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Adventures in BoatingOct 26 '00 Write an essay on this topic.My father-in-law bought the first boat twenty-something years ago. A cabin cruiser -- wood. We hauled it halfway across the country to the big family reunion in the Ozarks. We had tons of fun the first day. Then the second day (after spending the night in a slip on the water!), it started to take on water. We didn't know anything was wrong until we went into a turn and the boat didn't want to come out! We made a mad run across the lake only to be tossed off while one brother RAN for the trailer, one drove it out to deeper water to wait for him to get back, and one began to bail! The next morning, off we all went to the local boat dealership. No hope of fixing it they said. So my father-in-law bought a NEW one! It took them all day to get the motor -- outboard -- on it and to get it prepped while we sat in the sun and waited. There was nothing to drink but soda -- it was hot and I had SIX! (Meanwhile, somewhere in Arkansas, a group of kids got a new playhouse!) Back to the lake -- now this was more like it! A ski boat! The whole family shared the boat -- we even stored it in our garage -- but not the expense. I wasn't all that crazy about the boat. I never could get the hang of skiing -- I hated that "all alone" feeling of waiting to have my arms jerked out of the sockets. (We have since found someone who knows skiing and found that we just didn't know what we were doing in those days!) I preferred to enjoy our weekends at the lake from the picnic shelter! Life changes -- my husband's grandmother passed away and the money from the inheritance was spent on a large piece of land, divided into five properties. We spent all the free time building houses for each family. The boat didn't get as much use. Then one day, my brother-in-law took a friend out on the boat and he managed to break his leg skiing. It was a freak accident and no one can figure out how he did it! But that was it for my mother-in-law; the boat had to be sold. Good-bye to the boat. Years passed and finally the last house was built. Boating was calling again. My father-in-law retired and finally bought another nice Searay open-bow boat. Now over our marriage, we first owned a (new)pop-up tent camper. Our family grew and we then moved up to a used motor home (which sat too much while the only traveling we were doing was with our older daughter's soccer team and not in a camper). Then we moved to a new trailer. I'm happy with the trailer and, as far as I'm concerned, it is pretty much it for a long while. But the trailer meant we had to change vehicles -- first a van (ultimately, the only thing we liked was the television and VCP!)which was a big lemon to a Suburban and ,currently, to a Tahoe. Our daughter grew up and the soccer team was no longer in the picture. My younger daughter was dancing and my husband met a fellow camping and boat enthusiast among the fathers. He had the PERFECT place on earth to camp and boat. So we started going down to the lake. The first "necessity" was a storage place for the trailer. We couldn't pull the boat and the trailer, could we? The perfect lake has the perfect storage place just outside the campground! So we hauled the boat back and forth to the lake every other weekend all summer plus two full weeks. Life was good. We so look forward to the weekends at the lake! Then, last summer, my husband started to feeling like we were using the boat more than the others and he felt like we should have our own. Hmmm. Besides, when the whole family went down, we needed a second boat. Next thing I knew, he found a beautiful used Searay (just a little bigger than his dad's, of course!) that had been very well taken care of and, the next thing I knew, it was OURS! (Of course there were a few little things needed and the trailer was just too plain . . . ) Well, we hauled the boat back and forth to the lake. Then my husband decided we should just get a storage place (like our friend) for the boat too. Then we could haul the other boat down for my in-law when needed . . . After all, they all had campers to haul and they didn't get to go as often as we did . . . If they weren't coming down, we could save gas and wear-and-tear by not having to haul the boat. (Besides, we didn't want the boat to sit outside, did we? And the others were coming down more frequently too. Then the rest of the family decided that what we really needed was a big pontoon boat for the second boat, instead of two "ski boats". So my father-in-law sold his boat and bought a decent used pontoon boat that needed a little work. First trip out on the lake, we found that it had a problem. The system was draining the battery. So at the end of the day, we hauled it back to the campground and they got into the motor. Lo and behold, someone had put an engine on the boat that was 15 years or so older than the title said. OOPS! They pulled the engine off and hauled it home. My husband and father-in-law went back to the marina where the boat was purchased. Oh, so sorry, they said. They were able to get a hefty refund but the price on their motors was outrageous so they went elsewhere to get a new motor. Of course, that necessitated a trip to the lake to install the motor. It was during this weekend that the first major repair for us raised it's ugly head! The bilge pump came on. No big deal, there had been a lot of in and out of wet bodies. That was probably the problem. But there was just too much water so they opened the compartment and found a pretty sizable leak when the wheel was turned right. We hadn't had any big expenses on the boat to this point. We spent a bit getting the boat outfitted when we bought it and, before the boat season this year, we bought a substantial amount of STUFF FOR THE BOAT, including new skis (our first -- we got rid of those old ratty hand-me-downs) and a Bimini top! This expense I just did not need! (Especially since we had just spent a good bit on repairing the refrigerator in the trailer!) The "perfect storage place" owner had a mechanic that he used who would come and pick the boat up and find out what was wrong. The leak was around the drive shaft and there were a few other things that he found too. The mechanic fixed the boat and put it back in storage -- we would just pay him the next time we came down! That "final" weekend was COLD. No one was too interested in going out onto the lake but the men had to take it out and "test" it. No problem, knock yourselves out, guys. What an adventure that was. The water in the lake was down so it was a challenge to get it in and out. We spent the rest of the weekend waxing, teaking the wood and winterizing the boat and camper. Well, if you're still with me, I will say that we really enjoy our boating weekends. I even learned to enjoy it. We get up, eat breakfast, pack lunch and spend the whole day on the lake. I try to plan simple dinners and do some cooking ahead of time so that we can spend as much time as possible in the lake. We park the boat in a cove and relax in the water. The kids beg to be taken tubing or skiing and, eventually, one or the other of us will take them out. We've learned to use lots of sunscreen -- the suntans come even with it. (And the burns are not any fun at all!) All in all, I think it is worth it.  |
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