My project for the day: wash the Rendezvous, clean the dock "skid marks" on her side, and get her waxed. I had two dock wranglers and a first mate working with me to get the job done. An hour and a half into that, I got a call that we were launching the rescue boat for a trip out to Elk Island to take a carpenter and two wranglers out there to check out the equipment. With the "waxing crew" hard at it on the cruise boat, we launched the small metal boat at the next marina up the lake since we still don't have enough water.
It was a beautiful day as we made the run towards Elk Island... and uneventful until the depth finder went from 70 feet to 5 feet in a heartbeat! I pulled the power off and raised the engine as I heard that most unpleasant grinding sound... yes, it was a "field test" of the new prop guard I installed yesterday... unintentional. I sent one of the stouter guys forward, and we floated off. Our landing site at Elk Island was nearly unrecognizable with the low water. With my boss eyeballing the bottom from the bow, I put the boat on the rocky shoreline. The four of them hiked up to the meal site while I stayed with the boat. My boss called it "getting paid to get a tan", but while I waited, I checked the prop and motor - the new guard did its job reasonably well. I had time to shoot some images while I waited...
There will be some repairs needed on some of our Elk Island facilities, but I would guess we are a couple weeks away from having enough water to run this in the cruise boats. The boss wanted the rescue boat at our docks, so coming back was quite a challenge... this was the same area I "poled" the depths with the kayak last week, and I know it is shallow. With two guys on the bow to look down into the water, we slowly made our way back to our docks.
From there, it was back to the cleaning and waxing - the Rendezvous is looking good!
The water level is slowly coming up (a few hundredths of a foot the past couple days), but at least it is an increasing trend.
After the work today, every muscle is achy - even my hair hurts. I am looking forward to enough water to be driving the cruise boats.
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