am_dew
Advanced Contributor
Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving the bow line in the water after we had used it to tie up to a log in a slough. As we were idling away, suddenly everything shut down. I shifted to neutral and was able to start and rev the engine, but as soon as I put it in gear, everything would shutdown. My first thought was that there was something in the prop however the outdrive would not raise so I could not see it. We were in a pretty remote area and just off the main slough, so my first instinct was to get the boat somewhere we could be seen by any passing boaters in case we needed a tow back to the launch ramp, which was at least 10 miles away. So, I started paddling over to the main slough and as I was sitting on the bow paddling, I noticed that the bow line was not in it's normal position and then noticed it went under the boat. I found a shallow area where I could get into the water and check the prop and find out where the end of the bow line was. After a few minutes of feeling around the lower unit and prop, I finally felt the bow line, which was wrapped around the base of the prop. Luckily, I had a pair of wire cutters in my tool bag that was big enough to cut through the bow line and got it untangled from the prop and lower unit. After re-grouping, I cautiously put the boat in forward and throttled up and all seemed fine. We cruised around some more and eventually back to the ramp with no apparent damage to the prop or outdrive. I got lucky I think/hope and I know for sure that the new bow line will not be long enough to get into the prop!
