I finally got my new porta-bote out for her maiden voyage. About three weeks ago I came home and the brand new Nissan 6HP engine had arrived. Since the wife and daughter were out of town, I dragged the box into the kitchen and went to work opening up the packaging. It didn't take me long to have it out and mounted in the garage. The next day I went to a marine store and got a rope, anchor, motor oil and some good advice. One of the best pieces of advice was to get a portable VHF radio. Eventually I would like to take the boat out to Palos Verdes and do some scuba diving from it. It would be really smart to have a radio that I can use to contact the coast guard in case anything goes wrong. I wonder if ebay has any good ones for sale?

At long last, the bote arrived about two weeks ago on a Friday. I got home from playing volleyball and iset to work opening it up in the front yard. I was able to set it up in under an hour despite the darkness and the Acme Ales I was drinking. I was stoked!

The bote is a little bigger than I thought it was going to be. It was also a little stiffer unfolding than I thought it was going to be (although it is supposed to loosen with use).

Originally I had wanted to bring her out to King's harbour in Redondo, but I couldn't find the time to carve out the five hours I figured I would need. And the facilities in Redondo looked a little more intimidating than I had originally thought they would be. We were planning on going to the cabin in Big Bear for the weekend so I decided to test out the porta-botes portability and drive it up there.

The week was spent driving from one store to another buying a cocktail of straps, cam straps, tie downs, ratchet straps, etc looking for the right ingredients to keep the bote safely on the car at 60mph. I had two cam straps that I criss-crossed the bote with and attached to the luggage racks. They worked really well, but I still needed something to keep the nose from rising. I bought some ratchet straps but unfortunately they were not long enough. So I ended up back at Target Fri night looking for longer ones. Alas, they were sold out. I had to settle for a really long rope. After about 30 minutes in the parking lot, 300 feet of rope, 20 odd knots and one curious lady who asked "I just have to know what in the world are you tieing to your car?", (A folded up boat, duh!) I felt I had her tied down.

She survived the ride admirably and we drove comfortably at 60mph.

On saturday morning me, my wife Orla, our 18 month old daughter and the dog drove down to the lake and began our pre-launch preparations. Even with all the distractions we were able to get me launched within an hour. I rowed a little way from shore and started up the engine without any troubles.

The plan was for me to troll up the lake for two hours and meet the rest of the family at a lakeside restaurant for lunch and then continue the boating activities.

I was very impressed by how the bote performed. It rides higher than I thought she would and is very stable. It was a pretty windy day and it handled all the chop and boat wakes without a problem. It bounced around enough to make it fun but never in a jarring hang-on kind of way. I am still breaking in the engine, so was only able to get it up to half speed, but even then I could feel a nice response.

After fighting through the wind and chop, I was able to find the restaurant and did figure eights for a few minutes until the family arrived. My daughter saw me on the lake and yelled "Daddy Boat!" I was stoked!

After lunch it was decided that Orla and I would go out in the bote and her mother and aunt would watch the baby for a little bit while we drove it around. I was so excited to get my wife in the bote and show it off. And after the two hours of 1/2 speed I was allowed to bring the engine all the way up to 3/4 speed for a one minute run every ten minutes. I told Orla "You're going to love it, it's tons of fun and we'll get to go kinda fast for a little bit!" So we climbed into the bote, untied and drifted away from the dock. I pumped the fuel line bulb, made sure the engine was in neutral, pulled the choke all the way out, attached the emergency stop cord and pulled on the starter cord.

And pulled.
And pulled.
And pulled.

Nothing. What could I be doing wrong? How could this be happening to me? I pulled the choke in, I pulled the choke out, I pumped the primer bulb, I re-attached the gas line, I gave it half throttle, I gave it low throttle. Nothing, nothing, nothing! I couldn't believe it. From what seemed like another planet I could hear my mother-in-law say to my daughter "Look, there's your mummy and daddy in the boat!" And my daughter yelling "Muuuuuuuummmmmmyyyyy!"

After about ten minutes of fiddling. I hung my head, defeated. Orla rowed us back to the dock.

We all climbed into the car and I drove everyone back to the cabin and dropped them off. I went back to the dock and tried the engine again. Perhaps, (not so)surprisingly, the engine

didn't start.

Luckily there is a muddy beach right next to the restaurant and I was able to row the boat over and disembark. I sure was upset that I couldn't get that stupid engine to start, but I was very surprised at how easy it was for me to break the bote down and tie it to the car. By myself, I had everything packed up and strapped to the car within 15 minutes.

That night I got a little bit drunk and ended up singing karaoke country music at one of the local bars.

The next day I took the engine to a local marine store and asked for help. The guy was decidedly un-helpful but he figured I probably flooded the thing with gas and recommended I mount it in a bucket of water and try again.

I drove back to the cabin and looked around. My wife had gone to drop her mother and aunt off at church so I had about ten minutes. The only thing I could find to mount the engine on was the wooden bench on the front porch. And there was a big plastic bin full of Christmas decorations I could fill with water. Orla pulled up right after I got the gas tank attached. She just shook her head and carried our daughter into the house. I'm not sure if she was embarrased that I had mounted an engine onto our front porch, or scared. Probably a little bit of both.

I went over my start-up checklist and pulled the cord. Nothing. Actually, a little bit, then nothing. Orla said, "Honey, it must be broken. Just put it back into the car and you can take it to a dealer when you get down the mountain. Don't let it ruin your day." Good advice, actually.

Then I fiddled and pulled one more time. Cough, cough, vrooooom, smoke, cough cough vrooooom!

Woohoo! Halleluiah! I'm a believer!

It turns out the choke is a little trickier than I thought. If it's all the way out it doesn't work as well as if it's tapped in just a little bit. I stopped it and started it a few times to get the feel of it. Then I let it idle on the front porch for an hour before the baby woke up from her nap and I had to turn it off.

I sure am glad I got it started again though! The drive back down the mountain was uneventful and Orla and I were able to unload everything into the garage in five minutes. The porta-bote is definetly portable!

This weekend? I think we will take on the Pacific and try putting in at King's harbour.

Well, it has been a week now since I have purchased my Porta Bote at the boat show. Needless to say, I haven't received it yet, but I am still excited. I figure I better put my waiting time to good use and familiarize myself with the maritime rules in CA.

They can be found here.
http://dbw.ca.gov/pubs/ABC/index.asp

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