Ever lost a lantern?

We kid our pastor, Geroge, about sacrificing lanterns to the lake gods. (BTW, he's named his boat Visitation so he can easily say he was "out on Visitation last night".) Over the past few years he's lost 3 lanterns in the lake. The most interesting one occured one night when he was alone in his boat and my son and I anchored with our backs to him about 30 yards away. We had gotten there and were busy setting up the lights, poles, radio, etc., when we heard call out, "Hey, Eddie, I've got a little fire over here." We turned around and saw George leaning back in his seat with his lantern shooing flames about 8 feet into the air. He had a fire extinguisher right by his seat but didn't think to pull it out. Instead he grabbed a long handled dip net and used the handle end to pick up the lantern and swing it over the water. His intent was to dip it in the lake to extinguish the flames, but as the tank end of it hit the water it slid right off the pole and into the water. We were kind of holding our breath that nothing bad would happen, and then we almost fell out of our boat laughing as he leaned over the side and tried to grab the lantern as it sank. Thankfully, his dignity and the lantern were the only things lost that night. We all caught a lot of fish.

LOL! A simple, yet hilarious story. Sounds like George needs to step up to the new age, and use some electric lighting. A plain old aluminum shroud, clamp worklight is all he needs, with a rough service, 12 volt bulb from wal-mart or most any place. I modified a cheap extension cord with clamps for the battery. It does not matter which one is positive or negative for the light to work. No fire, no fuel, just on or off. I keep a spare bulb in case the light falls and hits something causing the bulb to break. I rarely use the lights like this anymore, as I have gone to using black lights for fishing. But, electric lighting is definately the safest way to go when in a boat.

wal-mart doesent carry the 12 v bulbs here . i have checked with several stores aroun my aera . wil check the auto parts stores .
yep lost 2 lanterns . :o :eek:

An RV supply store almost always carries 12 volt lights

Jim

I did find a nice Coleman lantern that someone lost, after the water had lowered in the Reservoir. Got it working again too.

auto parts store carries the 12 v bulbs

They make a 12v flourescent drop-light that are nice also they don't pull as many amps as the incandesent bulbs.

Was fishing under a bridge years ago.A friend had his fathers new propane lantern tied to a string hanging from the bridge.String got hot, lantern dropped in fifty foot of water.We watched as it bubbled and went out of sight still bubbling.My friend was still fretting the loss of his fathers lantern later when the bubbles stopped and the lantern floated right back up close enough to the boat to grab it with the net.Would not believe this if I wasn't there but I was :)

I love that "out on Visitation"...I knew a guy (not a pastor) who had a boat named "The other woman"...same thing applied when someone called the house for him and the wife told them where he was....LOL....