Row, row, row your boat

One year during November, the Scoter were on the Pamlico Sound by the thousands.  We had anticipated their migration and I was on leave from the Marines for a full week.  Dad and I and a couple other friends had a great week.  Six months later, after eating 300 Scoters, I thought that possibly we had overdone it.  But when the ducks were falling and the gun barrels were hot, it was great.

One morning it was just Dad and I.  We  shot a 14 bird limit in an hour or so.  Just fantastic.  Went back to the hunting camp, dressed the birds, then drove around looking for some of our local friends up there on the island to give the birds to.  Mission accomplished, we returned to the trailer for a nap.

About noon I woke up, looked out to see that the weather was just perfect, and decided to see if Dad wanted to go out and try the Scoter again. Never had shot them in the afternoon, but decided to give it a try.

Same success as the morning hunt.  An hour after we put out the decoys, we were ready to pick up and head in.  Not so fast.  The outboard motor wouldn't start.  Turned out to be a short in the kill switch, but out there on the sound we had no clue.  We decided to leave the decoys on the water.  It was 3 dozen heavy cork decoys, so we wanted to save the extra weight on the long row in.  Then I headed to the nearest point of land and we removed the boat blind from the boat and set it up the shore.  To lighten the boat and give a more full range of motion while rowing.

Anybody that ever rowed a Herters Model Yukon can appreciate the weight of the boat, the wide beam of the boat, the high wind catching sides, and the lack of a good deep keel to help steer.  Just to add to the excitement, for the first and only day of my hunting career, I didn't have any gloves in my gunning box.  Added to that was the fact that my Father didn't happen to have his evening dose of heart medication.  Sweet.

About six hours later, with my hands worn pretty much to the bone, we arrived back at the landing.

The next morning, Dad took the boat to a marina to get the motor repaired, and I took Whit's Sea Ox out and found my decoys.  Shot a limit of Scoters while I was there.  Sore hands and all.