Back at long last....

You know you've had a hectic weekend at the cottage when you have one, single, lonely photo to attest to the fact that you were even there. At least it's a good one!

I can't believe the May 2-4 weekend was our very first chance to go open up the cottage for the season. What a crazy weather year with all the flooding. You can see in the graph below where the normal peak occurred and then it suddenly surged even higher before dropping. There was no damage for us (the lake can absorb quite a bit of water), but it meant the marina docks were all under water longer than expected.

We were neck-deep in dance competitions anyway, so it's probably just as well we couldn't get to the cottage. I get very bitter when I have to sit in a dark, loud theatre all day when I know the sun and the cottage are sitting there waiting for me.

Since we had some extra time before the boat needed to go into the water, the captain sent it off to a nearby marina to get a tune-up for the boat motor. It's old, and it's been limping since the day we bought it, and lately has been stalling at low idle (does "lemon" have one M or two?). We were shocked to learn from the marina-man that it's only running on two cylinders (again), and it's also suffering from some nasty irreparable scoring. Ugh.

We've instructed him to reassemble the motor as is, and are hoping we can limp through some of this summer on the faulty motor. This is definitely going to be its last season, however. Operation "Quick Buy A Boat!" is in full swing. Hopefully the money tree we planted will mature in time.

In the meantime we are fully dependent upon Handy Dad for transportation to and from the cottage. (Drawback to having an island cottage: when you have no boat, you have no cottage!)

We do have the option of hiring a water taxi to ferry us over, but we're keeping that in our pocket for plan B.

We're trying to decide what to get this time. We seem to have contrary boat requirements: I need a stable people/stuff transporter from the marina to the island (pontoon?). The captain wants a zippy, powerful water-toy he can use for water-skiing (ski boat). Those are very different boats. Hopefully we'll have time to research and make the right decision.

Please, That Damned Boat try to last the summer?