"Nothing Truly Bad Happened!"

At the dock just before launching the boat 

Our Saturday overnight test on the boat was successful...as long as you don't count:

*arriving 2 hours too late to have help from the marina in stepping (putting up) the mast; which we had just taken down in our driveway to be able to travel to the lake. I was quite tired especially given the heat

*not actually launching until 9:30 pm when light was all but gone (see photo above)

*getting launched and Sid proposing to sail for a while to find a cove in which to spend the night, then realizing that the anchor was still in the back of the truck instead of on the boat

*deciding to go to an "end tie" on the open dock. Easy, but bright mercury vapor lights all around, on all night, for pretty obvious reasons. Great for security, not so great for a light-sensitive sleeper (that's me more and more)

*it's now after 10 pm and we haven't had dinner. Thinking we would have arrived and anchored by, say, 7 pm, I'd chosen a recipe which needed about an hour prep and 20-25 minutes cooking time. I wanted to use it up before we traveled and see if it was workable for guests Sid believes we will have from time to time on this trip. [shoulder shrug]

*dinner commenced at 11:30 pm. It was delicious and a keeper, but it was 11:30 pm on a day we had both unstepped and an hour later stepped the mast (by ourselves). Sid was unfazed; I could barely keep my eyes open

*because we were around lights, the bugs were as bad as they get. Because we were in Kansas in July it was about as hot an overnight as it gets. Sid seemed to sleep through it all; I woke up every time a bug dive-bombed my ear or it felt like something was crawling on me. Go figure.

*I was in a stupor when he got up. There is no privacy on a boat so once he is up and heating water for coffee there is no more sleep. I had to muster the energy to clean the dishes (Sid did most of them once he was convinced I was struggling), think through how to pack up the boat for travel and what needed to come off as practice for being replenished when leaving a lake, and go through getting the boat the trailer and unstepping the mast for travel back home. 

*The projected plan is to pull out of the slip before 11 am, earlier if possible. Unstep the mast, prepare boat for travel, and go to the next destination. Because this was a Sunday (a bit problematic for me and my Sabbath-keeping, but that is another conversation) the boat ramps were BUSY. We got the boat on the trailer by 12:30 pm but still have to pull out and unstep.

*This all happens on the asphalt parking lot with lots of vehicles + trailers coming and going. 12:30-3:00 pm is the heat of the day with no shade since we can't be near trees due to mast height. Even Sid got totally worn out and we still will have to get home.  I was literally too tired to even remember to photograph any of this process--hopefully better on the real trip!

*Settled for Casey's lunch at 3:15pm in Lyndon. This after his promise that we would be home before 2:30pm if he wanted to leave on Monday.

Sid's quote on the entire experience is the title of the post.

Perhaps needless to say, we didn't leave on Monday. But THAT is a different post!