A couple weeks ago I was looking at one of my favorite sites called Cool Tools and saw a posting for a portable folding boat that can be transported around on the top of your car. Intrigued, I followed the link to Porta-Bote.

It's got a funny name, but it sure looked like a good little boat. It folds up to about 4 inches thick and only weighs about 60 pounds! It can be folded and unfolded in about 10 minutes and the 12'6" model can hold 600 pounds of people and gear. I quickly filled in the online form to have more information sent to my home.

A couple days later a little information packet landed in my mailbox. The packet included most of the info you could get off the site with one notable exception- prices! And by golly this little portable boat was pretty affordable.

Excited, I showed my wife.

Me: Look honey, it's a boat! It's portable and affordable!

Wife: Uh huh.

Me: We could use it to go scuba diving whenever we wanted! We could drive it around Big Bear Lake in the summers and watch sunsets!

Wife: Huh? Where are we going to put a boat?

Me: It can go on top of the car! It's affordable and ummmmmmm, foldable.

Wife: Foldable? (shakes head and continues cooking dinner)

I guess I was expecting a somewhat similar reaction. The males in my family have a long record of wacky escapades, especially involving water. When I was about 5 or 6 my Dad had a boat we aptly nicknamed Calamity Jane. Calamity Jane had a bad habit of creating calamities, and the engine wouldn't start sometimes. We took it fishing in Grand River in Grand Rapids, MI trying to catch salmon as they were jumping up the falls. The gameplan was to troll toward the falls and then turn against the current before we went over the falls and troll back in circles.

Except the engine quit, and we went into a slow-motion death spin.

Towards the falls.

I remember my brother and I getting ready to jump overboard and my Dad frantically pulling on the little engine chord. There was a group of fishermen in waders below the falls watching as my older brother of 2 years and I got ready to abandon ship. We were going to put as much distance between us and that boat as possible. The fishermen were starting to form a human chain across the river to catch any survivors.

At what seemed the last possible second, Calamity Jane coughed to life and zipped us away from the danger.

Calamity averted!

Until we got home and my Mom heard all about it.

My poor father calmly explained that since we could swim we weren't really in too much danger. And to prove his point he got us up early one morning, got us dressed and then tossed us into the deep-end of the local neighborhood pool. My brother floated and I sank like a stone. So my Dad went out and bought a bigger _safer_ boat.

So you can excuse my wife if she was a little skeptical of my plans.

Undeterred, I pointed out that the Porta-Bote sales people would be representing their product at the Long Beach Boat Show in a week. She agreed to drive down with me and check it out.

After a very informative sales pitch by the Porta-Bote guy, and a couple drinks at dinner, my wife reluctantly agreed that the Porta-Bote did in fact look seaworthy. I quickly ran back inside the boat show and handed over my credit card. We are now the proud owners of a 12'6" white Porta-Bote with a 6HP outboard motor. Woohoo!

I can't wait till it comes in the mail!

We live in Redondo Beach, CA so we can take it to the local public boat launch at King's Harbour. Great diving is just a little ways down the coast in Palos Verdes.

And when my Dad comes to visit I can take _him_ fishing!

Cool Tools
Porta-Bote