First Outing With The New Boat
Two weeks after the very stressful drive home with the new boat, we were finally ready to put her in the water. Our original goal was to have her in last weekend, but repairs and upgrades were required. Most nights were spent working in the boat; tinkering with the motor, fixing the wiring, and cleaning. On Friday night, Darrell declared that she was ready to go.
I was so, so, so nervous.
After the tire issues on her trip home, there was good reason for me to be apprehensive. Add to that the fact that we didn’t know for sure she would float, and the million of other things my brain could imagine going wrong, and I was one nervous Nellie.
We chose to take her to Belwood for her first trip. Being close to home, a decent size, and one of the few places around here allowing gas motors, it was the perfect destination.
Launching. Did I mention that I was worried about launching this Hulk? The normal routine with our 12ft tinny is for Darrell to drive the truck, and me to sit in the boat and drive it away. That was not happening today in a boat I had never driven. So I lined her off. Instead of it gaining momentum and dragging me off the dock (as I had imagined was possible), it nicely floated off of the trailer and stayed in one place.
Then Darrell started up the motor and she roared to life as expected, sounding like she has the many times we’ve run her on land. Another hurdle out of the way.
What a great feeling to finally have her on the water!
Sleeping in the cuddy.
I love that view.
It was only when we pulled away from the dock and I stood looking out the back of the boat, that I finally relaxed and allowed myself to smile. She was floating, the motor was rumbling away, and things were looking up.
The rest of the trip was absolute joy. We put her through her paces, each taking a turn at the helm. I’ve been in boats that could go faster, but driving a 23-foot boat at 35mph was one heck of a rush. She handled turns like a dream, and proved to be one heck of a nice ride. Because of her heft on land, I expected her to ride a little heavier, but she does move around more than expected. That said, she pushes a lot of water and I felt sorry for small boats crossing our wake.
One of the features I have looked forward to the most was the cuddy. I love napping in the boat and the cuddy proved to be a perfect place to lay down and have a snooze.
We tested out the kicker motor and found that it worked better than expected. Trolling speeds were exactly what we were aiming for, and it looks like this setup will work well for the big water.
Loading her back onto the trailer was a bit of more of a challenge than we usually face. However, after getting my feet wet, she was on the trailer and ready to go. The trailer lights even worked when we hooked them back up (Belwood is a bad place for our trailer lights for whatever reason).
After getting her home successfully, I couldn’t be more happy with our first outing. What a cool boat! I can’t wait to get her out in Owen Sound for the Salmon Spectacular next weekend.
argosgirl
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Congrats! Be safe, have fun!
Thanks Walt! I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun with her.