You have to understand what it is that motivates any person in their right mind to ever consider buying a boat in the first place.
Crab. Yummy, tasty Crab. Lots of Crab.
Our initially sad, but comical efforts with the Wally Mart inflatable left much to be desired. Hence, the purchase of the sea-worthy C-Dory!
Now it doesn’t usually take all that long, from the time you buy your first boat, and enjoy the brief thrill of ownership, to quickly realize what an utterly ’stupid’ and ‘idiotic’ purchasing decision you’ve made.
The learning curve of safe boat operation is a painful and costly succession of errors.
Our first trip out was disasterous! We went over to Brownsville Marina in Bremerton, one of the better launching spots in the area. We got the boat about halfway down the slightly steep ramp when the winch strap ’snapped!’ Luckily, we had the security chain attached, and the boat only slipped down a few inches. The Marina Store was conveniently located nearby, so we purchased a new winch strap (the first in a very long line of expenses)
Let me stop right here and just mention one of the basic tenets of ‘Murphy’s Law of Boat Repairs:’
“Whenever you need to buy something to repair your boat, you will never, ever be remotely close to a store that sells discount boat parts, or anything that even remotely resembles a bargain priced item.”
We installed the over-priced, gold-plated, diamond studded winch strap and lowered our vessel into the cool, blue waters….
For the next several hours, we vainly attempted every conceivable option known to man in an effort to coax/ellicit life from our 40 horse Johnson outboard motor. When that failed, we switched our novice attentions to the 9 horse kicker motor. Nothing there either. It was an outboard motor tag team. They were both in cahoots against us.
All the while, as we toiled, sweat, and prayed for a motor miracle, we neglected to notice, that the tide was going out.
As the resident boating Newbies, what we didn’t realize, was at the Brownsville Marina, when the tide goes out, the launching ramp is rendered useless for several hours. The only thing worse than not being able to start our boat engine was having to sit helplessly at the dock, watching the paint peel, and waiting for the tide to come back in.
To make matters worse, because the launch ramp is directly adjacent to the marina store/cafe, our escapades were on full display for all the luncheoning patrons to see. We provided some really great comic relief!
You know, sometimes, life is a lot like learning how to safely operate a boat. Inevitably, you’re going to make a few mistakes along the way (okay, a lot of mistakes). Sometimes the mistakes are costly. Other times, they’re just frustrating, embarassing, and, well, just plain stupid. What’s important, is to learn from those mistakes. And it’s not simply a matter of learning what you did wrong, but learning what you can do right or better the next time.
Oh, the joys of boat ownership! Trust me, this is just the beginning of “Stupid Human Boat Tricks!”
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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation of clients throughout all of Kitsap County, and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him on KitsapLife.com and his local real estate blog, SOUNDBITEBLOG.
