No, I have never been on the high seas during this lifetime but that does not lessen my yearning for it and my rightful place at the wheel.  I have always loved the water and boats. As a child, I would float them down the street gutters during a rainstorm.  I fitted them with tall masts and pieces of paper for sails.  I remember  a common theme in many of my kindergarten drawings was a wooden ship with three tall masts.  I loved these ships and how they made me feel. I was at home with the waves lapping at the side of the ship.

In high school, the only thing I wanted nearly as much as  my car and girls was a boat.  I finally was able to get an old broken down fiberglass runabout.  I remember that it had a Scott motor.  I learned quickly that this was a poor excuse for a motor. I was always having to fix it.  I remember it had fins similar to the late 1950’s cars. 

We spent a lot of time out on that boat at Lake Springfield. Sometimes it even worked!

I don’t even know what happened to that boat except that it seemed to disappear when I went to college in Chicago.

After getting married, it wasn’t long before that inner yearning began to resurface and I bought my first and only new boat from Sears Roebuck.  It was a fiberglass tri-hull  with the most basic design but along with the 10 HP Mercury engine, Pat and I skimmed the tops of many fishing lakes around the area.  Those early years were lean and at a particular low point, I had to sell my treasure.  There is a saying about boat ownership; There are two days you love your boat; the day you buy it and the day you sell it. For me, that was not the case. I didn’t want to sell it.

My next boat was another fix-me-up. I saw it chained to a tree down the street with a $600 price tag.  I brought it home on it’s rusty old trailer which had to be replaced shortly thereafter.  I can’t remember what kind of motor it had but I remember that was not one of the good points. As I look at the picture, I see it was an Evenrude, a very old Evenrude!  I replaced all the upholstery and put down new carpet.  Krystal learned to sky behind that boat.  But it was not very reliable and would leave me and often the “girls” , Krystal and her friends, stranded on the lake some place.

One time, the engine died and I could not get it started so I started paddling back to the dock. This was long before the day of cell phones. It was slow going with the boat filled with a couple kids and myself. After getting across the lake, I paddled along the shoreline toward the awaiting car and trailer. I decided it would be faster if I got out and walked along the shore and pulled the boat behind me.  I could not go too close to the shore or I would pull the boat into the rocks along the shoreline. As I tugged it along, another boater pulled up within shouting distance. This was the first boat we had seen all afternoon. “you need some help?” they yelled. What a stupid question, I thought. Wasn’t that a bit of the obvious.  I sarcastically yelled back, “No, I am just taking my boat for a walk.”  Then before I could ask them to throw me a line and get back in the boat, they said, “OK, and sped away. Sometimes my sarcasm got me into trouble and it certainly never got me out of trouble.

Another trip out on the lake took Krystal, Kim and one of Krystal’s friends back up Sugar creek. We were way back up the river when the motor again gave that last sigh and sputtered and stopped. A piece of the linkage had fallen off. Now, you would think that by this time, I would have carried more tools and supplies but I didn’t. So, there I was stuck out on the lake again.  I got in the back and started unraveling some wire from the steering cable.  Then I bent it back and forth to get it to get hot enough to break. It seemed to take forever before I had the piece I needed. I set it on the side of the boat and repositioned myself back beside the motor and started to make the repair. I reached for the makeshift linkage where I had left it and it was gone! “Where is the wire I put here?”  Kim looked up in her sweet way and said, “I threw it in the lake” She was probably about 4 or 5. What could I say. I just wanted to cry.

After all the trouble we had, every time we took the boat out, Krystal’s friends didn’t want to go out with us. I wonder why.  The truth was, I was about fed up with the whole thing too. I went on a quest to find a new outboard motor.  I happened upon a great deal. It was a nearly unused 25 HP Yamaha motor.  An old guy bought it and died after only one time taking it out. It sat on the boat for a couple years until she sold it with the boat. I bought it for $1806. That was a good deal for an almost new motor.

By this time, I was yearning for another fishing boat. I cut the front end out of the deck and turned this old runabout into a bass boat.  I can’t say I was too happy with this new  design but we did take it out a couple times. The motor was sensational. It was not even broken in.  But each time out it seemed to go slower and slower. It turned out that the boat was now rotten and taking on water between the floor and hull.  When I took a good look at it, I found that the trailer was about rusted through and the rotted decking was full of carpenter ants.  The boat went to the dump but I kept the motor.

For nearly 20 years, that motor was stored in my garage until one day I saw the neighbor was selling his dad’s old bass boat. I always envied the neighbor for having such a great boat.  I asked the price and it was only $1000.  I was told that the transom had some soft wood and he was actually selling the trailer and trolling motor for the $1000. The boat was free. And worth every penny of it, I might say.  That was over 5 years ago.  I brought it home and put in new carpet, patched the floor with some new wood and fiberglass.  I did some reinforcing of the transom and hung that 25 HP Yahama on the back. I hooked it up and turned the key. Sputter sputter stop. I tried again and this time it started right up perfectly.  I decided to replace the water pump impeller simply because of age and non-use and out we went. I should say, “Out I went” after all the previous boat trouble,  nobody wanted to go with me. The kids were grown and Pat really doesn’t like the water and was afraid what might happen.  So, alone , I cruised the water at Lake Springfield. It was great but a bit lonely.  I brought  the boat home and there it sat for a couple years.

Then one day, I decided to clean it up and take it out again but that is when I discovered a crack in the transom.  Obviously, it had gotten worse!  That brings up the present.  Again, I have a boat that can’t go on the water. I am looking at a major repair because as I tore off the transom, I found even more damage to the floor in the rear compartment.  I can’t afford a new boat and I don’t know if it is worth completely repairing this one.

I feel a bit like the old man and the sea but my battle has been with the boats and motors not a giant Marlin.  I too will sleep and dream  of times past as I steered my ship across oceans outracing pirates.  Tomorrow, I will think more about my boat and my yearning for the sea.