every time i’m ready to sell the boat, i fall back in love with it, and as soon as i do, something else breaks… but how can you not fix something you’re in love with. the endless cycle continues. last weekend while taking care of final preparations to tow the boat to lake perris for a weekend of wakeboarding fun, out of no where (seriously, it was like the boat was just fucking with me) one of the hydraulic outdrive lift lines started spewing blood-red hydraulic fluid at me! at first my heart sank because i’d been looking forward to this trip, and if the boat failed before it left my driveway, i was gonna let down the rest of the crew too. the line wasn’t actually broken, and the leak was coming from inside a coupler that’s supposed to get secured by a flange (just like a brake line), but the nut was as tight as it could be and i didn’t want to back it out for fear of losing all the hydraulic fluid and guaranteeing a failed trip. i ended up using plumbers tape and a metal clamp to hold it, and surprisingly it made it through the whole weekend (6 hours+ on the water although the hydraulic reservoir tank was only half full by the end), but this weekend i need to break it down and figure out what the real problem is.

just a few weeks ago, eric and i were ready to sell it, but then we had a fun fishing trip (even if we didn’t catch any fish), and then last weekend reminded me how much i love wakeboarding. the biggest problem is the damn saltwater. it corrodes and rusts anything it touches and it’s made it difficult to keep the boat properly maintained. the engine still runs surprisingly strong, but at current, the boat needs a new hydraulic line, trim sensor, fuel sensor, and it really needs a new prop which adds up to more than $500. we’ll keep it through the summer for sure, and if we get a few more good wakeboarding and fishing trips out of it without any new, expensive problems, maybe keep it for another season.