About 12 years ago I got a brand new Bass Tracker bass boat.  It was the first real boat that I had ever owned and we spent many many days on the lake playing with it.

One evening while tooling around on a nearby river Mrs. Jinksto said she wanted to drive the new boat.  Which sounded just fine to me.  I was already envisioning the looks I’d get from the other fishermen with my wife chauffeuring me from one fishing hole to the next.

I set her up, showed her how to work everything, explained the depth finder and off we went.  She carefully throttled us up, the boat climbed up on plane and she soon had us flying up the river with the boat WFO.  (That stand for Wide *Full* Open… honest)

I leaned back in my seat, stretched my legs out and waved to other fishermen as we blasted by.  Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw something flash by just below the surface of the water.  Before I could figure out what it was something else flashed by and then another and another… 

About this time I realized that I was seeing rocks… big ones!  In my calmest, most serene voice I said, “STOP! STOP! STOP!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!

Mrs. Jinksto quickly shut everything down and as the boat stepped down off of plane the motor lightly settled into the gravel.  

I explained, again calmly and serenely, that one must ALWAYS watch the depth finder when traveling at high speed in an unknown river.  Mrs. Jinksto quietly pointed to the depth finder which was clearly showing us in 35ft of water with cute little fishes swimming around underneath. 

I looked over the side… big rocks, no fishes.

I looked at the depth finder… no rocks and lots of little fishes.

What the…

At a loss, I reached up and hit the “zoom out” button on the depth finder which promptly beeped and informed me that:

FUNCTION NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO MODE

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All of that to explain the following inside joke.

When Mrs. Jinksto asked me how in the heck you run a Brand New 5.5 Billion (yeah that’s a B) Hunter-Killer Nuclear Submarine aground my response could only be:

“I dunno.  Maybe it was still in demo mode?”

 

..

Demo Mode

7 thoughts on “Demo Mode

  • October 23, 2010 at 2:31 am
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    Tommy,
    I’m not trying to stereotype, but it is kinda odd that the British would do that. If I remember right, the isle of Skye is in the UK. But who knows….I got lost in Anacoco awhile back…Durn place has changed…LOL

    Reply
  • October 23, 2010 at 3:26 am
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    Anacoco hasn’t changed that much. There’s still only two roads… easy to get lost though… 🙂

    Yeah, I was making light of this but I’m certain that there were extenuating circumstances. You don’t get control of a multibillion dollar craft unless you know the stern from the bow… even if you ARE british.

    Reply
  • October 25, 2010 at 11:57 pm
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    1, “FUNCTION NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO MODE”

    ROFL!

    2. Career ending move on that Cap’n’s part. 🙁

    3. Did’ja notice that the google map in the article you linked showed the accident happened in London? lol!

    Reply
  • October 26, 2010 at 12:04 am
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    OH! OH OH! I read the article again and caught the name of the boat! ROFL- Man I LOVE good irony!

    Reply
  • October 26, 2010 at 12:06 am
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    Yeah, I thought that was a hoot too but couldn’t figure out how to work it into the story. Very astute of you to catch it.

    Reply
  • October 27, 2010 at 5:53 pm
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    God I love your stories. They are expressed with such word wizardry. You and Jodi are two very special people! Thank God I have been blessed to meet you and enjoy your company!

    Reply
  • October 30, 2010 at 2:14 am
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    I find the word wizardry comment funny. As you know, I’m not that great of a communicator face to face and I don’t see the the wizardry in the posts that I make. I just sort of write down what happened and it comes out this way. 🙂 I do, however, very much appreciate the compliment.

    Reply

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