Sunday, July 29

The Weidner curse

I have said it before, and I'll say it again, when it comes to our boat we have a curse. Those who have gone on the boat with us or heard some of the stories will surely agree. While they provide us with some memorable stories, we've decided it is getting a little old. Here is what I think is a comprehensive of list of everything from the past three years:
  • Battery dies when we are out a few miles on the river; have to be towed in. Then we had to drive the boat to the shop in Portland to get new battery put in.
  • Battery dies when we are out a few miles on the river; no one else is out so we paddle to nearest private dock. There is no house there. Paddle to the next private dock and get some help.
  • Put in boat and battery won't start. 
  • Get pulled over on the water and almost get a $500 ticket which may or may not have been my sister's fault. Sheriff sends us back to land.
  • Car breaks down with hole in radiator. Did you know pouring pepper in the radiator plugs it up? Try it.
  • Car breaks down; friend drives up to Aurora to pick us up (at 10:00 pm). After this time we bought a new car.
  • Flat tire on the trailer about 1 mile from exit. Good thing we have a spare...with an old rusted lock on it. The lock won't open. I drive a couple of miles to the next exit to get bolt cutters only to find that all 3 hardware/lock stores are closed (6:30 on a Sat!). Drive back to boat with cutters from Target that end up not working. Drive to Sherwood (about 20 mins from where we are) to the closest Home Depot. Drive back and finally fix flat. Entire process takes around 4.5 hours from the time we left home to getting back.
  • Drive 2 hours to realize the wiring harness between the trailer and car has been dragged the entire way burning through wire. When this happens the trailer will not back up and the lights do not work. This took another few hours and some help to fix.
  • Out on rough waters and inadvertently break one of the heaters. 
  • Went to take boat out and couldn't find place were boat was being kept, the life jackets, tool to put swim deck back on (it was the first time we were taking it out for the summer). Of course these problems come along with multiple boat owners, but still it has to happen to our family. Needless to say we end up not taking boat out because the entire process takes around 4 hours.
  • Finding someone whose battery died and towing them in. (ok not so much our bad luck, but sucks up precious time when you are out in the evening for just a few hours)
Many of these situations involve several hours and a serious lack of boating. However we have learned a lot along the way and benefited from many strangers' act of service. Boat owners everywhere unite when it comes to the never ending problems. In fact it apparently happens to a lot of people--except for everyone else who owns the boat with us.

Nevertheless we love the boat and enjoy the 2-3 months a year we get to use it well. It isn't worth it for everyone, but we would never go back.

1 comment:

Jen said...

Oh man... we are boat shopping and now I'm starting to stress. Is it really worth it??