Yeah, yeah, I know; it’s “anchors aweigh” but this applies to the last in a line of my boats. It’s the end of boating for me. The pontoon has gone to the Camping and Education Foundation that has its primary camps on an island (Camp Kooch-i-ching for boys) in Rainy Lake and close by on land (Ogichi Das Kwe for girls). The Foundation also has an urban wilderness program for inner city kids in Cincinnati, Ohio and Minneapolis, Minnesota that uses a remote wilderness outpost called Owakonze.
My first boat was a 28 foot Steelcraft, “Peggy Lynn”, on the St.Croix River. I was attracted to the river when a colleague who lived there hosted me for dinner. I was impressed by the “Curt C”, a very large yacht owned by Curt Carlson that featured white gloves staffers serving guests onboard. It was followed closely by “The Hub”, Stanley Hubbard’s slightly smaller yacht. I liked what I saw. Unfortunately, “Peggy Lynn” had a cracked engine block, which may have been the reason its owner sold it to me in the Fall. Come Spring, the marina guy at Hudson persuaded me a larger craft with two engines that ran would fit my family better, so I bought “Dilly IV”, a 34 foot Chris Craft sedan cruiser that began its life on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. “Dilly” was acres of mahogany that needed stripping, staining and varnishing. That kept me busy and the tinkering prompted me to acquire tools and some basic knowledge about engine repairs. I took a Power Squadron course on seamanship and concentrated especially on things river-based. After a couple of months of ownership, we set off on the Mississippi River downriver to St.Louis with six month old baby Alice in her playpen, two older daughters, two dogs and a turtle. We traveled the river down and back, 1,300 plus miles, and had a rollicking good time! That trip’s log became the basis for my first national magazine sale and I’ve been writing for money ever since.
I was young and slow to realize I really couldn’t afford a boat like “Dilly”, so the bank took it and sold it to someone in Ohio. Trailerable boats seemed more to fit my budget. The next boat was a Norcraft, a Jim Brodie designed slim outboard with a fiberglass hull and wooden deck. It was yellow so, of course, it was dubbed “The Banana Boat”. Brodie told me those boats had won several races on the Mississippi. I acquired a 17 foot Glasspar mini-cabin cruiser because the mahogany decking on the “Banana Boat” was rotting and the deck would not stay attached to the hull. The Glasspar was powered by a Scott Atwater 60 horse engine that was an oddity but ahead of its time in several ways. The timing for its three cylinders was tricky and you could hear me coming from afar. One neighbor said my ratio of oil to the gas was so high that he swore I was the mosquito patrol when I went out on White Bear Lake.
We moved to Bone Lake, Wisconsin and brought the Glasspar with us. I’d tried to improve the seating it in and the bunks in the small cabin and wooden floor deteriorated, so the boat never really got used on Bone Lake, so I acquired a rare (but not expensive) SuPerior Spitfire, a 14 foot runabout with nice tumblehome in the stern. The boat was made in Minneapolis but the company produced very few of them because they’d copied (at least the court found that they copied) the design from a company in Texas. I powered the boat with a nice 35 h.p. Johnson and ran it not only on Bone Lake but on the St.Croix River and over in Forest Lake, Minnesota. Unfortunately, I had it tied to the dock when it rained hard overnight and the heavy winds swamped the boat. That ended the life of the Johnson. Further, at the boat landing two years prior, the guys who powered their boats onto their trailers had caused a large sand mound to form just off the dock, so when I launched the boat, even with the engine raised, it caught the berm and broke the stern. Eventually, the engine went to a neighbor for parts and the boat itself went to a guy from Minnesota who figured he could re-form the stern. He’d read about those rare boats and wanted one.
The lake was fine and we ended up with a 21 foot Premiere pontoon. I had it refurbished with new flooring and new covers for the seating. A paint job go her looking very nice; essentially, it was a new boat. But circumstances have forced us to relocate and I can’t see a boat in my future.
The thing I liked about boating on the river, though, was that if you wanted to, you could just keep on going. You could go down the river and out through the islands and even through the Panama Canal and up to California. I had a trip like that planned with bladder tanks for the extra gasoline it would take. “Dilly”, however, was unsuited for that kind of a trip and because she was not paid for, the Sheriff would have been after me.
A sort-of “bucket list” thing for me was the idea of writing about a trip by water from St.Paul, Minnesota to Duluth, Minnesota, via the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. I pitched the idea to the National Geographic (how about being a little full of myself after writing a few articles about boating?) The editor, Franc Shor, said “There’s nothing there”, which I think was his way of saying, “Kid, take the trip and let’s see what you come up with.” Actually, there is plenty to talk about, what with large urban areas like Chicago, Milwaukee and New Orleans, as well as the now-abandoned copper mines in Michigan once run by Henry Ford. And then there’s Duluth itself and St.Paul. By car the trip takes around two hours; by boat, it could take months. At any rate, I never had the time, the funds nor the boat to do the venture but I still think it would make a nice adventure.
We did consider living aboard a converted Navy tug in San Diego, but I’m glad we didn’t go that route. I think I would have been bored. A self-centered life like that would not have been satisfying for me. My life has proven that to be true. But still. . . . one of the most enjoyable days I remember was a hot dry afternoon on the St.Croix River. I’d anchored “Dilly” just north of the marina in Hudson. It was a quiet spot and not developed the way it is now. I stripped old varnish and sanded the cockpit. It was hot, so when I finished my tasks I climbed atop the cabin and dove into the cool water. After an easy climb back into the cockpit, I lay down to dry off. The gentle rocking and the setting sun put me to sleep. I could have been in the islands. It was a memorably satisfying experience. I’m glad I had it. And I’m glad I had boats in my life.