So…we buy a boat. We have a wonderful time getting the trailer licensed and insured so that we can move the boat around. It took 3 separate trips to the insurers to get it done.
First trip…after supper, we headed into town to one of the Wal Mart insurance kiosks, thinking it would be fairly quick. Hah! Silly us. There was a lineup of about 10 people, so we thought we would poke around in the store a bit and then come back. After wandering around, I picked up some Caramel Wafers and headed for the express checkout. It was the longest lineup I have ever seen at Wal Mart- there must have been 70 people in it. It wound around the express area and then extended to the doors. Not worth lining up for those wafers, yummy as they may be. We checked the insurance lineup and it was still too long, so we hopped in the car and drove to the other Wal-Mart. This one had NO lineups, but  the agent noted that the seller had missed signing a line on the transfer document. AArrgghhh! Contact the seller, arrange to meet him and get his signature on the line tomorrow. Went home.
Second trip…the next night, we headed off to the insurer again. This time, the agent decided his two signatures were not exactly the same. Seriously. NO ONE signs their name exactly the same way twice. If the stupid agent had checked it the way I learned to in the bank (holding both upside down), she would have noted that the small one was pretty much the same as the big one…he just had more room on one form than the other.
Third trip…feeling very frustrated by this point, I called the insurance company that does the commercial insurance where I work, and asked them if they insured boat trailers. No problem. My husband and I met there at noon, and the insurance was done in about 20 minutes. We gave a combined sigh of relief:)
The next step was to register the boat. I thought that part would be more difficult, as the previous owner(s) had not bothered to do so. The government actually makes this process rather painless. You fill in an online form, and upload pictures of the boat, the bill of sale, and photos of your identification. I heard back within a couple of days, and the boat is now registered. Yeah!
The boat and trailer now being licensed and insured, we set off for a three week vacation in the interior. We wound up reducing it to two weeks, deciding to come home and go crabbing for the last week. Riiiggghhhttt…not going to happen.
We got home on Saturday, and we planned to go crabbing on Monday. People would be at work, so the boat launches should be easier to access, etc. Steve cleaned the boat and prepared the equipment. Then he tried to start the motor. It wouldn’t turn over. He recharged the battery. It still wouldn’t turn over. He finally gave up. The seller had certainly ripped us off on that deal. Our hopes of going crabbing lay shattered in the dust (metaphorically).
We were feeling a bit depressed about the whole thing…and rather discouraged by this point. The Fates really seemed to have it in for us- anything we attempted seemed to result in disaster. However, on Monday I contacted the local boatseller and asked if they had a 30HP motor. They didn’t, but they did have a 25HP motor. I arranged a trade-in using the brand new 9.9 HP one we had purchased from them a couple of months ago, and which we had never used- we lost about 900.00 on the deal. Then we had to wait a couple of days while they took off the useless outboard and attached the new one. I now understand why they say the acronym BOAT means Break Out Another Thousand(s).
However, we now have a functional motor, and we are going to make another attempt to get in the water. (Crosses fingers)