Not Again...

State of the boat

There's a lot of scraping and painting to do...
... so get back to work, Josh.


It's day 8 of cleaning the boat/setting it up for sale. We're almost done, I think. The boat may be hauled out today (as long as the guy doesn't ask if we're insured), and I think we can leave on Friday. It's a ton of work, but the boat's starting to look shipshape. At the end of each day of scrubbing, sanding and painting we treat ourselves to dinner at the bar.

Two days ago, we left for dinner at high tide, forcing us under a bridge only about 2 feet high in our dinghy. We all huddled in the bottom as we passed under, but forgot about the dinghy light on the stern. The dinghy light cracked and broke off, and the outboard engine slammed into the bridge. Oops.

As we came back from the bar hours later, it was dark out and we passed the police station. The cops dutifully spotted us criminals with our lightless dinghy and pulled us over. They didn't seem to be too interested in our explanation, refusing to allow us back to our boat. Luckily, a very large US Coast Guard boat was nearby, and they offered to escort us back to Kaleidoscope after awhile. So, with sirens flashing, the Coast Guard escorted us the 200 yards across the well-lit waterway.

I was hoping it would end there, but instead the Coast Guard sped ahead and met us at Kaleidoscope. They boarded the boat and searched it. I mean, really searched it. For maybe 40 minutes, two officers looked in every nook and cranny while another one questioned us. They sniffed our pancake mix, they emptied out all our dominos, they checked the holding tank, they tore up the place. Eventually, they found where we had been hiding a kilo of cocaine. Just kidding, they found nothing, of course, and eventually left disappointed.