Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Up Status

The Barco is UP!

Got a message that all systems are 4.0 and that a test run of the generator was made for one hour with no leaks noted.

Yay!

The rain has stopped for the moment, also.

I drove to St Mary's, Georgia, endured very bad conditions and looked at a 1968 MFG



Has a decent motor, 65hp Mercury, nice trailer and seems like it is in good shape. I hope things work out, but it would need a new paint job and windshield in the near future. Just to make it look like new. One must keep up appearances, mustn't one.

I made an offer, but it was less than the Gent was wanting, so he asked to have a day or so to consider.

Fine. No rush, I don't even have a tow hitch on the GMC.

Check out this ad:



Too bad we can't get hot babes with these boats. The advertisements always make it look like it is very glamorous to own their boats. (I know... the models depicted as attractive and fun loving are all grand mothers and not so fun looking nowadays.)

Leave us the dream of boating with hot babes, ok?

I see those old boating advertisements and it makes me wish to have been there to see it all for my self. One way to bring one's self to reality is to consider this little detail; In 1968 they did not keep good statistics for boating fatalities. I would presume at least double our rate of 670. In fact, in 1970, there were about 1418 boating fatalities. Probably more, but unreported.

What I am trying to say is that cigarette smoking guys, carelessly refueling their gasoline powered boats while hammered out of their gourds on Kessler, were probably running a higher body count than the government even considered.

I won't even go into the over 52K who passed in automobile accidents.

Ok, another digression. Sorry.

The great news is that boating is safer than ever, despite the fact that there are at least three times the boats registered today, vice back in the fabulous 60's.

I still want to be boating in those happy times, back when killing Communists was not only legal, but encouraged.

Ahh, something else I failed to consider; Today's motors are fuel injected, run cleaner and are safer. They also tend to get the boating enthusiast's to their destinations and back home again.

I'm going to get me an old boat and go away and have fun with my fantasies.

5 comments:

LL said...

I had two powerboats at one time a couple years ago and started referring to myself (around the house) as a commodore. I got not one whit more respect, but it's as near as I'll ever get to "flag rank".

Barco Sin Vela II said...

LL; "I had two powerboats at one time a couple years ago and started referring to myself (around the house) as a commodore."

Heh. Up until a couple months ago, we had a Trawler, San Juan 28 Sailboat and a Hobie 18 Catamaran. Sold the San Juan, and the Hobie is about to go away in the next week or two.

I like to think of myself as a "Commode Admiral". That's what COMO is, right?

Buck said...

I dunno about boating in the '60s, but other things were MOST certainly fun and memorable. It was a great time to be young, stupid, and free... but I repeat myself.

Alison said...

Ha ha... you can't even buy Kessler up here! I used to drink it years and years ago... probably a good thing I can't find it here! When I was a kid my Dad had an old tub of a boat... wooden, probably built in the 50's... he loved that darn boat. We spent almost every weekend we could with him, floating around the various parts hereabouts, looking for striper. When we weren't asea, we were scraping barnacles or painting the dang thing. When he got sick he had to sell the boat because of the lack of funds to keep it afloat. I'm sure it broke his heart....

Barco Sin Vela II said...

Fire Fox; That Kessler was NOT Smooth as Silk. In fact, I found Early Times had a smoother texture, so it bacame the hooch of choice, back in the bad ole days.

You are very lucky to have had some great boating memories with your family!