Ramblings

Well it finally happened. We made it out the the lake on the boat as a family. Initially we didn’t have Kyle but his Dad and him were already at the lake and we met up to get Kyle late afternoon. Dawn did great as a first mate and rose to the occasion on the things I asked her to do. She is a boat newbie you know. She ran the boat while we were anchoring and was like an old pro. Anchoring was a little interesting to start with but we managed. The windlass just move a few spots up the list. Hoisting the anchor manually a handful of times gets old fast. Argh! Erin generously christened the porta-potti not once but twice. Thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday gift. Who is laughing now. Once Erin got in the water we could barely get her out. Dawn and I had to take turns so we wouldn’t get tired out. Erin never stopped moving. Swimming and jumping off the swim platform over and over again. The haul out went smooth as glass with Kyle’s help and on the drive home everyone but Dawn fell asleep. Out like lights. After emptying the boat I cleaned out the porta-potti which was not as bad as I thought it would be. I put the boat back in storage and covered it up for next time. Oh yea top speed was 36.4 mph at around 4100 rpm. My dashboard precludes me going faster as the controls were pressed against it firmly. Ran most of the time at 3500 rpm and 30 mph. The hull eats up lake chop easily, crosses wakes with nary a bump. Having a 25 foot hull really smooths things out. Enough for now. Later.

Kyle and I ran out for a quick test drive after fixing blower. It worked great and actually moved air out of the bilge. It probably helped that I rerouted the hose so it was not crushed behind the exhaust manifold. The capped through hulls didn’t leak either. Two for two on Sunday. We ran for about an hour and saw a gps speed of 30 mph at 3200 rpm. We got the rpm’s up to 4000 but that is when we were making the video so not sure how fast. I am not sure how accurate a phone gps is anyway. 30 mph will be more than enough on the ocean on even a perfect day anyway. One step closer to being ocean ready!!! Lots of work to do to make the boat a restored classic but it is usable now.