by: Capt. Jim Kalvin
These past few years, the onset of hunting season reminds me of one particular boat trip from about 5 years ago. It was not in a Tracker, Bass Buggy, Game-Fisher, Lund, or any other of the small & affordable personal vessels specifically designed for the “Sportsman” and I hadn’t actually planned on going hunting that day – proving the old saying that “…sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.”
It was a cool day in November and I was exercising a client’s 36’ Hinckley Talaria out of Hamilton Harbor. Anyone familiar with these boats know that they have to be run regularly, or the micro-circuitry loses its ability to function. And without that micro-circuitry, they are useless. Heck – they don’t even tow straight! At any rate, Dennis Parsons was with me as Mate, so I had a witness. How reliable that witness is…. well, I trust him! We had been a mile or so out of Gordon’s Pass, had put all of the working mechanisms under load, checked out the electronics, and run all of the runnable systems. We headed back to the marina to resume the never-ending task of trying to make the boat cleaner than it was when we picked it up.
I swear you can see an arm hair on the deck of one of those boats – usually as you’re closing the last zipper on the cover, and it’s typically way up by the helm!
Back to the story, we were cruising east just south of Port Royal and my mind was already on the next task of the day, as this one was in the books. Then, all of a sudden…. “Whamo!”
The boat shook violently as a loud “thud” was heard and felt throughout the cabin and cockpit. I turned around and Dennis was standing in a vortex of feathers – of all sizes – with a dazed and confused look on his face. Some will say that’s his normal look, …. but I digress.
Behind the boat, I saw a large bird flopping around in the wake, and I thought, “oh no…. I hit an Osprey…. or an Eagle…. or a Pelican!”
I turned the boat around and my plan was to notify Law Enforcement that I struck a protected species and to surrender the carcass upon land-fall. By the time we got back to the body, it was life-less. I reached down, and grabbed…. a turkey!
Honest to goodness – it was a turkey hen that went close to 10 lbs.!
We got back to the marina, and immediately got the stink-eye from the dock crew. They have a wash & rinse policy for all returning vessels, and they had never seen a Hinckley, nor any other boat for that matter, covered from stem-to-stern in pin feathers stuck all over the salt spray.
I asked the first one on scene if they had a bucket of ice. He asked “what for”? I held up the turkey – his eyes got wide, and he took off running to the ice machine. When he returned, I asked him if this would get me a mention in the Hamilton Harbor social pages? He just laughed, and said, “Probably not – but it’ll get you a mention in mine!”
Of course, it took us 2 hours to clean the boat, but there was no damage.
The bird did not go to waste. By the time I had it cleaned and prepped, Ruth had carrots, potatoes, celery, and onions in a pot on the fire pit, and we enjoyed a fantastic meal. Actually, we enjoyed several fantastic meals from that adventure!
Like I said – better lucky than good!