May 6, 2000
I attempted to finish up the boat on Friday, but I discovered some paint that was all bubbled up and cracking so I chipped that off and cleaned it up, sanded, and painted. By 10:00 the next morning it was no longer tacky. So much for an early start. Tina went to a meeting that started at 10, leaving me to finish. My truck is not working still, so I rented a truck on Friday. Unfortunately, my truck was blocking the boat trailer. I finished stowing everything on board, then replaced a second fuel sender. Everything being fairly ship shape, and Tina arriving home, I had her help me use the rental truck to move my truck. I hitched up the boat, and started pulling. Things were going pretty well, and I was taking it slow and easy... too slow. The trailer sank in the lawn, and got stuck. After concerted efforts at pulling it out, digging it out, jacking it, kicking it... my neighbor pulled his truck around, chained it to mine, and together we pulled it free.
Being roughly 2:00 now, we decided to stop and get sandwiches on the way. We called Brad, who was waiting for us at the boat launch, and got directions. I wanted to use the launch I saw on Mercer Island under I-90, but couldn't find it on any maps. I got directions, and we hit I-90. In about 15 minutes we were there. A nice little boat launch owned by the City of Mercer Island, the launch is free, but parking at the launch is $5.00. It does seem to be fairly busy, and there is only 1 side of the launch that has a dock, but the people were very friendly, and everybody worked together to help each other load and unload. We launched our boat, and I took the truck up to the parking lot. I gathered up some things that were in the truck, and went down to the dock. I started handing the things to Tina and told her to start taking things from the top. The thing on the very top was the truck keys. Right below that was Joey's root beer. She grabbed the root beer. I thought I could hang on so I didn't stop her. I couldn't and the keys went into the lake. I went swimming, while Brad held the boat away from the dock so I wouldn't get squished. I came up with the keys on my second attempt.
We cruised south, around the end of Mercer Island, and back up the west side. Checking out the houses along the way, Brad asked, "Where is Bill Gate's house?" So I took us around the Island, and up the east shore of Lake Washington and showed them his spread. It's huge, and looks more like a small community than one home. We went over to Montlake, past the log boom. The boats all lined up there, as if for an inspection. Boats were weaving this way and that in the cut, trying to stay in the channel, while avoiding the police boat, who was checking for life jackets and such, avoiding people who had their anchor set in the middle of the channel and were cranking it in, pulling there boat into the middle of the traffic area, and avoiding those people who were either drunk or just stupid and didn't know how to keep out of oncoming traffic. And the kayakers were paddling through it all, enjoying the sunshine. We went to Hooters for dinner. Yes, It doesn't bother me in the least taking my six year old son to Hooters. Besides that, he gets free food there. There is supposed to be free mooring for the restaurants at the south end of Lake Union, but don't plan on it. The moorage is not very plentiful, and the winds there at dinnertime seem to be rather strong. None of the moorage is sheltered, so throw on an extra fender. I grabbed a spot against the fence, and we climbed over. Dinner was good, and although we forgot the checkbook in the cab of the truck. Luckily I had grabbed my Master Card.
The boat launch has a sign that says it's closed at 10:30 pm, so at just after 8:00 pm we left the restaurant. The sunset was quite nice on the way back to the launch, and we all enjoyed a pleasant cruise back. Getting the boat out of the water was easy, but getting it centered on the trailer was a bit of a pain. The runners are wood, and they floated out of their positions a few times. The trailer wasn't level, and it took several tries to figure out why the boat wouldn't sit centered over the centerboard. Finally we got it on, and it was perfect. We said our goodbye's to Brad, and off to home.
As a footnote, for anyone trying to find the boat launch on Mercer Island, it's the first left off East Mercer Way from the edge of I-90 heading south. One ramp. If you can drive your boat onto your trailer, try and take the outboard side of the launch out of courtesy (it's also more level than the inboard side). Parking is $5.00 and on this very busy opening day, there was plenty of parking. This is where the police moor also and they don't have to stray far to write tickets to those who don't obey the no wake speed limit within 100 yards of the bridge supports.