Perpetual Ruminations

Float My Boat

I've been trying to make an entry for a few days, but my muse is being stubborn and not helping out. So, this entry is going to be a short tale of a boating adventure I had last summer. It all started when my neighbor brought an older boat home from his brother. To protect the ignorant innocent, I'll refer to him as Lars.

In talking with Lars, I found out he had intentions of fixing the boat up and selling it. This boat had been an open-bottom, sixteen-foot fishing boat, but Lars's brother had added decking to it, making it similar to a bass boat. It had sat outside under some trees for a few years and all the decking was rotten.

I purchased it and planned to return it to an open-bottom boat, but Lars is kind of set in his ways and doesn't really listen to what anyone is saying unless it's also what he's thinking. So, after gutting out the boat, he informed me that if it was his boat, he'd put a deck in it and carpet it. And, while I spent the summer working on our mobile tent (pop-up camper), he set about fixing the boat up as he had planned from the start. I should also mention he likes to use whatever is available to do things; he kind of scabs things together.

Last fall, after Lars had set the boat up the way he wanted it, it was time to take it out and use it. I hooked on to the boat, put in life my life jacket, some fuel, the trolling motor and battery, and a few tools just in case. Lars had taken the motor off and had a friend of his work on it to ensure it worked well, so I was ll set. I put the plug in the boat, towed it to a small lake close by, and put it in the water.

Everything went smoothly and I was soon in the boat and pulling out into the water under the power of the trolling motor. Once away from the landing, I pulled up the electric motor and tried to start the outboard. but it wouldn't start and I was running the battery down trying to start it. This is when I noticed water coming into the boat.

The decking Lars put in was about six inches off the bottom of the boat, and the water was now higher than the decking and the boat was filling up pretty fast.  I quickly checked the plug I had put in before leaving and it missing. The current was taking the boat away from shore, and I could barely reach the drainage hole. But, if I continued to plug the drain with my thumb, I couldn't put the electric trolling motor back down and drive the boat back to shore.

I quickly kicked off my shoe and stuffed my foot down to try and plug off the drain with my toe as I re-engaged the trolling motor and headed for shore. I succeeded in slowing the water coming in, but not stopping it. Soon the boat was low enough that the secondary drain up by the motor mount was taking in water, so I put one thumb in that, pressed my foot tighter against the bottom drain, and hoped like hell I would make the landing before we sunk.

Under normal conditions, the trolling motor would have quickly pushed us to the landing, but with the boat almost filled, it was heavy and moved slowly. Also, I had run the battery down significantly trying to start the outboard, so we moved at a snail's pace back to shore. But we made the landing without sinking. The boat was only a couple of inches above the water when the front hit the sandy shore, which raised the front and put the back the rest of the way under.

I was wet to my waist, so I just stepped over the side and went for the pickup and trailer. Once I was backed up to the boat, I hooked onto it, and used the winch and the back of the trailer to lift the front of the boat a bit off the bottom, then pulled it with the pickup a few feet up the shore. Being full of water, it was extremely heavy, but the landing was sandy and I managed to get the back of the boat higher than the water without causing any damage. From here it was crank the winch a bit, wait for the water to drain, then crank a bit more. Once the boat was about halfway onto the trailer, I pulled the pickup, trailer, and boat another few feet so the back was completely out of the water, then waited for the rest of the water to drain.

Eventually it did, but while I waited, I climbed back into the boat and looked for the missing plug. I couldn't find it, even after taking out all the sections of decking. The plug was gone! I secured the boat to the trailer and headed back home. Lars met me in the driveway with the plug in his hand. "I hope you noticed the plug was out before you put it in the water."

I was pissed, so I didn't say anything knowing if I even tried to talk, I would explode on him. "I noticed this plug wasn't attached to the boat and I thought I would fasten a string to it and tie it to the boat so it wouldn't get lost." He handed me the plug that now had some old twine string tied to it.

"Thanks." I managed to hold back my rage. Lars saw I was wet, the inside of the boat was wet, and I'm sure he knew the red face I displayed wasn't from sunburn, so he returned home. I took the battery out and replaced it with the bigger battery I used for the camper. I then drove into town, purchased a new deep-cycle hybrid battery for the boat, and headed back to the lake.

I put the plug back in, took the boat out, and eventually got the outboard to run, but it didn't run very well. I ran it for a while, hoping it would get better after it had been run, but didn't, so I used the electric trolling motor to land the boat and bring it home.

We did use the boat a few times last year but only powered by the trolling motor. I haven't had it out yet this year, but I did find someone who can work on the motor and get it running right, so hopefully I can get some use out of it this year, but if not, next year.

As for Lars, he's a nice guy, he means well, but he doesn't always think before he does stuff and I learned to double-check things if he's been around them. He's my friend, but he's also the kind of person who does things the way he desires and doesn't really listen to what I desire. I take him as he is, and we get along that way, but there are times it can be a bit difficult.