"Buddy" Tows, The very best kind,

When I first started Assistance Towing here in 2000, I had the one (1) boat, (19ft Justice Class Boston Whaler) with (at that time) a 225 Mercury Optimax.  One of the first things I wanted to get in place was locating a good Outboard mechanic, as my outboard mechanical experience was limited and I wanted someone who kept up and was familiar with outboards and provided good service.  Well, we all want a lot of things, but I found WES, who owns PRO-BOAT MARINE in Sunrise Beach. In spite of the "middle of the night " calls, the rush for parts at the last second and all the many "mechanical" problems someone in this business can get in to, Wes and his wife Alesia, have always been there to get me going again and I consider us to be friends.  SOooo - - when your lucky enough to get a "friend" to call you for a tow - - -  you just have to needle them a little -- ;)  Last tuesday afternoon, I get a call from Wes, asking if I was "towing", I said, "yes" (duhh) he said HE NEEDED A TOW !!  He was stranded only about 3 miles from my home port and needed a tow to the public launch ramp directly across from my port. :) :).  This by no means was his first time being stranded - - he's had to jump off of burning boats and various other little exciting problems, but this was the FIRST TIME I had an opportunity to get a 'towline" on him.  I headed out in his direction, he hadn't told me what he was in, I just assumed it was his   "service" boat - - Wes does on the water service calls, and he makes them in this poor old 23ft+ FOUR WINNS, and of course he carries everything you can imagine on board, it is so loaded down, it probably has about 4 inches of freeboard, it also kinda resembles a used "target drone" that had been towed through an offshore Naval Gunnery Range one to many times - -.  (sorry just had to take a few cheap shots)  Anyway,  I was surprised to find him on a nice 29 ft MAXUM Cruiser, that he had picked up at a marina and was taking it in for (unrelated) service when it lost a fuel pump and left him adrift.  I pulled up and of course made the typical snide remarks, "I know a GOOD mechanic" an so forth.  Wes is an occasional reader of this Blog and so he immediately shot back "DEMANDING" a HIGH SPEED TOW back to the ramp, that wasn't going to happen this time - so he griped about it all the way back - -.  The tow was routine and about 20 minutes later we had his MAXUM out of the water on a trailer.  It's always fun to help a FRIEND.