Ghost in the Boat

By Randy Williams

Twice in the summer of 2004, a Boat Ghost possessed my boat. Here is my story…

It was early spring, the time of the walleye run. I strolled into the garage one morning heading for work and as I approached my boat, I heard a familiar noise. It was as if someone was in my boat, turning the key and trying to start the big motor, but when I looked into the boat there was no one there. Mysteriously, the boat engine was turning over, all by itself! I was baffled and dumbfounded. I was sure a ghost had possessed my boat! Immediately I jumped in and tried to pull off a battery terminal wire from the charging battery. (For future reference, long nose pliers and a screwdriver are not the best tools for quickly removing a battery terminal wire!) It took several minutes to loosen the bolts, and just as I lifted off the terminal, smoke began billowing out from under the engine cover. The nauseous smoke filled the garage with the stench of burning plastic.

Several hundred dollars later, after taking my boat in for repair, Boyd, my boat mechanic (from Riverside Marina), told me that he didn’t think it was a ghost! What he did suggest is that a hole had been poked into the wire harness and water had entered through that hole. The water had corroded the wires to a point where they shorted out; causing me to believe it was some sort of ghostly being trying to start my boat. But really, what does Boyd know? He was not there. I was there and I am more inclined to believe the ghost theory, especially because a couple weeks later that particular “ghost” haunted me again.

Later that same summer, I took my son’s wife (Leslie) and her stepfather (Fran) salmon fishing on Lake Michigan out of Sturgeon Bay. This was Leslie’s first trip to Lake Michigan but Fran on the other hand, is an ample fisherman (and is mighty fine at maneuvering boats). I might add, we left New London around 2:00am. (Leslie mentioned something about never being up this early unless it was bar closing.) It was a chilly, dark, and overcast morning. There was wind, and wind is always a serious factor when fishing on Lake Michigan. On the drive to our destination, I noticed that two large American flags were billowing in the wind. (I like to observe those flags to determine the wind direction and velocity.) The flags were showing a strong westerly wind. (Which meant we were witnessing an offshore wind.) I assumed we would probably be OK, for a while at least.

We launched at Sawyer Harbor and maneuvered through the narrow ship canal to Lake Michigan. We headed west into the darkness, and because of the offshore wind the lake close to shore was fairly smooth. Things were looking good and I was really excited but anxious to show Leslie and Fran a good time. However, when we got close to about four miles offshore, we were faced with some rough waves. Leslie was nervous (never experiencing the feeling of not being able to see shore) but she seemed to be handling it. Regardless of what we were all feeling, none of us anticipated what was about to happen.

It was time to shut off the big motor and start the smaller 15 HP kicker motor, intended for trolling. The kicker motor hooks up with a connecting bar to the big motor so we can continue to steer the boat with the main steering wheel. We set a north-by-north east course to roughly follow the deep edge of the bank reef. I asked Fran to steer the boat while I set up our fishing gear. Later, he would regret ever agreeing to drive the boat.

We finally arrived at the fishing spot (well before light) enabling us to hopefully catch the early morning bite. I set the first line in, (a “shooter” which is a small dipsy and a spoon,) straight off the back of the boat. Just as I was setting in the second line, (which was a 60-ft downrigger with a flasher and fly) the shooter pole began dancing with the energy of an early morning salmon. Leslie quickly grabbed the pole and started playing the fish. As she fought the fish, she also struggled to keep her balance in the bobbing boat. Amidst all this excitement, she notices the other pole and asks if that pole is supposed to be bouncing madly like it is. That line had a fish on also. Amazingly enough, there was already a salmon on each line and we have not even been fishing four minutes! The first fish was a smaller Chinook and was landed quickly by Leslie. It only took about 5 minutes to get the fish in the net. She said, “That was easy enough”. So I let her take over what I knew was going to be a challenge: This second fish was mammoth in size and screamed out layer after layer of line off the reel’s drag.

This fish was taking Leslie a long time to land and we were taking a risk for doing this because that off shore wind was blowing us further and further off shore. The further off shore we got, the rougher the lake became. In fact, a few waves were now starting to splash over the side of our boat. With Fran’s expert steering skills, he was able to maneuver around most of the waves to minimize the splashing. But a dry place in the boat to plant a derriere was becoming very difficult to find.

The second fish looked to be a feisty Chinook salmon in the 20-pound range. After more than a 20-minute battle, we finally netted and lifted that brute of a salmon over the side of the boat. It was at that moment, my friend “Casper” decided to again make an appearance on my boat. It started when, the big motor mysteriously lifted to the tilt up position all by itself. This caused our boat to start spinning around uncontrollably in circles. Fran excitedly declared that the steering was suddenly becoming next to impossible to handle. I noticed that no one was touching the tilt up switch, but the motor kept on grinding in the full up position. Because the boat was spinning around in circles it was forcing wave after wave over the side of the boat. The cloud of fear in our boat prompted Leslie to ask for and quickly be given a life jacket. Was all the excitement we had catching a big salmon this morning worth what was to happening to us? We tried pushing and prodding all of the switches in the boat, but the motor continued grinding and was hopelessly locked in the full tilt up position. I was once again baffled and dumbfounded. We had several problems to overcome before we could attempt a safe journey back to shore. The immediate and pressing problem for us was to understand why the boat was going in circles! In other words, how can we stop these bleeping waves from coming over the side of the boat!

Either my friendly ghost took control of our ship or when the big motor tilted up, the connecting bar, between the big motor and the trolling motor, wedged itself on the boat transom. This would lock the connecting bar in place and make steering very difficult. Also, because the tilting motor wedged the connecting bar, it made it impossible to remove the connecting bar. The temporary solution we discovered was to have one person push sideways on the big motor and another give extra effort on the steering wheel. This made it possible to partially regain control of the steering. We could not, however maintain a straight direction; we could only manage a taxing zigzag course back to shore. Regaining partial steering control did slightly reduce the frequency of the waves crashing over the side of our boat, but it did not happen in time for all of us to avoid being soaked to the bone.

Another big problem existed: The big motor continued to grind and try to tilt up, therefore, quickly draining the battery. With a drained battery we would not have power for the GPS, or the ship- to-shore radio, or even the now extremely important bilge pump, which was removing the vast amount of water from the bottom of our boat. We were still many miles from shore. It was at this point where Leslie confronted a problem of her own. She exclaimed, ”Where’s the bathroom?” I proceeded to hand her an empty coffee cup. Whether she used it or not I will never know!

With actual fishing now out of the question our new mission became: Head for shore! Our last hope would be to call the Coast Guard. But we then realized that this was an unlikely option with our now dead battery. Since the big motor was now inoperable, we had only the power of the kicker trolling motor for our return journey. Kicker motors do not move a boat very fast and in this wounded condition we were only able to crawling along at about one and one half miles per hour. We struggled into the ever-increasing wind, steering a wild, zigzag course. While it took only a few minutes to arrive at the fishing spot it took more than two hours to finally make it back to the ship canal. It was not over yet though, this ship canal would be a challenge because it is very narrow and we could not maintain a straight line with our crippled steering. Someone besides the “ghost” must have been looking out for us because Kevin, a friend who guides on the lake, was entering the canal at the same time we were. It had become too rough out there for Kevin to continue fishing in his larger fully functional boat. We hollered to Kevin over the noise of the roaring wind to explain our predicament. Luckily, he gave us a tow. What a relief for our sore arms to be gently glided back through the long narrow ship canal to the landing!

Several hundred dollars later Boyd (the boat mechanic at Riverside Marina), tried once again to convince me that the troubles were caused by some sort of electrical problem; water in the switch or something. However, it is rather obvious to me that once again a “ghost” had chosen to pay my boat a visit. Strangely enough, after numerous invitations to go with me again, Leslie always seems to be engaged in some other endeavor and unable to go fishing with me.