Jet boat takes flight down waterfalls

March 14, 2012:  I left the dredge today in a jet boat that was more like a fighter plane morphed with a stunt boat.  Since the stickers on the window said “Jet Boat” I figured it was powered by a jet engine.  So I asked like a moron if there was a jet engine in the boat.  The man I asked responded with a big smile and said “no.”  Okay…then the sticker on the window was inaccurate – I should have slammed a lawsuit on them false advertisement, but instead I smiled back and felt that maybe I should keep some of my questions to myself or learn to reword them when in doubt.  Even though there was no jet engine, what ever it was, it was huge, getting all 20 of us up to the speeds it did with ease. 

The pilot sat in the center of the boat with the throttle control in his left hand resembling those of a fighter jet and his side stick that rested in his right hand with a red button conveniently on the top of it.  Perhaps it was for the fixed guns on the roof than I happened to miss, to detour any not-so-smart pirates.  I already asked one moronic question…I didn’t want to make it two.

I always seem to do pre-sinking, pre-flipping, pre-crashing and pre-everything planning.  It is just what I do and today was no different.  While doing my pre-sinking planning I noted that were no lifejackets in sight.  It wouldn’t have been a good situation if we were to hit something that might have forced us to jump ship.  So I was relieved that after we hit a large UUO (Unidentified Underwater Object) that only the skin of the passengers eyelids opened and it wasn’t the skin of the boat.

At one spot in the river after doing a sharp turn, the pilot put on the afterburners as the engines did a deep hum and we took flight down these waterfalls.  Since the water level on the river is currently high, I was told that today was easy by a frequent flyer.  When the water level is low, he said that the people are told to move to the front of the boat to balance it out for the 8 +/- foot drop.

I am so thankful to have been in that van accident 2 weeks ago.  If it never happened, I would have arrived in Georgetown later in the afternoon on March, 1^st missing one of my greatest unexpected adventures!