YeHa! Thanks Al!! You folks, Al called me in the morning on sunday (move day)and said he had left a little identifier for me so I could find my new slip - yellow caution tape all over the place! Actually, it was great because it's a little intimadating the first time, and it really helped!
It was a really crazy, great weekend. Met with Al on Friday and I signed up at the office, left my truck at Riverboat, and we cruised on FlyRight over to Oxbow. We made a stop along the way and Wes came by to check a little viberation we were feeling, the mechanic checked a few things, but they were good, so it looks like FlyRight will be visiting the hard next week - again!. Great boat - the little Perkins just purr and sip almost no fuel - a great and comfortable boat that haandles really well! Al tried a couple tric manuvers docking at B&W and walked that girl sideways right up to the dock - I was impressed! We hung out on the guest dock, and Al supplied the steaks and food for dinner! What a guy! Had a wonderfull evening and in the morning Al renewed some old friendships and made several new oned. He headed back to Riverboat and I stayed for the Oxbow berthers party, although I had many convinced it was my going away party! It was a blast, as always, and the Oxbow gang did a superb job. I had so many people come up to me and say they would miss me, it was really emotional! I've been there about 5 years and the place is amazing - so clean and well run, and the prettiest marina on the delta. It was a really tough decesion, but a month ago when the slip came up, I decided it was time for a change - thats one of the reasons we have boats -right? I have other friends at Riverboat and it's a really happy and fun place, so I decided to go for it. I am the biggest anti-drinking-and -driving guy around, so I hardly ever go over there to listen to music unless I take the boat, and the dock is really loud, so it just seemed like a good idea. Ayway, a couple of my friends from Oxbow rode over with me on Sunday, we drove through the yellow marker tape, got the boat settled in, met about 20 more Riverboat people, had a great lunch, and I drove them back to Oxbow and said my final goodbyes (although we wil continue to be very good friends with many of them. I got things settled in a bit, and about 8:00 or so Mike R from Oxbow shows up at Riverboat to take me out in his new 310hp SeaDoo jet boat - that thing ROCKS! There was a birthday party over at Happy Harbour so we headed that way - we made it about a mile and a half into the SJ river - and hit a really big patch of weeds! The boat just came to a stop! Sh!*!!! Sun setting, gettin a bit cold, windy and dead. We were drifting toward shore - no danger to us but would have been hard on the brand new boat, so I threw out an anchor and called Phil, figuring we didn'd want to swim to shore and leave the boat, and I really didn't want Mike jumping in the water to clear the jet as it was getting cold and if he didn't come up, I didn't have a harpoon to get him back!
He started each enging and it would idle for about 45 seconds before getting hot, but we were moving, although really slowly! I called Phil back and cancelled his help, figuring we could work our way back. I said to Mike, its too bad you don't have oars (like code), and he says, oh yea, there under the floor! 2 full size oars, so away we went. About an hour of paddleing and a few enging start-stops, we found ourselves back an the Moke and in front of Korths. Finally a ski boat comes flying by, we stant up waving our hands wildly and screaming for help! Really nice people, I guess - they wave back, and zoom by. Jerks. Mike and I cry a little... Another 1/2 hour, lots of rowing and wind, and we moved the 300 yards to riverboat - Yahoo! We paddle frantically so we don't overshoot the marina, and finally we make it over to the guest dock - finally! NOW it's OK with me if Mike jumps in, althought I would have been a bit warmer in the morning with sun. No stopping Mike - in he goes, and he pulles out giant clumps out of the pumps - both were plugged solid, not just a bit in the bump, but te entire grate covered. Got it running, gave mike a bunch of towells and a warm sweat shirt, and away he went! This is what memories are mad of!
I stayed for my first night on Sunday, spent Mondy setting up my new space - I love it, met a whole bunch of new people, walked over to Pirates Lair for breakfast, and had a wonderfully relaxing day. Got everything set up, the boat shined up, and headed back about 4:00. A wonerfully UNEVENTFULL day!
What a GREAT weekend!
Thanks again Al - you rock. (You missed a great boat ride Sunday night...)
JIm
