and the real reason we bought a station wagon is....

...we needed room in the budget for a boat!

According to the cliche, November 27, 2010 will prove to be one of the happiest days in NS' life, the other being the day he sells his boat. Oh well; here goes nothing!

We now co-own (with B&K) a '98 18-foot bowrider named Dalyan II [supposedly named after a town in Turkey. (I love Turkey.)]. I was initially so excited to name the boat until about 20 people told me it's bad luck. I don't believe in luck, but I'm also not stupid.

What do I know about this new beauty? Not much at all. I know she was previously owned by a lawyer, has 120 hp, and is fast enough to support the likes of wakeboarding. It's no secret that the four of us are boating novices, as the story of our first day on the water will prove. 

Co-owners. I love that BK's shirt involves skiing as he's buying a boat in the Caribbean.

Co-adventurers

I dropped the boys (and BK's friend BW, who knows a thing or two about boats) off at the seller's house so they could "drive" the boat home. I waved good-bye and left for a baby shower, taking lots of pictures as I left for proof of "where last seen".

Navigating the canals back to its new home.

We are lucky enough to have friends along the canals in the SMB area, because this is where the boat will dock, quite near B&K's apartment. A trailer came along with the deal, but we're trying to avoid using it on a regular basis to launch and un-launch the boat. Until hurricane season, the Dalyan II will primarily be in the water (like many of its larger neighbors.)

Later that day, we cranked up our ambition meters and "set sail" for Stingray City and Rum Point.

BW and Little L, ready for boat day

Princess in Pink

I don't have any pictures of the trip from SMB to Stringray City, because from my vantage point at the bow, the (point-and-shoot) camera would have been ruined with sea water. Small boats, I discovered, work quite well on a hot day! There's no staying dry.

Once we arrived at our first destination, we (the boys) fed some stingrays and tried to tempt B&K's guests, J&B into the water.

NS feeds a large female ray while BW waits in the wings.

BW holding a ray! Victory!

Here NS is showing BK how to hold the fish food - in a closed fist - not an open palm, as BK had been doing. Poor thing! He had gotten nibbled by the rays more than once with that faulty method...

It took JW a while to get her nerve up to swim with the rays. Fortunately, her hubby was willing to team up to get her in the water.

Meanwhile, Baby L snoozed on the boat in KK's arms...

Baby bundle

We then moved on to Rum Point! BK took advantage of the meaning of a "bowrider":

Everyone is happy on a boat:

Little L wanted to get out and test out the waters at Rum Point before hitting land:

The dock at Rum Point seems always to be occupied by some large watercraft, like the Red Sail Sports pontoon, and with our less-than-vast experience, we didn't want to have to jockey around them just to keep our feet dry. So we did the popular thing and waded to shore.

photo credit: JW

Rum Point is all about relaxation, and we weren't a bit shy about taking advantage of our surroundings.

Loving the hammock while I sip a strawberry chocolate smoothie

This is where our group split: NS and I stayed at Rum Point for a bioluminescence kayak tour (to be posted) while everyone else headed home. The whole purpose of the tour is to see a miracle of nature that happens at night, so we hung around and were fortunate enough to watch the evening's sunset:

It was the almost-end to an almost-perfect day. Except... the boat didn't exactly make it home without a story. The remainder of our group accidentally ran out of gas on the way home. Yes, we had a spare jug of gas. No, we didn't think to fill 'er up before we left. A novice mistake! No one was hurt, the boat wasn't scratched, and Little L still made her bed time. Whoo! All in a day's work.

More adventures to follow.