June 6th, 5:37 pm. Hitting the road for the long drive to Cleveland Ohio to get the boat.
The weather forecast suggested we would encounter extreme conditions; snow, high winds, rain, hail, lightning, and tornado's!
Going over the first pass the temperature dropped to 32 degrees and we found ourselves entering a blizzard. The visibility soon dropped to only a few feet in front of the vehicle.
Almost halfway there! The weather is torential rains, lightening, and high winds.
Gary transferring diesel from the 100 gallon tank in the pick-up box.
I measured the wind speed with a hand held gauge; 40 knot's sustained, gusting to 50!
Frank, the previous owner of the vessel met us at the marina to transfer the boat from his trailer onto ours. He is a kind and generous man who refused the offer of payment for bringing the boat to the marina and helping with the transfer, even though he had to drive a good distance to get there!
The travel-lift operator was a shirtless obnoxious fellow who appeared very put off and inconvenienced by the prospect of actually having to get off his ass and do some work.
When he did the lift he was often confused and got his "right and left" mixed up and had one hell-of-a-time performing this simple task. He compensated for his apparent incompetence by shouting obscenities at us, the customers, and at one point told us we looked "F****** retarded!" while we were pointing in the direction the boat needed to go to be lined up straight on the trailer,......which was of course the opposite direction than he actually moved it.
The large tip I had taken from my wallet and placed in my front pocket to give him when we were done stayed in my pocket.
Ready to lift
We got the boat loaded onto our trailer. The lift operator asked if we could strap the boat down in the lot across the street. We had just finished strapping her down and the heavens opened up and let loose a torrential downpour!
We had drove straight through from Idaho to Ohio and after loading the boat. Gary and I were very tired. We drove a few miles to a local hotel, got a room and got cleaned up. Gary bought us a celebratory dinner in the hotel restaurant and we feasted on gourmet foods and toasted the successful first half of the journey.
Halfway home we had a blowout on the trailer and had a 30 minute pit stop to change it out.
When the tire blew it threw rubber onto the hull. You can see the black marks in the picture where the rubber bits bounced off the hull.
Along the way we watched several truck drivers bounce off the rumble strip as they dozed at the wheel. This fellow (lower right in the picture) went right off the road and dug a deep furrow in the meridian. Fortunately, he was able to keep the truck upright.
They were trying to figure out how to get him "unstuck" as we passed.
On the home stretch! The weather is beautiful.
We made it! Home at last!
I was sanding the topsides the other night when my stepson Ty (16) and his buddy Chris (18) stopped by and found out I had a few Monster brand energy drinks I had bought for the road and had not drank, to me they taste like paint thinner. They love them and said they'd sand one side of the hull for two each! They reacted just like Scooby-Doo getting a Scooby snack! "we'll do the whole boat for Monsters!" They offered to sand the boat while I was at work but I didn't want them hitting the hull when I'm not there to watch,.......or else they would probably think; if 180 grit is good, 80 is better, and 40 is best!! They'd flatten her round bits in no time! They arrived the following evening as scheduled and got busy. Ty on the DA sanding the hull and Chris on deck removing the cap rail. When Ty realized how much work was involved in sanding the hull there was talk of a mutiny and I had to think fast and get some pizza's coming to quell the uprising. They both did a good job and within a couple hours we had the entire rail off the boat and a good portion of one side of the hull sanded.
This is a picture of Ty doing his first bottom job when he was eleven years old. He's a good worker and I sure appreciate having him around to lend a hand!
Posts
