For all practical purposes, the boat is done. I'll upload some pictures later today. My camera battery was dead last night. I finished it last night after work. I was super excited and my 6 year old was too. We threw the life-jackets, paddle, and fire-ext into the boat along with my son's new fishing rod he got for Christmas that has only been used once since then. He's begging me to stop and get McDonalds so we can eat on the boat like was always used to. It was almost dark and I just wanted to make sure she floats and all systems were working as intended so I told him we'd eat after the boat test. That didn't temper his excitement any at all. Nor did it mine.
I pull up to the nearest boat ramp and he begs me "can I get in the boat while you put it in the water daddy?". I agree and put his life-jacket on him and tell him to sit down while I'm backing the boat up. Plug is in and everything is ready. I back him down the ramp until the back half of the boat is in the water, hop out of the truck to release the winch, hop back in the truck to back him the rest of the way into the water. I can tell the boat is floating so I stop and get back out of the truck.
In all my excitement, I had not only released the winch, I had also disconnected it from the boat. So... my 6 year old son and my boat are ever so slowly drifting off into the middle of the cove as I stand beside my truck in absolute disbelief. It takes a couple seconds but as soon as my son realizes what is going on he enters full on panic mode. He rushes to the front of the boat, nearly jumping into the water as he reaches both hands out trying to get to me while fighting the urge to scream like a girl.
After about 7.2 seconds of thinking "how can I fix this without swimming?", I surrendered and remove my wallet, shoes, belt, and pocket contents proceeding to take the polar plunge and swim about 25 feet to my son's rescue. Luckily... the boat started and I proceeded to re-load it onto the trailer and go home while my son was shaking in fear.
I laughed it off and tried to get him to trust that everything was always okay in hopes he wouldn't be hesitant to fish with daddy next time. The jury is still out on that but as you can imagine, I still had to face mommy and explain why I was dripping wet with blue lips and near frost bite when we got home. Luckily, she's cool and thought it was hilarious but after laughing, I did get a "suggestion" to never put our kids in the boat while backing it into or pulling it out of the water. Fair enough.
So... I really am an idiot.
Pics and boat details will come later. Have a great morning everyone.
