Whew!

 

Up early, got in my bicycle ride.  Absolutely beautiful out, but forecast for rain by early afternoon.  I'm thinking right now would be a good time to pull the boat out, get it cleaned up, and take it to the storage unit.  Hopefully, before the rain hits.

I got the boat ready, while Joan put stuff in the Honda.  Our plan is our usual: Joan hooks up the trailer and pulls it around to the ramp while I bring the boat around.  She backs it down the ramp, and I pull the boat onto the trailer.  We've been doing it this way for a lot of years.

Coming out of our canals and into the ICW, there was a big "CHUNK," the boat shuddered, and the engine died.  Well, that's no fun.  Drifting, I put the boat in neutral and hit the starter... it fired right up.  Put it in gear and... more shudder.  Well, crap... it is a long way to have to try to paddle this thing to the ramp.  I raised the motor and immediately saw the problem: a chunk of red line, probably 3/4" was wrapped around the prop.  I put the boat in reverse and a good bit of the line unraveled.  A few moments of digging at it with the boat hook (more of a gaff), and it was free.  I lowered the motor, hit the starter, it fired right up.  Shifted into forward and... smooth as can be.  On to the boat ramp!

As I got close, Joan was just backing the trailer down the ramp.  I slowed down as she stopped, checked how far the trailer was in, then backed down a bit more.  I guided the boat onto the trailer, gave it a bit of gas, Joan signaled how far to the bow stop, and we're on.  She hooked the strap and safety chain on while I raised the motor.  Now to see how the bottom paint looks after 4 weeks in the warm water.

Pleasantly skank-free.  We rinsed the trailer and boat there at the ramp, then pulled it back to our driveway.  I disconnected the fuel line, put a set of muffs on the motor, water from the hose going, and fired up the motor.  While the fresh water flush went on, Joan brought me a bucket of soapy water so I could give the boat a good cleaning.  While I worked on that, Joan made us sandwiches so we could have lunch on the way to the storage unit.

We swapped out the hitch: one stinger-type for launching/retrieving and the other typical hitch for towing.  The longer stinger hitch is necessary to get the trailer further in the water without getting the Honda into the salt water.  This boat sits over the wheels of the trailer (as opposed to between the wheels, like all our other boats), so the trailer has to go in further to get the boat on and off.

As we drove towards the storage unit, the sky got darker.  Yeah, same situation as yesterday: I really didn't want to pull the motorhome out in the rain, since it is all clean and shiny, as is the boat.  At the motorhome, out with the motorhome, in with the boat, a bit of maintenance inside the storage unit, then put the motorhome back in.  We covered the boat and motor, locked the door of the unit, and headed for home.

Hot and humid at the storage unit.  Doing all this is like real work.  And, yes, it did rain on us on the way home.  Our timing could not have been better.

It will likely be a couple weeks before we head out, but getting the boat out, cleaned, and put away, is one big task out of the way.  We wound up going out on the boat 6 times in 4 weeks, generally because Mother Nature tossed wind and/or rain at us frequently.  So, is it worth all the work?  Thanks for asking, and yes.  I don't have the burning passion for it (boating) that I've had in the past, but we enjoyed it each time we went out.  Would that be different if we were boat cruising still?  Probably.  Not gonna happen with this boat, though.  ;-)

Again, I am looking forward to a summer of riding the scoots.  Some cooler weather.  The local TV station that is on (after getting out of the bath tub) just broke in during Jeopardy - a weather warning for thunderstorms and potential flooding, further up the Valley.  The rain we got today would have been "nuisance" rain: would have gotten the boat and motorhome all spotted up, and we don't really need any more rain right now.  This system is west of us, moving northwest... so, it won't affect us for the rest of the afternoon.

Looks like a good chance of rain the next 4 days - this was good timing in getting the boat pulled.