A Summer of Boats

Where to start with this summer? I don’t know (or remember) where the beginning was, so somewhere in the middle will have to do I guess.

“You can’t remember when you’re summer started?” you may be asking.

That’s correct.

So much happened and I was so busy that the whole thing is one giant blur…

Working at the marina is like no other job I’ve ever had. So much happens day-to-day and each one is so insanely different from the one before. Sure there’s the normal tasks to accomplish and the general guideline for the day, but then there’s people. I’ve met so many people, and they’re just so unpredictable and unique that you never know what to expect. Boat people especially are a different breed.

It’s those interactions that leave impressions and impressions turn into stories and those stories become memories and that is the way I remember summer happening.

When I first started at the marina in July of 2020, I had never driven a boat in my life. In fact I’d only been on a motorized boat a handful of times with my grandparents in Minnesota. I was never allowed to drive the boat because a) I didn’t ever ask, b) I was very young, and c) most of the lakes we were fishing in were full of underwater timber that required some experience to navigate. My hometown was on the banks of a river and my family and I spent a lot of time on the water. However, that only lent itself to drift boating, rafting, kayaking, and paddle boarding (yes, we did paddle board down the river, it makes lakes so much easier in comparison). Needless to say, my boating experience was limited.

That first year I learned how to operate a motor boat and maneuver it into a slip. I wasn’t great at it, but I was better than most of the boys and took any opportunity to practice. It wasn’t until I had A LOT of time to practice this summer that I became pretty much a professional (that’s a joke, I’m good, but I still have a ton of stuff to learn).

Coming back to driving boats after nearly six months of not even being around boats was interesting. It was like I knew how to do everything but didn’t remember anything. It didn’t take long for everything to come back to me though and then I was driving boats like a pro once again.

Now that you have a bit of an idea of my boating experience (that is, it’s limited), I will tell you about all the crazy experiences I had this summer at the helm of a boat.

I forgot to mention that the marina store is also a boat rental place. Driving the rental boats in and out of slips is where the majority, if not all, of my boat driving skills were derived. I taught the majority of the new hires how to dock and park boats at the beginning of the season. I’m not going to tell stories about the rentals. There are many of them, but they mostly involve broken stuff and me getting yelled at for not being able to control the weather.

Now for the boat stories.

One of my proudest moments came in September. The International Antique and Classic Boat Show (ACBS) came to town. Through some miscommunication and crossed wires we found that there were some boats that needed moving, literally the day of boat show. I either semi-volunteered or it was assumed I could or something. Anyhow, these boats needed moved that day as ASAP as possible. It was a dark stormy day. The wind was blowing at a steady 15mph with gusts of 20mph. Now, driving boats in the wind is bad if you’re familiar with the boat you’re driving. It’s even worse if you’re stepping into a boat you’ve never driven before. That’s what I did. I moved six boats that day. It took me hours, because I had to walk all the way around the dock, get in the boat, drive it all the way to the other side of the marina, and then maneuver it into a slip with a nasty cross wind blowing me every way I didn’t want to go.

The video gives a bit of an idea how windy and nasty it was that day. That was probably the most stressful thing I have ever had to do, and a lot of the credit goes to my coworkers who kept the boat from running into the dock while I was doing my best to get it into a slip.

You’re probably wondering if, out of all those boats I drove, I had a favorite. Yes, I did. It was the first one I had to move.

Power’s Point, was the first boat I moved of the day. It launched my crazy confidence boost that I could 100,000% move all of these boats that I had to, because this should have been the hardest. Power’s Point is a real working tug boat. They’re incredibly powerful boats used to move things around by water. I was very nervous about moving it. To start with I had to back it out of the slip and then turn it slightly and drive it back to an adjacent slip and come to the dock on starboard side of the boat (or the right-hand side). Tug boats have very little steering and the wind was trying to send me careening away from my goal. Then, amazingly, I docked it perfectly! One of my captain friends was there helping me and he was impressed with how well I managed it (thankfully he did not have to witness the next 5 boats, because they did not go nearly as smoothly). He told me that he really thought I should become a captain. Pumped up on adrenaline and having the best day ever, I completely agreed with him.

That day was amazing! Stressful, but amazing, and it really showed me that I could pretty much do anything.

FYI I’m telling the story of my summer backwards.

Another of my life changing boating experiences happened on the greatest boat of all time. At least that’s how I think of it. I try not to be in love with things because that’s shallow and worldly, but there is something about this boat. It takes my breath away every time I see it. It’s by far one of the most impressive boats to ever sail on lake Coeur d’Alene (I am fully aware of my lack of culture only experiencing the boats in Coeur d’Alene). However, it will take another truly spectacular boat to rival this one. It’s called Sizzler and is massive and blue and absolutely stunning. Stunning!

The best part is, that one special night I got the privilege of driving it. Not for too long, but long enough for me to become even more obsessed with her.

The boat is massive, weighing 21 tons, and yet turns on a dime and simply flies through the water with the wind in her sails.

Yeah, I’m a little obsessed with Sizzler. I could go on for paragraph after paragraph, but there’s other stuff to write about. For now just look at my smile and know this boat is something else.

I mentioned earlier that I thought I wanted to be a captain after flawlessly driving one boat one time. I even wrote a whole story about how I almost had a captaining experience. That being the case, I would love to get my captain’s license even though I feel like I’m diving into the deep end of a pool without really knowing how to swim. In my mind I think I’m basically a boating expert, but I’m smart enough to know I’ve barely scratched the surface and there is infinitely more I need to learn.

Luckily, I’ve met some wonderful people who are already captains and know the journey to get where I want to go. First I need to figure out exactly where it is I want to go. Until then, I still have a great job waiting for me next summer where I’ll undoubtedly learn even more.

Here’s to my next adventure!