BOAT OWNERS!!

For several months now, Mike and I have been proud owners of an old boat that we bought off the side of the road. We didn’t know if the engine would run, it didn’t have any seats, the steering only went one direction, and the floor was ominously flexible. Now, after a week’s worth of steady work on it by Mike and his assorted family members (and some quality wrench holding by me), the boat’s 50 year old Evinrude motor runs “good” (to quote all the local boat classified ads), there’s a beautiful custom fit redwood deck and seats, the steering is a bit creaky but now lets us go both ways, and a home fiberglass repair job firmed up the floor.

This weekend we finally took it out on the water for a REAl boat ride, where we got to go full speed and zip around the bay, instead of just taking it out to see what was still wrong with it before taking it out of the water to work on it again. It is fun to have a boat! Pend Orielle Lake is one of the prettiest lakes around, and there’s a lot of scenery (and in Mike’s case, good fishing) that can only be reached by boat. This summer is going to be fun!

I’m quickly realizing that boat ownership is a never ending spending situation. When we bought our boat we thought, “as long as it runs and we can putt around the lake we’ll be happy, because it’ll be better than nothing”. But as soon as one thing gets fixed, another pops up that’s necessary when before you’d never even thought you might need! For example, now that we have nice redwood seats we need a new paint job so the whole boat looks as good. And then the trailer will need painting too! And then my parents’ old truck that they loaned us will need to be painted to match! Oh no… And I’ve recently learned that we’ll need a “backup” motor, and fishing gear, and a canopy, and and and and… pretty soon we’ll need a bigger boat!