Jul 29 - and now we are 14

Yeah.  Hail, hail, the gang's all here.  I've got to get a family picture while the getting's good !

Stef arrived around 1pm; Kylie and Chris got here around 9pm, making amazing time, in my way of thinking, from Hamilton to here on the Friday of a long weekend.

Earlier in the day David and Vanda helped me get the Merc 25 onto the 4-wheeler trailer and then we fiddled with the push/pull cable. Back and forth and back and forth, we worked out the slack but still left about 1/2" before it would fit onto the cam.  Trying something else, I unscrewed the cam, wrapped the cable around it and then pushed the cam into place while David reattached it.  Success !

Now for the electrical.  It looked complicated but the bottom line was only four wires coming out of the tiller that had to match up with four wires in the remote harness.  Using my tester, I figured out which four were the starter and which the kill switch, then it was a simple matter to attach those to logical places inside, replacing the remote harness.  In the meantime, I'd brought up the battery from the workroom, finding that it had enough juice to turn it over, barely.  Ok, that doesn't matter, I figured that I could use the starter position on the battery charger to supplement.

More help from David and Vanda, we brought the motor, mounted on the trailer, down to the vicinity of the boathouse and using the muffs, mixing some gas, attaching the aforementioned battery charger, we turned it over and voila !  It started right up !  I'm amazed !  I'd already checked that it would change gears at the appropriate places -- this is the "do all" tiller with neutral in the center, then rotating the grip one way it goes into reverse, the other way into forward.

So ... let's get the little boat into the water, back the trailer with motor into the cove, move the motor to the boat ... let's see how it works, for real.

Well, ahem, does it go !  David and I went out, then me by myself, then Gavin and David -- Gavin was the only one who had the nerve to crank it right up.  With one person in the boat it's crazy; less crazy with two.  Gavin's comment was that he always wanted to see what an overpowered boat would be like, or something like that.

There are a couple of problems, one easily fixed, the other not.  I had to play around with gas lines as there's leakage at the tank, better now but still leakage.  It's not completely sealing, sucking in some air which then causes problems, obviously.  The other issue is that the boat leaks.  It's been sitting out of the water for a couple years and undoubtedly the plywood has dried out.  That might be self correcting if it sits in the water for a while, as long as it's not sitting on the bottom of the lake.  I pulled it onto the boathouse trolley for the night.  I should probably have simply pulled it onto the beach so that it would stay in the water.

Ultimately though, I want a boat for the motor that is appropriate.  I'm looking for a used aluminum although one of the inflatable zodiacs would be neat.  Research is needed !  Stopped, one person sitting at the back, this boat could easily sink ... definitely too much weight in one place.  Perhaps I should put a hundred pounds of sand in the front ?  Just kidding ...

Anyway, in spite of the advice from one person that setting this up "isn't a job for a backyard mechanic" ... it's going.  My little project has come to fruition.  Now I just have to make sure that the boat and motor don't end up on the bottom of the lake !

As I said, Stef had arrived.  She brought her SUP board and had a workout; Aaron went out later, to the lodge and back and did some turning practice out there.  They are both taking classes; Aaron approaches this as a full body workout and at this point is actually using it more than his bike, believe it or not.  It's not something that really appeals to me, although we're ideally situated for it, north and south.

I took David for a good long ski; the girls (Lauren and Emma) on the ski biscuit. 

Supper was soon underway; pork loins, sauteed zucchini and starch ... trying to remember ... whatever.  They finished up the ice cream; I'll have to pick some more up in town when I go to Mass today.

Then, of course, Kylie and Chris arrived and the place was hopping.  It didn't take long for them to be playing the "frozen" game in the living room.   I retired soon afterwards ...

Another day is underway.  7:40 a.m. -- Jeffrey & Matthew are up, Stef, Kylie and Chris.  The dogs have been good, mostly ignoring each other but started bouncing a minute ago so I put Cassie out.

It looks like another beautiful day in paradise ...

Onward !