Maiden Voyage of the S.S. JMBAR Cruiseship

It rained again yesterday afternoon and put a halt to haying for the remainder of the day. I don't know if Malcolm or his dad have noticed, but every time Peggy and I go to town for any reason, it rains or storms. We were in Bowman getting parts when the rain came. Personally I hope they don't put two and two together, or we may be forbidden to go to town!

Malcolm's mom loves the beach and the water and last spring she got to talking about getting a boat to enjoy on the lake. Around that same time, Malcolm and I were here at the ranch for a visit, and he or his Dad spotted an add somewhere for a row boat over in North Dakota. So we piled in the pickup and drove an hour or so east of here to a little old farm house, inhabited by a little old lady who was trying to sell a few things, one of which was a row boat.

A year later, that boat had yet to touch the water. There is an on going search for a little boat motor for it (Malcolm and his Dad were thinking that would be better than rowing), but before we got home to help hay, Malcolm stopped at a sporting goods store to buy some oars for the boat.

Since haying was out for the afternoon, and we all could use a little recreational break once in a while, Malcolm and his dad decided it was time to take the boat out for its maiden voyage. They hauled it up to the lake behind the house, insisting that Peggy and I come along to watch.

They unloaded the boat and drug it to the shore and Malcolm climbed in to man the oars.

And seeing as how the boat was still floating with a person in it, Malcolm's mom boarded next.

So far so good! And they were all settled in and comfy!

And if it can hold two, surely one more will not swamp it. So, we convinced Malcolm's Dad to climb in too.

What a cozy picture! Now it was my turn to come aboard, and since we didn't know for sure the boat would hold all four of us, I opted to leave the camera ashore at this point. So there are no pictures taken during the voyage. I sat there in that empty spot in the bow.

We Malcolm rowed us all the way to the other side of the lake and up into one of the ditches that drains into the lake that happened to still have high water in it. It was about 3 feet deep up in there and nice and wide, kind of like canoeing up a narrow stream. We were impressed with how long it took to get across that water! When you just zip around it on the four wheeler, it seems like no big deal. But this was quite the boating excursion. Later we wished we'd taken a look at what time the cruise ship departed so we could know how long it took.

We laughed so hard at so many things, both genuinely funny and some really dumb stuff. I think maybe we need more sleep. And we only had one near mishap when someone, I think Malcolm, leaned too far over the side. And I'm not convinced he didn't do it on purpose. As luck would have it though, the guilty party is the one who got the wettest when the water sloshed into the boat.

In the end, when we made it back to port, we hadn't taken on too much water, even though we were WELL over the boats weight limit.

There were two more brief voyages made for photographic documentation. One of the proud boat owner and her ships captain.

And then another embarking for a picture of me and my man on a romantic boating excursion, with the sun glaring in our eyes.

Another return to port and another near mishap, as the dock crew decided it would be a good idea to haul the whole craft ashore before the passengers had finished gathering their luggage and departing.

it looks like I'm trying to shove Malcolm forward, but actually I was just using him for balance as I was half way standing when the boat suddenly surged forward onto land

Malcolm's baby sister just got engaged and is wanting to have a beach wedding somewhere. We decided that we could probably get there in time if we start rowing tomorrow. I don't know how my internet signal will be once we get to the big water so I may not be blogging for a while. On second thought, I think any spare inch of space in the boat better be used for hauling food supplies and drinking water, so probably no room for the laptop. If we don't reach land by February, send out search and rescue!