Pickling the Bottom Feeder

So our boat has a new name: "Bottom Feeder."  It sank Wednesday in the boat slip.  The marina called and left this message "Uh, hi, this is Jerry over at the marina.  I'm calling because you have a 21ft Searay, and, uh, apparently it sank."  Excellent customer service right?  No return phone number, no "I'm really sorry, please give us a call at your earliest convenience."  Not to mention that he left this message on the wrong answering machine.  He'd called my mother-in-law's house and left the message.  What happened to that handy-dandy form they had me fill out when I purchased the slip??  Both my husband's and my personal cell phone numbers were listed.  Eh, whatever, all semantics at this point I guess.

Four in One

Contrary to popular belief, I did not fall off the face of the earth.  I just took a much needed break for four wonderful days.  Did you miss me?  Well let me get you up to speed:

Saturday - The boat saga continues...

We spent about ten minutes on the boat where it actually ran fine.  We spent the next two hours starting and stalling our way back to the boat slip.  Apparently changing out the antisiphon valve was not the solution.  On a happier note, we walked up to main street and found a cute little place that makes homemade ice cream. The chocolate peanut butter cup was to die for.  The rest of the afternoon was spent helping friends of ours load hay into two tractor trailers.  It was a good amount of exercise which further justified additional ice cream consumption in the evening.

Sunday - Movies, dinner and smore...

The weatherman promised Sunday would not be a total washout.  Just "keep an eye on the sky" he said.  "Spotty showers" was the forecast.  What a load of bologna.  It was a complete and utter wash out until about six o'clock.  So we watched Netflix (Crazies and RED are certainly recommended) and then went out to dinner with Jen and Aaron.  Because it had finally cleared up, we invited them back to enjoy making smores on our firepit.  A perfect ending to an otherwise nondescript day.

If it ain't broke...

Happy almost July 4th weekend!  I hope you have a lot of cool things planned to do.  I know we don't.  It's not that we weren't invited to parties and BBQs, we were just really hoping to get some use out of our boat this weekend since the weather forecast looks beautiful.  However, we'll most likely spend our weekend roasting in the sun muttering obscenities while attempting yet another surgery on the POS.  Last night a simple fix on the boat turned into a big "oh no."

Source

But first let me get you up to speed.  Our boat has been a money pit since we inherited it from Justin's uncle.  There's constant repairs and it spends more time as a lawn ornament than actually running across a lake.  We have bought a boat slip from the marina every year since 2007 and what a waste of money that has been.  This year we decided we were done farting around with it and had a professional do about $1600 worth of work on the lower unit, water pump, the carburetor, etc.  It was promised to be running in tip-top shape.  Although for those of you who have been following my blog, you already know that has not been the case.  We have already been stranded once this season.  

Last night my husband and I went over to the boat to change out the anti-siphon valve, our latest diagnosis for what's wrong with it.  The old valve actually came off real easy, but then my husband did something he really shouldn't have.  You are familiar with the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Yeah, well he went there.  He went one step further and removed the elbow fitting to inspect the fuel pickup line, just to make sure that wasn't clogged.  Well, it wasn't, it was clean as a whistle. On the return installation, however, it snapped off about three rotations in which bites big time. Now we are on the hunt for a new elbow/fuel pickup assembly as well as an "easy out" tool to help back  out the piece that snapped off.  If that piece doesn't come out we're in for a much bigger expense of replacing a 32 gallon gas tank.  Nice, right?  Not really.  If that's the case I  believe it's time to use the old Searay as kindling for one of the biggest July 4th bonfires you can imagine.  I would just trade it in for a new one, but until I hit the lotto that's just not in the cards. 

*Disclaimer: I have to give my husband a lot of credit for tackling many mechanical projects as of late.  I know they say you learn through your mistakes, but boy are we learning!!

Vitamin-D Recap

This weekend was Gorgeous with a capital "G."  Temperatures were in the upper eighties and the sunshine was constant from sunrise to sunset, so needless to say I was outside soaking up as much Vitamin D as possible.  One would think that being an all-American mixture of Russian, Polish, German, Italian, N.American Indian, and Irish (and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few) that exposure to sunlight would result in a beautiful golden bronze but apparently this is not the case.  It must be a genetic science that Irish skin trumps all and results in a speckled trout appearance after any sunbathing.  I even varied between SPF 30 and SPF50 sunblock this weekend, but alas all I am capable of is a burn and freckle. 

Aside from roasting myself like a marshmallow, my husband and I took our money-pit of a boat out for a spin on the Lake.  We had an enjoyable day of fishing, swimming and enjoying each others company until it came time to head in.  That's when the boat's starter made a terrible whining sound which meant we were going nowhere without a tow.  All I can say is thank goodness for the kindness of strangers because eventually some gentleman in a boat from Massepequa, NY was kind enough to help us back to shore.