Finally.

Where to begin?  It's been a long road of trials and tribulations in the quest for making the H7HT watercraft friendly.  And now, praise Heston, the voyage may be complete.  Today I picked up my boat motor and actually took it onto the water and actually got somewhere.  Again, praise Heston.

Looking back to the beginning of this whole fiasco I never thought buying a boat would be so much trouble.  It started innocently enough with the purchase of a old aluminum boat.  Willy and I went to pick the thing up months and months ago.  March I believe.  It was old and crusty and the Communist I purchased it from was the only one that told the truth about anything I was to buy from that point on.  "It floats" he said, and sure enough, it does.  Then the fun began.

Stripping and sanding first the trailer and then the aluminum boat itself.  Primer, and then more sanding, and then a good coat of 'duck boat green', which in itself was a challenge to get.  I remember going to Cabellas on the only weekend day of the year it was closed to try to buy the paint.  What fun.  Now Fred G. was here and it was time to lay down the most custom paint job ever.  The results still to this day amaze me with their perfection.  Now the boat looked the part but we were still months away from putting this thing on the water to see if it would actually float.

I watched Craigslist and saved my pennies and went out and bought a motor.  My neighbor and I had used his little 2hp for a trail run and the boat neither sank or went fast.  I knew I needed more power.  From the bowels of Post Falls, ID. I made the genius decision to trust a man that lived in a trailer park and had children with snotty noses.  He sold me a Hiawatha motor from 1948 with the promise that it worked perfectly.  Wrong.  Then, thinking I could rebuild it I bought a book about old motors and how to get them running like a top.  First chapter?  Don't buy a Hiawatha.

Keeping my eye on Craigslist again I looked to do some horse trading for a better motor.  Mistake #2 was trusting another person who told me this motor worked perfectly and had been recently serviced.  I took it to a mechanic who promised me a 2 week turnaround for a tune up and fresh everything.  2 weeks, I can live with that.  So here it is 4 weeks later and today I finally picked up my motor.  Mechanic guy addressed the bad plugs, gummy carb, broken impeller and general lack of maintenance but could do nothing for the poor compression on one of the cylinders without a major rebuild.  Trust nobody.  Ever.

So, after all that, after being a disgruntled pissy sourpuss for weeks, I finally was able to take the boat on the water. 
I like it.



It might not run perfect but it goes from point A to B without me feeling like I'll be rowing my way home.  I think we will be able to get to new and exciting places to hunt and maybe even back again.  So, after all that has transpired and all the trauma and waiting and disappointment, we have a boat.  Praise Heston!