I won't lie - I had quite a few stressful moments. I owe the first mate a lot to make up for my crankiness!
Here's how the day went after we got on the water. We headed North and soon discovered that our boat is very S L O W. But that's perfectly fine with us. After an hour or so of cruising we stopped in a secluded spot and dropped anchor. It was picture perfect blue sky and high fluffy clouds. We listened to the radio, sipped on some adult beverages and explored the nooks and crannies of our new home on the water.
After a couple hours we decided to head for our slip. Battery switch to 1, turn the key and click - click - click. No...can't be. One more try - same result. Several minutes of choice words later, turn battery switch to 2 - same. All our batteries dead??? Great! Now what? We were alone except for a pontoon boat pretty far away. Luckily the one thing I did remember in my excitement of the morning was a loud whistle. I grabbed the whistle and blew while the first mate waved her arms. We got their attention and they headed our way. No jumper cables but the pontoon couple was amazingly nice. They gave us a ride to the marina. We took our car to Wal-Mart and bought 2 new batteries and some basic tools (yes I forgot those too in my excitement of the morning). We went back to the marina and the pontoon couple gave us a ride back to our boat and waited while I replaced the battery and got the engine running. We arrived at the marina around 6 pm and after 1 failed attempt I managed to bang into our slip.
Lessons learned:
- A 25 year old boat requires a lot of patience
- People on the river are great
- I forgot how to dock a boat
- A slight breeze can really push a boat this size
- You can never have too many ropes
- Always be prepared for the worst situation you can imagine
- I have the best first mate I could ever ask for
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