Mostly a day off...

I was expecting the call... "Captain Jim, can you come in to work for a bit?" Joan was still in bed, the coffee was ready to start, little Izzy had been fed.

"I'll be there in just a few minutes."

The original plan was for me to pull the newly refit cruise boat up on a trailer so the Coast Guard inspector could check the hull out of the water. A trailer issue put that plan on temporary hold. The new plan: help pull the dock at our island meal location, bring it back to the marina where the welders could make needed repairs.

I drew the short straw and wound up on the jonboat, while the other two blasted off ahead in our rescue boat. We need the jonboat to put floats on the dock anchors and to act as the tug boat while the dock is being towed with the other boat. I grabbed a bottle of water, some water work gloves, slipped on a life jacket, and fired up the jonboat. For a few minutes, I thought of the comfort the other two had in the boat with pneumatic seats and a canvas top... while I was on the dark metal, small, 9.9 hp powered jonboat. That lasted about 30 seconds - long enough to get the boat pointed towards those beautiful mountains.


The sun was shining. It was my day off, but I'm getting overtime. I'm on a gorgeous lake with a spectacular view of the mountains. Calm water. I've never taken this small jonboat out of the marina... it isn't fast, but the open feeling is something I haven't had in a while. It was going to take me a while to get there, and I was enjoying the ride.


When I got out to the island dock, the other two had two of the 6 connections unhooked. I pulled the jonboat up and went to work on the others. It was heavy work, pulling the chains that keep the dock in place; good that we had more than one pair of hands to do that pulling. It took about 45 minutes to get the dock ready to tow, and we were off - headed back to the marina.

The ride back was even slower. This isn't driving passengers on a cruise boat, but I'm still on the clock and even better: still on the water. There wasn't much for me to do while enroute, but as we came into the marina area, it was my job to turn and line up the dock using the jonboat as a push boat. We had a crew onshore, ready to do the pulling and lifting necessary to get the ramp part of the dock onto solid ground.


With the dock secured, the welders could start their work. We pulled the boats into their slips, and I headed for home... and a shower... and a trip into Jackson for a nice lunch and our weekly grocery shopping. Odds are pretty good I would have just sat around this morning. Joan took Izzy outside while I was gone, she was ready to go as soon as I got out of the shower. It didn't feel like I "lost" any time off. Not a bad way to start the day.