I had planned for a fun weekend, relaxing, riding Sea Doos, fishing, a beer or two and later a whisky by the fire. The weekend turned out to be nothing like that.

Friday evening arrival and all was well. We unloaded the food we brought for the weekend. For this weekend, I didn’t have a tub full of tools or a truck bed full of materials to build something with. The plan was to accomplish nothing, just enjoy.

After a BBQ burger, we headed down to the dock to hop on the Sea Doos for an evening run. Problem. One of the Sea Doos was bogging down and had a vibration when giving it some throttle. Something is not right. The first assumption was a plugged intake or weeds stuck in the impeller.  Unlike weeds stuck in the boat prop, simply reversing the throttle doesn’t toss these away. I pulled off the key fob, hopped in the water and felt underneath for a mass of weeds blocking the intake. This would not be the first time this has happened.

Nothing. All clear. A Miracle? I started the engine and gave a little throttle. Same result. It was not an intake issue. This was going to be more difficult. I knew (hoped) it was going to be YouTube to the do-it-yourselfer rescue.

We hooked up the Sea Doos to the dock and traded the evening powered ride for a paddle in the kayaks.

Then we spent the rest of the evening with a beverage in one hand and the other on the mouse streaming through YouTube as I learned more about the brake/reverse gate, steering connection, housing, impeller, and other associated parts on the back end of a Seas Doo.  I have a good set of hand tools at the cabin. This would be a morning spent on disassembly then reverse the process to re-assemble, then off the lake waters for the powered recreation portion of our weekend. I’m not a mechanic, but I can usually work my way through a decent series of mechanical processes.

Next morning did not go as well as intended. I had put a wide plank at the water’s edge, pulled the Sea Doo up backwards, and tied it off with ski ropes to a couple trees. I could get at many of the bolts, some with limited angles or range of motion, but not all. Next I borrowed the neighbours Ski Doo lift. Better, but not quite. I made progress, but just could not quite get at some parts. I was really trying to avoid towing the Sea Doo to the boat launch, putting the Sea Doo on a trailer and dragging it back from the boat launch to the cabin. That seemed like a waste of time. Wish I would have done that to begin with.

With the Sea Doo up in the air, everything was easier. I had all the angles. Easy access, just like in the YouTube videos. It was now Saturday afternoon. The leisure portion of the weekend was fading away fast. I had taken a few breaks in the process, sometimes just to think. Sometimes to stretch out from uncomfortably contorted positions trying to get tools to impossible places.

But from this point forward, it was good news. The steering linkage I couldn’t quite de-couple only took a couple more turns. The housing and other bolts were simple, just a ratchet and extension. Pulled off what was needed and found a 1″ by 3″ chunk of driftwood caught in the impeller, wedged between a blade and the wear ring. Fortunately, we didn’t try to force this loose, before we know what the problem was, or we could have ended up with some parts to replace. In summer, who knows how long to get those, certainly longer that right now. With no damage seen and the chunk of driftwood removed, time to re-assemble. That was quick, after all, I had easy access, just like the YouTube videos. Within an hour, we had the Sea Doo back on the water and running 100%, in time for supper by the time we were back at the cabin with the Sea Doo and trailer.

After supper we did get out for a short ride, before the evening showers. The satisfaction of fixing something was rewarding, but I would have traded that for the weekend of recreation and leisure we had planned. Rain continued the next day spoiling any water fun plans.

It’s not quite as daring or brave as it sounds. Perhaps you arrived here expecting a tale of bravery and heroism. Lost souls, stranded by a summer storm, and the courageous search party that rescued them.

This is not that story. The most dramatic, the key, event in this story, was the failure to secure two kayaks to the rope ties properly. You see, instead of feeding the rope through the cleat, then back over and around, I simply slipped them over. It was calm, at the time. Surely that would last?

Overnight Wind

The night got windy. The morning found us with no kayaks. I was down at the dock in the morning before breakfast. Counting kayaks was not even on my mind at the time. I had grabbed my fly rod to cast for some morning Perch. A good start to the day. Caught about 10 in about 15 casts. You either catch a bunch of Perch, or none at all. I set down my fly rod and started walking back to the cabin. There was an empty space where there should be two kayaks tied up. “Hmmmmmmmmm……” was my reaction. It didn’t take long to figure out they had slipped off the ties and floated away.

Our cabin is at the west end of a 19 km long lake (12 miles).  The wind was from the West by South-West. The little bit of south to the direction was going to work in my favour, I hoped.  I looked to the East, looking for something red and something orange bobbing next to a dock or on the shore down the line of cabins. Nothing in sight.

Search Party

Now for the search party, it was me. I grabbed a couple pieces of ski tow rope and they keys for a Sea Doo and I set off on my morning adventure. Initially I guessed the wind would have blown them up against something along the 35 or so cabins to our immediate East. If someone noticed, they likely would have pulled them up on a dock or on shore. It’s a pretty helpful group of cabin owners along our neighbourhood. Nothing spotted in our bay, so on to the next most likely areas, just keep heading East. It’s a long lake, but a narrow lake, with a few islands, and a few points and a 45 degree bend a few kilometers to our East.

Past the point of our bay, at what I call First Island, I saw a long orange form nestled in the reeds. It was in a spot that made sense according to what I had guessed as the second most likely drift pattern. I felt like I had just correctly solved a mystery, like on CSI, using ocean current charts and some computer simulation. In reality, going East was about all they could have done.

The Orange Kayak

I hoped to find them both together. The red one just out of sight, in some taller reeds. All I found was the orange one.

Loop the ski rope through the handle and attach to the Sea Doo and the search continues. As I was hopping back on the Sea Doo. I saw someone paddling a red kayak over along the shore. Surely this was a good Samaritan retrieving it for me? I idled up to ask. On my approach, I could see this was not my red kayak, but she was coming from the direction my red kayak might be. I stopped and asked. She had not seen another red kayak. Hmmmmmm…. again. Where she was paddling from, along the North shore, East of the resting place of the orange kayak, should have encountered my red kayak. I will have to go search further.

The Island Tour

Along the shore I motored, orange kayak in tow. Past Second Island. Past Go Go Island. No red kayak, so maybe it found another path, a mysterious current may have swept it along a different tack. I circled Go Go Island and headed across to the reedy area across the other side of the lake’s narrows. A good place for a a kayak to get hung up, I hoped.

After searching the weeds and reeds, I headed back towards the South side of Go Go Island and Second Island. Glancing left towards the South shore of the lake and right towards the south side of the islands. Nothing caught my eyes. Across the open stretch of water, looking left to the cabins, docks, shoreline, and right as I made way to the South side of First Island.

The Red Kayak is Found

That’s when I spotted something red, resting in the reeds of the South side of First Island. Maybe 100 yards, but around the corner, from where I had found the orange kayak. Red and orange kayaks are found. Took me an extra half an hour, but afterwards, the drift patterns all make sense. Likely only a few degrees of difference in the drift put them on different parts of the same First Island.

Another rope looped through the handle and a few minutes to tow them both back to our dock, where they where tied up again, secured to the same cleats, but it you look at the second image below, zoom a bit more if you need to, they are tied properly to the rope cleats.

The “adventure ends”. No kayaks were harmed in this story.

Spending time at the Cabin is all about relaxing, and fishing, and maintenance, and yard word, and recreation, and family visits, but let’s talk about multiple seating areas.

Depending on the situation, we have created multiple seating areas, each with their own purpose. We don’t count the inside. Outside we have the Main Deck, the Upper Deck, the Waterfront Patio, the Fire Pit.

The Main Deck

This is where we spend most of our time. We can subdivide this into further areas and as you can see from the images, we have a sun lounging area, an eating table area, the BBQ area, and the shady side-by-side area. The lounging area is for the sun lovers, or when we have a family group here at the cabin and the group spreads out all across the Main Deck. When it’s just two of us, we usually spend some time soaking up the rays in the afternoon. The eating table also serves the purpose of being a games table and anything else that needs to be done, including a woodworking carpentry table when needed. The shady side-by-side is our relax area, a morning coffee area, and sometimes my office. We call it the side-by-side, or the two-seater, which is normally a term for an ATV, but we don’t have one of those, so when I built the side-by-side table, I named it the side-by-side for fun and it just stuck. I added a laser-printed center table top to give it a bit of personalization. The BBQ area, it not a sitting area, just a place people head towards to grab a beverage from the cooler, throw away some garbage, or grab some eats from the BBQ.

The Upper Deck

It’s all about the view. This area is more for the two of us. It’s a morning coffee spot, an afternoon sun seeker spot, and an evening drink spot. It features the best view of the lake, especially the best view of sun rises and when fireworks are happening down the beach from us it a good viewing spot.

The Waterfront Patio

This one came about via happy accident. We had bought some new dock sections and we had a few old dock sections no longer needed, including legs. We couldn’t figure what to do with them then one day we were kayaking down the shoreline and we saw another cabin with a deck section stretching out towards the water with legs to level it out and we the idea that we could do that, just put the legs in the water. Our Waterfront Patio idea was born. We have modified the way the sections fit together, added an umbrella, and it’s a great spot for mid-day when the breeze feels just right and one-too many beverages make operating anything with a motor less legal.

The Fire Pit

The Fire Pit is now in it’s third location and third design. We started with a pit dug into the front yard and ringed with bricks. It was in the way every time we went up and down the hill, from cabin to dock. So we moved it to another spot, in the front yard, in front of the Main Deck and built it with large concrete fire pit blocks. It was better, but in the way of playing some game in the front yard like corn hole and testicle toss (I just looked it up, the proper name of that game is ladder toss). So we carved out a section of our tree/bush area, added some fill and topped with gravel, and built up the fire pit blocks ringed with the bricks from design version 1. In the following year we added some lattice and lights to make a slightly sheltered gathering spot with ample seating.  It’s a nice spot for the cool evenings. Some logs blazing, smores melting, cool drinks. While not as often as summer, we do put it to use in the winter as well, just needs some snow clearing.

The 1st day of summer is here, was here, and has come and gone.

The Prep Work

Every year we go through the prepping for summer tasks. Getting the boat and Sea Doos out of storage, filling the gas cans, moving furniture from storage to the deck, to the lake front patio and to the firepit. Its not the prep work that we look forward to, its what we are prepping for, summer glorious glorious summer.

Repositioning the Dock

One of the extra tasks this year was moving the dock after the high water flowed out of the lake. We are positioned as the headwaters of the Carrot River system. Any water that flows over the dyke at the far end of the lake flow into that river. This year, with heavy snow, late thaw, and a couple of May snow storms, water levels began about 12″ – 15″ higher than normal. I had help in late May putting out the dock and the boat lift. It was my hope, without any real knowledge to base that hope on, that the dock would be good for a few months, until it inevitably would need to be moved out from shore as the water levels drop.

Later came sooner. I went out to the cabin, solo trip, to spend a few days. Shortly after arrival, I discovered the front Sea Doo not floating but with the nose end resting on the shore.

Solo trip = solo effort to move the dock. I had this all worked out in my head, how two of us were going to do it. I decided to give it a shot.

• move the Sea Doos out of the way
• remove the aluminum channels
• remove the deck board sections
• think, think, think
• unbolt the far 2 sections from the mid-section (I left the deepest 2 sections connected)
• think, drink a beer
• use float barrels to hold the deepest legs above the lake bed and marvel at the ingenuity
• position the deepest sections
• bolt on the mid-section
• drink a beer
• remove the float barrels
• pull out ramp section #2 to the mid-section
• take ramp section #1 out from under the cabin deck and connect to ramp #2
• take a break, until tomorrow
• pour a whisky and pat myself on the back for being 80% done
• put the decking panels back on
• reattach the aluminum channel
• put the Sea Doos back

By the time it was all done, probably about 3 to 3-1/2 hours of work. Give me one person, younger and more agile than me, and we could have done in an hour and a half.

Glorious Summer Time is Here

Now it’s summer time. I took the boat out, caught a Northern Pike on my fly rod. I took a Sea Doo out, cruised half the lake and enjoyed the scenery. Wow, there are a number of cabins that still do not have their docks out, many that have the dock out but not the boat yet. Summer will be shorter than usually, work hard to cram in all the relaxing we deserve.

Today’s lesson in remote boat repairs was definitely a lesson learned through recent experience. The lesson is pretty simple, if the boat is in a remote location (such as at your cabin, especially your dock, not your driveway at home), bring all the parts, including extras, and smaller and larger.

It’s expensive and time wasting to have to drive 100+ km to get a few $3 parts because the dealer told you the wrong part initially, really its a lesson in any remote work, bring extra. You can return the unneeded parts at a later date, if they are expensive.

This learning experience started on the day we finished putting in the dock and boat lift. With those in place, time to launch the Sea-Doos and boat. The boat was sluggish, very heavy feeling, like it was weighted down in the back. Flipping the back bench seat up to expose the engine compartment revealed it was full of water. Several possible reasons, that I could think of.

1. Drain plug damaged or not screwed in. I had checked it and my wife had checked it. Unlikely.
2. Engine drain plugs damaged or not replaced. I’ve never not put them back in, so also unlikely.
3. Loose or damaged coolant hose.

I ran the bilge and that helped reduce the amount of water and I was able to get to the cabin and park on the lift. Some investigation followed and I ruled out the main drain plug as well as the engine drain plugs. When running the engine with the leg in water for cooling water intake, I could see water spraying from the right side of the engine (when facing the front). To me, this meant most likely a loose or damaged hose. I lowered my phone down to take a video of the area and I could see it was entirely something else.

IMG_0761

That the hole left behind when an engine frost plug (many other names) blows out. Likely due to a bad job of winterizing by me. I needed a part.

The boat motor is a Chevy motor, branded a Tahoe Bravo but it’s a Chevy 4.3 litre engine. I was taking my wife’s Chevy to the dealership for a free oil change so I figured I would get the part there. They did not have one but suggested Bumper to Bumper and provided me a part number. So that was my next stop and then off to the cabin later in the day for some fishing and work around the yard.

Inexpensive part. Tough spot to get at, underside of the engine, restricted area. That didn’t matter as the part spec’d by the parts expert at the Chevy dealership was the part that would fit my wife’s truck, not the much older engine in the boat. Yes, I told him what I needed it for, and he gave me the wrong part number. Of course, I only found this out when I attempted to test fit the part, on the boat, at the cabin. So it was back to Saskatoon Bumper to Bumper to get the proper part. A 2 hour round trip, plus time in store, so 2-1/2 hours of unproductive time. I did prior to the trip, call other suppliers closer but nobody had then in stock.  I did think ahead a little bit.  It’s a really tough spot on the engine to access. Probably far easier if not for all the fiberglass of a boat in the way, say if on a vehicle on a lift. Impossible to get 2 hands down there and to see what you are doing. So the repair process was going to be awkward and most by feel rather than by sight. So, again, thinking ahead, I bought the next 3 sizes of the part, 1-1/2″, 1-5/8″ and 1-3/4″, and 2 of each. Only a few $’s each part and much less of an expense than another trip to get another size.

After many attempts that day to get the part installed, I realized that there was no way I could think of to get enough force on the part, at the right angle, to tap this into place. I constructed a few elaborate mechanisms to hold the part in place, most consisting of a wooden stake so I could position the part, duct taped to a ratchet extension, to a socket, duck taped to the part I was trying to tap in. I simply cold not get a long enough hammer swing to provide enough force, to get the part to seat into the hole. Many other combinations of shorter shafts, and my max swing range was about 2-1/2″ inches. I gave up for the day, but began to devise new combinations of pieces and wood, and tools to try again the next day, that day was a failure as well.

Finally I decided to extend my parts search on the wonderful tool of Google and came across another part that showed some promise. It was a rubber based piece that expanded when the nut was turned.

This looked like the last possible solution, but it was Saturday evening, no time to get to the parts store, which was closed on Sunday. I had a buddy coming to town on Monday, to go to the cabin, to go fishing. So Monday morning I went to the parts store and bought the recommended size, based on the other part that I knew was the right size, plus on smaller, plus on larger. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the cabin that evening, all supplies had been unloaded and we had the part in place and tightened with a socket wrench and the boat was running, no extra water gushing out of the engine block. The Fishing Trip, which had been in jeopardy, was on. We fished. We ate well, and I was relieved, after much frustration, and an important lesson learned.

Next time I have a boat repair, or any repair of any type, at the cabin, I will have all the parts, in a range of sizes, bring too many tools, and hope I can get the repair done.