the maiden voyage

yesterday was our maiden voyage on our "new to us" boat. the officer has been wanting a boat for a long time. he researched the style of boat he wanted online. after much deliberation, he found something. nothing super fancy. an 18 1/2 ft. fish and ski boat. he drove to dallas, texas to pick it up.


the man who sold it to him said it works great, but it needed some "tlc". he even took the officer out on the lake to show him it ran. it ran great. however, the boat does need all new upholstery. it also has some oxidation (don't even know what that mean that's just what the officer told me) on the body. the officer is going to try polish, wax & buff it himself.

the officer took the boat to the shop to have it checked out. we finally got the boat monday; however it had not been checked out like it was supposed to. the officer told the boat shop people he would like it looked over, tuned up, oil changed, and a new water pump.

the boat people said, "sure we can do that. it will be done by then end of next week."

great! we were making plans to take it out on the lake after we got it back. i think the officer called in the beginning of the week to check on the boat, they hadn't started on it but assured him by friday it would be finished. last friday rolled around and the officer anxiously called the boat people.

the boat man said, "we haven't even gotten to it. there was a wake board tournament this week and we had four wakeboard something or others come in. they needed to be worked on immediately. i can have your boat ready by 4 p.m today. i'll call you and let you know if it is ready or not."

no call on friday.

the officer decided to pick it up on monday whether it was finished or not. he went to the boat shop on monday and the boat man said, "did you not pick it up friday?"

"no, you said you were going to call me."

the boat man would barely talk to the officer and he had only replaced the water pump. he did nothing else the officer asked him to.

on tuesday, the officer does a lot of running around and working on the boat to get it ready. he works all day and very hard. he was sweating so hard, i couldn't even look at him without gagging!

the boat ready and we plan to take it out on wednesday. we drive down to the officer's parent's place at the lake. we arrived at the lake at 9:30 a.m. the officer unloads the boat, picks us up at the dock, and away we go....

or so we think.....

the boat is dying and sputtering. the officer gets it going again and it dies and sputters again. repeatedly. the officer figures out an o-ring has cracked and the hose that transports fuel to the engine is leaking. fortunately, we were not too far away from the dock; although, i did think we might have to row ourselves back to the dock. the officer is not happy now, but considering all things he's handling it pretty well.

the officer decides he will take the broken part to a boat shop about 20 minutes away and see if they have a new part. we eat lunch and i take the kids swimming at the officer's parent's place.

the boat shop does have the part. praise GOD! the officer fixes the boat while we swim.

the kids love the swimming and don't mind waiting the hour and a half to swim.

the boat is ready by 2:15 p.m. and we are back out on the water by 2:30 p.m. the boat runs perfectly! another praise GOD!

we don't do much this time around other than drive around the lake. the kids each take their turn "driving" the boat.

this is the only time you will my son's hair sticking up - he hates it sticking up!

we stop and swim at a couple of places. after a couple of hours, we head in. it's suppose to rain and we didn't want to get caught out on the water in the rain.

this is her favorite "shark" imitation

i'm very glad we got to end the day with the boat working though. so .... the beginning of the day was a bit rough (i thought it was going to be a gilligan's island episode), but it ended great!