Memorial Day Weekend

Maria, cooking our Memorial Day dinner!

We finally launched our boat on Friday, May 23rd and spent conciderable time getting her ready, cleaning and organizing. Everything is "ship-shape" except the windlass, not letting the anchor move up or down. I installed a new antenna for the VHF radio

On Sunday, The VFW had a nice presentation at our dock, throwing a wreath onto the water in memory who's lives were lost in war. including playing "Taps" and a 21 gun salute!

Jessie came down on Sunday and stayed the night on board with us (for the 1st time) and Shawn came out on Monday. We spend time teaching both how to operate the jet ski. Both kids had passed their safe boating course allowing them to operate it. Having them carry the waterproof VHF radio on their life vest, I was able to talk to them from our boat's VHF radio, giving them instructions. The jetski is running a little sluggish though, may be bad fuel or need to change out the spark plugs, to improve performance! Both Maria, Jess & Shawn got a ride in a "jetboat" that they enjoyed very much! Of course, Maria wants one.... What else is new!
Dad demonstrating the jet ski.

Maria learned how to drive too!

It's about Time!

Yes! It's about time we get our boat on the water! Unfortunately the weather in Pittsburgh has not been cooperating. But, just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, the weather is slowly improving!!! It's all "That Damn Ground Hog's Fault"

We will post pictures of our 1st splash!!

Bottom painting completed, Launch Saturday?

I've completed the dirty job of applying "bottom paint" to the bottom half of the hull of our boat, yesterday, brush painting, what basicly seems like driveway sealant is done to protect the fibergrass hull from blistering and prevent alge from growing on the bottom also. I got just as much paint on my hands and arms, as the boat! Just glad it is done. Weather permitting.... We will launch and load the rest of the gear.

Loading Supplies

The marine machanic called to say the work was completed on our boat on Friday! Tune up, oil change, filters, etc. I hauled the boat to River Forest and Jessie and I loaded up the truck with most of the gear and loaded everything on board. Later we took the jetski for a ride and met up with some boating friends, out on the water. Returning to shore, we loaded the jetski on the trailer, covered the boat and returned home. Still lots of work to do, still have to bottom paint the hull, hopefully I'll get to that later this week. The diagram above shows this years slip assignments.

Our marina just received their 1st fuel delivery..... Price for a gallon of 89 octane is..... $4.50 a gallon Wow!

Down on the Water

Today, after the clouds cleared & the air warmed up a bit, I made a solo trip to the river with the SeaDoo. I backed down the ramp and was able to launch it single handed! With the cooler temps I wore a wet suit and a long sleeve shirt, along with a life jacket. I cruised up to the Kiski River and back down to Moose Tracks Island and back to the marina. I tied off and installed the fenders and dock cleats along our section of the dock - We have the same slip as last year! After that task, I spent some more time getting used to the jetski, seeing what it can do - So I can teach Maria, Jess and Shawn, when they come down - Yesterday Jess & Shawn took a Safe boating Class and they both passed their tests!!! One of the Marina owners said I could use their jetski dock for a week or two, so I drove up on the floating dock and secured & covered it up, I parked the trailer in the lot - I will be nice to not have to haul it back and forth! So we're off to a good start! Now we hope the marine machanic wilol call this week, so we can launch our boat NEXT weekend! Keep your fingers crossed for us!