A New Beginning
I wrote the last chapter of this story in April 2003. Today is January 2005.
Since April the boat has just been sitting in the storage yard, at $42.50 each
month. I wanted to get back to it, but there was always something to do first.
We had a couple hurricanes last year, but the boat weathered them okay. I
did stop by to check on it.
Eventually I realized I would have to get rid of it, but I couldn't even find
time to do that. It was a pain just getting to the storage yard to give them
money. Finally I fell a few months behind, and got a call from the storage
yard asking where their money was. At that point I knew I had to do something.
I went back to the Banderlog board, where I had gotten so much help in the
project's early days, and I posted a message saying, in effect, "south
Florida jet boat, cheap". Right away I got a response from a guy in Jupiter
(the town, not the planet). Geo was already running a 16' jet boat, and needed
something bigger. He wanted to come see the boat the next day. That sounded
good to me.
The next day I went by the storage yard and paid them their money for the last
few months. Ouch. Geo showed up and we checked out the boat. It didn't
look that bad. The engine wasn't rusted, and the steering and throttle still
worked. Geo liked it, so we made the deal. I had a new impeller, so he
bought that from me, and I threw in the boat. He would have taken it home
right then, if it hadn't had four flat tires. Instead we went back to my house
and I handed over the title and the bowl to the jet pump. And I got the cash.
I don't have any regrets about selling. Sure, I could have made a few bucks
more by parting it out, but that would have meant fixing the tires and
dragging it home and having it sit in my driveway while I pulled the engine and
drive and any(?) other salvageable parts. And then selling the parts. Or I
could have tried selling it as a whole boat. But jet boats aren't too common
here in south Florida. And this way the boat may actually run. Geo just
happens to be a marine mechanic, and he told me he was planning on getting
the boat running and in the water. So there's a good chance that it will run
again. I should have made him promise to give me a ride.
The End