#BoatProblems

It was so beautiful out today.

I kickstarted the gorgeous day by sleeping in until 11am. I have no clue how that happened, but I woke up to Rob nudging my foot at the end of the bed, with a plateful of breakfast in hand.

on the water! :) 

Yeah that's right, my man made me breakfast in bed.
I know for a fact that I don't deserve this guy. He is seriously.. the best.

It was a split decision after that to head to the water, but that's about how it happens half the time anyway. We loaded up and took off in the direction of Ripley, to meet up with Reuben and his two boys for the day.

Ripley is well past the passages of water that freak us all out here in the good old Ohio River. It's a bit of a haul out there, but as always, once you get in the water, the commute melts away and it all becomes worth it!

Jessica decided to join the fun, so she took off to meet us, while we rendezvoused for a bit with Reuben. Soon enough, we took the short cruise back to our drop in to load Jessica, and then it was back up river to the sandbar!

I don't give enough credit to the guy who brought us out here, and for all the work he does before and after these trips, along with everything else he does that we don't recognize him for as often as we should..

love this crazy fool ♥  

Reuben and his boys visit this area frequently, so they're familiar with the layout. The boys took Jessica and I to the other side of the sandbar, where there was a rope swing that swooped out over the bank and into the river. Interested? Well, DUH..

weeee! 

jessica taking a go at it, too 

We eventually trekked back through the brush of the sandbar to the bank where Rob and Reuben were in no rush to wind down. The lot of us hung out a little while longer, until the sun began to phase into that golden, pre-setting shade. Reuben and his sons took off, and we weren't far behind. It was a cruise back to where we'd started, so Jessica and I took turns to give Rob a bit of a break.

girls will be girls.. 

All was going just fine until a small sputter interrupted the otherwise smooth ride, and then a bigger sputter. Rob took over at that point, but with no luck of righting the noises. In an instant, the power stopped all together, and we were left afloat with no engine turnover in the middle of the river.

That is not where you want to be.
There was a lot of barge activity today, and my initial fear was that we'd wind up in the path of a load and be unable to move. After much effort, time and fruitless brainstorming on our end, we managed to flag down a couple on a jetski, who were kind enough to assist us with some fuel..

thank. you!!

As it turned out, the kid working the pump at the dock didn't put the gas cap back on correctly when we fueled up. It was an error that we should've caught, but noticed it only after it was too late - the point after which I'm sure gas had been coming out and water had been going in - the gas tank [aka, not.... good.. at all...].

The fueling didn't work, but our second saving grace was a family on a houseboat that ended up tying off with us and towing us in to the dock. Rob hopped off to go and get his truck, while Jess and I held down the fort. I must say we did a good job.. haha

 and jessica with the dismount! haha

Okay, so here's the deal - it's been a LONG day, and Rob is officially very much through with all of tonight's debacle. I would expect the next few days to hold some long hours of tinkering, but I have zero doubt that he'll have it diagnosed, fixed and reassembled before the middle of the week. That's just how he rolls...

Womp womp. That's the life of having big toys like boats, bikes and trucks... *sigh.

We'll deal with this later. For now, this is how we'll go ahead and remember today - from the fun side..

G'Nite...

xo | cmd