I'm on a boat!

Well I didn't want to post until it was all working and legal.  Today the sticker went on the hull, the plate went on the trailer, and everything went in the water.  I bought a 14 foot john boat on a trailer with an older Go-Devil long tail motor, as is, not running.   After replacing all the little stuff that was past it's prime, draining the water out of the engine, putting on a new carb and wiring the trailer it seems to be trust-worthy.

Safety is the most important part, and I felt a  lot safer today wearing 1 one of the 2 brand-new life jackets that Bob and Fred gave me.  While I hope to never test them out, it was nice knowing my life isn't hanging on a $6 special orange jacket I was eyeballing the other day.

During the last few days it has started to set in that I'm going to have to learn how to back up a trailer, launch a boat, drive it at night and all sorts of other stuff.  I finally started to understand why Bob was so tense during our few boating trips last year, most of my experience with boats was during those few days last season.

Well my buddy Ken and I had the lake to ourselves today because it was pouring rain, we might have looked stupid but I was stoked for the complete lack of spectators.  After an initial cruise around Killarney we headed up a narrow channel completely choked with wild rice, total mud motor territory. This boat will cruise along in about 5 inches of whatever, but the weeds definitely slow you down which wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that top speed is a brisk walk. Lesson learned, we moved on to some really shallow water and ran along a little mud bar until we got stuck again.  It's pretty cool, we didn't even realize the prop was in the mud for the first little bit.  It's fairly easy for one person to push or pull the boat out of most situations.  We spent the rest of our afternoon getting stuck and unstuck in different kinds of mud and weeds.

While the boat is not fast, it does get around pretty good.  The under powered motor bogs down before you get into anything you won't be able to get out of.  The motor is really simple and seemingly bullet-proof, but definitely takes a lot of work to steer.  The boat feels safe, friendly and I think it has the same top speed whether it has a full hunting load or is nearly empty.  I've been told that I might pick up the pace a lot if I look into a new prop, but the funds are gone so that will have to wait.