The boat rescue

I called it a rescue mission, but in this case, we were rescuing the boat (not being rescued by a boat). Actually it wasn’t so much a case of rescuing the boat, as it was a case of rescuing our pocketbook.

Ever since I was young, I’ve dreamed of having a small boat in a slip, in the water (which is very different from having a boat hanging around on dry land somewhere). I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where the boat hierarchy went something like this:

Poor folk: boat rotting in front yard
Not as poor: boat rotting in side alley
Hippie: boat rotting in backyard and kids using it as a fort
Retiree: boat rotting under carport in back
Struggling Yuppie: boat in dry dock somewhere inconvenient

I was going to have a boat in a slip like the rich people. Finally, 2017 was going to be the year.

Sometime mid-summer last year, John and Monica struggled against high winds and waves to secure the boat in its very own covered slip in a marina on Navajo Lake. So convenient, already in the water waiting to be used! So wonderful to have a boat in the desert! So enticing! What fun!

We thought it would be convenient, already in the water like that. We thought we’d spend many fine weekends sailing around on our cute little sailboat. And then I got a job and then winter came and then we moved and now we’re remodeling two houses instead of one. And it’s a good weekend if I have time to get groceries, much less make use of a boat.

Guess how many times we used it? Sigh, that wasn’t even a hard question. No, no we did not use it. Not even once. So now it’s in a storage yard.

At least we were able to go and get it on a pretty day.

First we picked up the trailer.

Then to find the boat.

Where the heck is it? You would think there would be some sort of coherent numbering system, but no.

Ah, there it is!

Why are there rocks on it? Oh, those aren’t rocks? That’s bird poop?!?

We motored over to the dock.

Then we waited forever for these guys, who didn’t seem to realize you don’t mess around getting all your stuff stowed while monopolizing the boat ramp. You do that off to the side ahead of time. I stood there and glared at them for awhile. I don’t think they noticed. It’s hard to see in the photo, but John was at the top of the ramp idling the Jeep, waiting for them to finish so he could back the trailer down. I guess they didn’t notice that either. He eventually turned off the engine and just sat there for some time.

Here we go, boat, onto the trailer.

I’m glad John’s in that freezing water and not me.

I’m useless at this point. I don’t know how to drive boats or back trailers. I could have hopped in the water to share the pain, but he said not to bother.

I was really wishing we could go sailing just once before taking it out of the water. But we wanted to get it loaded before the winds picked up that afternoon. And we had a lot more to do that weekend.

It was such a shallow ramp I thought the Jeep was going to flood.

It was both too tall, and too long, to fit straight into the storage space. John expertly wedged it in there at an angle.

It was sad to bring the boat in! But one more chore done. Next it needs a thorough cleaning. And then, I don’t know.