both out permanently. While returning after our dive (air tanks were empty) we came upon a convoy of Army LCMs taking some poor infantry troops into the jungle for training. My dive buddy (never dive alone) was a medic with an infantry unit at Fort Davis in the Canal Zone. We both lived in housing at Fort Davis, and we were both stationed there. As each LCM passed the waves began having a rippling effect and our little john boat rocked with each wave. By the time the last LCM passed by us, our boat became a submarine and went completely under water, before bobbing to the surface upside down. We righted the boat, partially submerged and full of water, so we began guiding it toward a nearby island and didn’t notice the underwater tree branch that poked a hole in the bottom of the boat until we beached it on the shore. We took stalk of what we had (all our drain plug and diving gear were gone) and we had one oar and the lid of our tackle box which was tied to the boat. By now it was around 3pm and after plugging the holes with branches we launched the boat only to find the engine wouldn’t start. After removing the spark plug and pulling the starting rope a couple of times, reinstalling the spark plug the engine came alive. We continued our way towards the Gatun pier where the car was parked. As we approached the major shipping lane in the Panama Canal we fell right behind a huge tanker and began following it. That’s when the engine shut off (it was out of gas). We couldn’t help but notice another tanker behind us so we hurriedly moved over to the side of the channel so it could overtake and pass by us. By now it was after 7 pm and we were a tiny dark spot on a very dark body of water. As we made our way – one person rowing, the other bailing water with the tackle box lid, we weren’t getting very far fast. We considered beaching for the night and trying again at daybreak but it was so cold and we had no fire. That meant continuing on – marker buoy to marker buoy until finally there were no more buoys between us and the pier which still seemed a couple of miles away. It was close to midnight when we heard the sound of an outboard motor in the darkness. We began beating on our boat with the oar until the other motor throttled down and shut off. We kept banging on the boat. Finally a flashlight shown in our direction and we were spotted. The boat fired up and came alongside. We cast a rope and they towed us to the pier and then continued headed into town with vegetables for market. We loaded the boat in the back of the car and headed for the base. The military policeman told us to report to our unit duty sergeant that we were back. After dropping my dive buddy and his boat I headed to my unit. When I reported in the guy on duty said, “Did you go somewhere”? I told him to write in in the duty log. That officially ended my diving career as I couldn’t afford to replace the dive gear lost in an estimated 85’ deep lake. – RTM
The Real Truckmaster 