We got ourselves a sail BO-AT

BO-AT (Pronounced: Bow-At) or Buoyancy Operated Aquatic Transport created by Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineous and Ferbs cartoon


Brent and I have been looking at sailboats for quite some time.  When Brent was in boy scouts he learned how to sail and I thought it sounded like some sort of fun adventure.  We have looked at a few different sailboats throughout the spring, but we could not find anything in our price range that wasn't too much of a project boat until just recently.  


About 3 weeks ago I was randomly checking out craigslist and we found a great looking 14 foot C-lark for only $700.  We checked it out and it was in pretty decent condition.  We thought about it and we decided to  go ahead and get it. My awesome husband even barter down to $600, I am way too scared to do stuff like that unfortunately.  


We had a heck of a time trying to get the boat register because the people we bought it from didn't register it, they only had the title and a bill of sale. If anyone has ever been to the DMV, you know what a wonderful experience that can be- NOT! Brent spent a few days there and after a few phone calls we got everything sorted out.  That is when we decided we could start fixing up our little sailboat.  It honestly didn't look too bad for being built in 1967, but why settle for mediocre right?   

It had been a while since I had seen or heard from Brent, so I come to check on him and this is what I see....My sweet boy sleeping.

This is the view from our balcony

Notice the sweet blue color

Here is the boat as we got it.  Can you tell that I have been replaced? 


After about two weeks of bad weather and a lot of TLC our boat was ready to be sailed. I can't really take a picture with the sales up because I am in the boat when that happens.  Considering the fact that we are beginners, there will be no electronics coming on our boat any time soon.

The boat in our garage while the paint is drying

Testing out the sail

We were trying to avoid the red boat being the same color as Brent's truck, but I don't think we won.

I think the red is a bit better than the blue, wouldn't you agree?

Ready to go in the water!!!

We had to make multiple attempts at launching before we finally succeeded.  We decided to stop working on the boat (we still had to sand and paint the floor) so we could take it out for a test run.  Last Saturday was the designated day.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, but it could not have been less cooperative for sailing!!  It has been breezy all spring, but of course, the day we want to go out there was absolutely no wind. We waited around out near lake Lowell all afternoon and evening and there was never any wind.  I wanted to cry because it was such a beautiful day and we were not on the water.

Come Monday we were determined to try again.  Right after work we headed out again.  This time it was really windy- I think it was 29mph.  We were so determined to go we didn't really look into the weather.  Before we get in the water we had to set up the mast, but the wind was too strong so we could not get it set up.  Talk about two disappointments in a row!! (I learned I had to stop telling people at work we were going sailing because everyone kept asking about it lol).

Tuesday was looking much better for us.  I was able to sneak away from work an hour early and we headed  back out to Lake Lowell and this time we were successful. The managed to get the boat in the water and it didn't sink.  

Talk about the scariest thing of my life...well...tied with climbing a multi-pitch wall in city of Rocks. I have some massive anxiety issues and some activities I choose to do in my life do not help my anxiety.  We did not go too fast, and we did not tip over, but considering I didn't really know what I was doing, and I was steering us, it was a little stressful.  After talking with Brent afterwords I think that it is so stressful because we are not in control of what is going on. There is no way to slam on the brakes.  You can't really change your mind if you don't like what you are doing. I can swim and we had life jackets so I wasn't worried about tipping, so I am not sure what my issue was.  There are things that we can do to lessen our speed and other things, but it is not an instantaneous change. Thankfully we were only out for 60-90 minutes, but that was definitely enough for me. I am excited to go again...or at least I tell myself that...so I can hopefully overcome some of my new found anxieties.