Our Maiden Voyage

Somehow, we managed to talk ourselves into buying a boat. It is not something we ever thought we would ever be doing as a family, but here we are. A little jet boat, currently named "Lil Sas" (given by previous owners.)

So, this evening we decided to take it out for it's maiden voyage. We live near a lake and it is actually possible for us to take the boat out in the evening after Richard gets home from work and still have enough time for all our other nightly rituals.

Rowan behaves himself very well on the boat. He seems comfortable and relaxed. When the boat is moving he calmly sits back and just takes it all in. When we come to a stand still he excitedly gets up and starts looking around over the edge into the water to see if he can spot some fish.


There are a couple of small islands in this lake. The photo below shows where we stopped next to one. There is a small alcove to the right. When Richard pointed it out to Rowan, Rowan said: "Hide! Hide!" I bet he was already imagining himself running in there to play hide and seek.

So we turned the engine off and spent some time looking around at the birds, stones, plants and alcoves. Then... when Richard tried to start the engine again there was nothing. Not even a click. Immediately these two parents started panicking inside. We were quite good at not showing just how freaked out we were about this situation. I mean, the rain clouds seemed threatening, it was getting late and we couldn't possibly swim to shore. What to do?

After a little while I got up and waved at the nearest boat. They saw us and came over to us to see what was going on. Just as we were preparing to have them tow us back to the dock, I, Elaine, had a bright spark. Yip Rowan, if you are reading this some time in the future, girls can fix boats too! It turns out we didn't have the boat in neutral which meant it wouldn't start. A simple little safety precaution got the best of us.

So with lots of adrenalin pumping through our veins we cruised back to the dock and were home just in time for dinner. Phew! What an exciting evening and that in the middle of the week!

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