Haha. You know what they say about boats. I own 1/2 of one. It sits not entirely seaworthy in my mate's driveway. It's only a 14 footer, and we aren't competent enough to try to take it anywhere too adventurous. (We know guys who take that size boat out into the ocean and we both think they're knucking futs.) We have had it out in Otago Harbour, and in some of the glacial lakes of the south island. The main intention was to get to some fishing spots that are inaccessible by land and to do some lake trolling. But we're both so busy with work and hockey that the upkeep of the boat gets put off. And we are both keenly aware that unless everything is in optimal working order, too dangerous to take her out.
Weather and conditions change rapidly here, and the places we would typically go are not within cell coverage, so pretty much on your own out there, with a GPS beacon helpful in ensuring only that your body gets recovered.
We had an electrical issue a while back while out in the local harbour. Unexpected wind kicked up some waves and the bilge pump wasn't functioning with the electrical failure. Couldn't run the main, with the electrical failure, and really struggled to get the pull start back-up going. We were getting blown to nowhere very quickly with waves coming over. We were within mobile coverage, and I was a few minutes away from calling the Coast Guard. Got the back up started and fought the wind like crazy to get back in. We didn't die, and I don't think we were even that close to that, but it shook us both up that without having time to keep it in top shape, we don't care to accumulate any more interesting stories.
