We put the boat into the water finally up at the cabin in Black Lake. If you remember last year, the dock was all set up for us when we bought it. This was to be our first time putting it in, and getting it to the water was going to be the challenge. It was stored on the side of the hill all winter. The steep slope and weight of the dock, we knew, would be obstacles to overcome. But overcome them we did, even if it did take a few hours! Next year we will either rent a winch capable of handling all that weight or get come-alongs with longer cables. OR we may just trailer it down to the nearby launch and float it up which is what the guy who sold us the dock did. There is no market research out there on this particular set of circumstances.
We didn't choose the floating option because we didn't have another trailer. Now we do because we bought another boat! It was too good a deal to pass up. We bought it from our neighbor and we can store it there over the winter. It is a small fishing boat with a 10 horse 4 stroke (good on gas like the pontoon boat motor) and won't need a dock and can be launched off the shore. This is good for lots of reasons. The kids now have a boat and when the water gets too cold to be putting docks in and out of the water, we can still go boating on the lake with this little boat. We had been looking for something like this for awhile. I will have pics next week when we do the deed. In the meantime check out the dock lowering photos.
We didn't choose the floating option because we didn't have another trailer. Now we do because we bought another boat! It was too good a deal to pass up. We bought it from our neighbor and we can store it there over the winter. It is a small fishing boat with a 10 horse 4 stroke (good on gas like the pontoon boat motor) and won't need a dock and can be launched off the shore. This is good for lots of reasons. The kids now have a boat and when the water gets too cold to be putting docks in and out of the water, we can still go boating on the lake with this little boat. We had been looking for something like this for awhile. I will have pics next week when we do the deed. In the meantime check out the dock lowering photos.
Dock was stored tied to this tree all winter having winched it up last Labor Day
Attaching come-alongs and s l o w l y lowering it down
lower
Lower still with boards at the ends to aid slippage
Almost there
Yay! paddling a few yards to dock area and we are done!We got the ceramic firelogs going. Boy did they do the job. The cabin warmed up in a few minutes and it looks pretty too.
Did I mention a few water lines were broken? Yep so we replaced them with PEX which is much better because it expands, decreasing the chances of broken lines next year.
All in all it was a good weekend. The weather could have been about 10 degrees warmer though.
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