First Time Out With a "New To Us" Boat

Our family had an unexpected blessing last Thanksgiving. When we were celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in Columbus, Ohio, my brother-in-law, Terry Hedlund, asked me if would like to have their boat that was docked at Lake of the Ozarks. Terry and Lila (my sister) and my parents were preparing to move to Raleigh, North Carolina. They were preparing to sell their two Columbus homes and their Lake of the Ozarks home. Since the boat was on a lift dock to keep it out of the water, it did not have a trailer. After the holidays, I began a flurry of research to determine where the best place would be to buy a trailer. I found out the the Internet is an incredible place to do research and quickly got up to speed on trailers, price, size, features, etc. In April I traveled to Lebanon, Missouri, and purchased a brand new "last year's model" trailer for an amazing price. Then on May 3rd, Shawn and I met Terry at Lake of the Ozarks and took possession of the boat. We became the proud owners of a 1998 18' Bayliner Capri. We tried to remember everything that Terry told us about it. However, after today's "first outing", it is obvious we didn't remember it all.

We decided to go close to home. The Mississippi River, the Alton Pool, to be exact. I picked a state park with a free launch ramp andwe headed out. As we arrived at the launch ramp, we discovered that it did not any docks attached. This meant we had to start the boat and drive it off the trailer. Shawn tried his best, but he couldn't get it started. I had to crawl over the bow and into the boat to get it started. After a few tense moments, we finally got it going, put it in reverse and moved away from the launch ramp. With people waiting, it seemed like hours, but hopefully it was only a few minutes. Later as we were navigating down the river we decided to explore what looked like a lagoon. Just as we got to the mouth of the lagoon the boat suddenly came to a very sudden stop. Oops, we had found a sandbar. After several tense minutes (I think boats and tense go together), we finally got off the sand bar, only to discover that part of our propeller became a souvenir of this trip. Later we found a log, going 20 miles and hour, and decided maybe we should call it a day. After successfully getting the trailer down the ramp, Sam did his best, but he couldn't get the boat on the trailer. I got to wade into the water, attach the winch strap and winch the 2,000 pound boat onto the trailer. I think people were cheering when we finally pulled away, or was that people happy that they could use the ramp now. All in all, not too bad. We learned a lot. Now, back to the Internet to find out how much a new propeller costs. I don't think Walmart carries them...