New outboard

That first two weeks in my new boat was a once in a lifetime experience for a young boy. The freedom of movement it gave me will only be eclipsed with the ability to drive wherever I wanted to go. The boat however did open the San Francisco bay and the Oakland Alameda estuary to me. The motor my dad and I rebuilt was one and a half horse and did alright if I watched the tides and wind. It failed a few times and I was able to row to a shore and be rescued.

When we got home from lake Brittan in Shasta County I had a little dilemma. How to move the boat from home to the water. My dad solved the problem in short order, a trailer pulled ether by hand, or pulled behind my bicycle. Dad built an aluminum tube frame with three wheels and a pull handle. Alameda only has one hill and its a pile of dirt and is called windy hill, so everything else is pretty much flat and paved. I wasn't ready to tow a boat with a car yet. I was still twelve.

Now about being rescued. My motor quit one afternoon and the tide changed before I could round the west end of Alameda and I was being pulled out under the Bay Bridge and headed over by Alcatraz. I was pulling for all I was worth on the oars, but losing headway.

My dads side of the story went like this. I got home from work and (joe) my nickname was not at home and his boat and bike were gone also. I drove down to the marina. Kens bike and trailer were still there so I knew he would be heading back this way. I went home, hooked up the family boat and went to the end of Grand street and launched. As I went down the estuary I asked if anyone had seen a kid in a small boat. I did run into one fisherman that said he saw a kid out by the bay bridge about an hour earlier. My dad found me sort of holding my own on the Leeward side of Alcatraz and some guards yelling at me to stay away. I tossed my dad my bow line and hopped on his boat. It was a slow ride back to the marina with my boat in tow. Between the out going tide and the incoming wind it got really rough and the big boat was only fourteen feet long.

I had worn out the old Muncie motor and it was really lacking in both horsepower and dependability. Dad found a really great two cylinder ten horse Mercury in a box, all apart. Don't you just love people that can look beyond shiny new things? By rebuilding the motor I learned everything I would need to know when I had a motor problem out on the water. And where else would a young boy work on his brand new old outboard motor but in his bedroom! What a dad!