I went over to Calumet City to pick up a 32 foot Carver and bring it back over to the Saugatuck area on Friday. The customer had represented the boat as in “great condition” but when we got there to pick it up we found a disaster. The boat was kept at a dump of a marina where no one knew anything about it or the customer. When we finally found the boat it was a disaster.

Besides being filthy, the boat was in no shape to make the trip. There The canvas was shredded and balled up on the floor of the bridge along with a deflated inner tube. The keys were nowhere to be found. The fuel gauges didn’t work. There was about a quart of oil in the bilge. There was lots of other things we needed to move/clean/adjust to get the thing running, but that was only the beginning.

Engine oil levels were good, but the port transmission appeared to be a little low. Once the engines started the port side wouldn’t run for long or very well. When it finally smoothed out a bit there was no forward gear. After an adventure tracking down the only mechanic in the place to get some trans fluid we were told there wasn’t any any he went off to the store to get some.

Once he returned and the trans was topped off we were able to get the boat about 1/4 mile upriver to fuel it up. One tank was full, and one was dry. This was a bad sign, and I was quickly losing confidence in the boats ability to make the 80 mile trek back up the lake.

More shortly…