It was not so e-z duzit after all

I am now back in W. PA and trying to catch up on life. Steelers had a win today- always makes me smile and do a happy little dance- not to mention yell a bit during the game- they should really hire me as another coach-ok they really don't need me. It has been found that they actually play better sometimes when I am not in the room watching.

As promised more photos from the rescue of the E-Z Duzit. Shew that is something I would never ever wish upon anyone. I came home with a bit of a suntan but trust me when I tell you this was not at all a fun sort of adventure- nope- not at all.

We were not only fighting the highest tides of the year, we also had the tropical storm Noel adding whipping rain squals and 45 to 50 mph winds and whitecaps on the river. Hubby played out many ideas of how to resurrect her on the trip down- 18 hours roadtrips allow for lots of pondering. We finally decided upon this building a wall around the transom. We used that foam stuff you lay under carpet to stuff into all the holes. I was in charge of making sandbags- it became perty-near impossible to find dry sand after about the 3 squall went past.

We finally had to call it quits. We were so close to making it work but the tide was coming back up and dark was coming on fast and .......

We had to call in the big guns. This is not really the big guns actually. This guy is pretty small time but he was cheap and confident. Also he was willing to just jump into the water to hook up the slings.

Between his crane and both his pump and the one we brought down with us we all held our breathes and finally she let go of the bottom and started to rise.

This is what the inside of a boat can look at when dragged out to the garbage- sad.

Some of my adopted children will recognize these as the "big guns" we would use when we would go deep sea fishing. It was my job to bait these poles. I liked it when we could find prepared ballyhoo- small bait fish with 2 hooks buried inside but it became hard to find them in the past few years. I actually got good at baiting the hooks using squid- I always took special pride when we hooked up with a fish on my prepared bait. We had the most luck with spoons though.

I always tried to keep my drawers organized and everything at the ready but this is how they look now. I don't really suppose that the poles or the rubber squid will see a day of fishing again but we brought them all back to PA. I hear Idaho has some really deep water. I am thinking those fish have never seen a squid live or rubber before. Maybe I will just opt for the "here fishy fishy" method if I ever wet a line there.

Some of our neighbors stopped in to give us advice. Amazingly, I did not send any of them swimming but one came pretty damn close. One came up with his West Virginia know how and offered that we should pump it out- mind you that was before it was raised but he worked the boat yards when he was in the Navy so he would know. Another came up and said he is a boat captain. He kepts saying "wow, that is a crying shame" then he went on to ask how all that water got into the boat-doh- over the top you idiot- here's your sign.

And speaking of signs- there is now a big for sale sign on one very sad boat. It has blessed this family richly for many years, now it is time to bless someone else.