“It wouldn’t be summer without the Baker kids fighting over the boat.”

I have spent every summer of my life at Sand Lake. It is probably one of my favorite places on Earth. I have had many of my life’s firsts there. I had my first kiss there, I learned how to ride a bike, roller skate and water ski at “The Lake”.

When I was somewhere between the ages of seven and nine my dad bought a boat. Not just any boat but a boat that I have come to love. It was a red 1968 Ski Nautique with white interior. It was trashed. From what I remember it had been sitting in a field without a cover for over three years before my dad bought it. It was what I would later call his mid-life-crisis. This thing needed work and I was so willing to help. My dad, on the other hand, didn’t think I was old enough to help him gut it and clean it. No, my brother was the one to do that. There were summers when this boat would spend more time in the shop than in the water.

I remember one birthday all I wanted was to have the boat back from the shop. My dad sat for 8 hours waiting for a part to come into the shop and for the guys to install it. He missed my birthday dinner, he missed cake and ice cream and he want there when I opened my presents. I thought he was going to miss the whole day. But in the late evening he pulled in with the boat. We launched it as fast as we could. My cousin was soon in the passenger seat, my friend Julie and I were on tubes. We were ready for a lap around the lake just as the sun was going down. And the boat barely moves. The next thing I know, my cousin is sitting on the side of the boat trying to pump water out of it with a hand pump while my dad has the engine cover open, and is shoulder deep in water reaching under the engine. Apparently the plug had not been put in and it was taking on water. I spent the last moments of daylight of that birthday on a tube going around the lake one time at a speed slower than I could walk. At the time I was calling it ‘the worst birthday ever’. I think I yelled at my dad for being gone all day, for the fact that my brother burned my birthday dinner because he wasn’t there to grill and that my tube ride was nothing more than a dinner opportunity for the mosquitoes. He reminded me that “all I wanted was the boat in the water”.

I now think fondly of that birthday. That my dad sacrificed his entire day to sit at a crappy boat shop an hour away so that he could grant me my birthday wish. That he would miss dinner and cake and ice cream so that I could have the boat.
When he died my mom sold the boat. It needed too much work and she couldn’t handle the cost. She bought a new boat. A 1999 Ebtide. A boat that I didn’t want. I didn’t want to sell my dad’s boat. I didn’t want an inboard-outboard. I wanted the red 1968 ski Nautique, even if she couldn’t afford to keep it running, even if it sat unused for years.

When she got the Ebtide my brother and I agreed to split the maintenance cost, gas money and general responsibility. The problem with that is that my brother tends to be a self absorbed a-hole. Sure he paid his half of the fees, he had the truck to pull it out and take it to get winterized but he never lifted a finger to keep it clean. At the beginning of the season I’d clean it. At the end of the day I’d be the one to clean out the cigarette boxes, lighters, food wrappers, towels and pop cans that he and his friends left. I’d be the one covering it even if I hadn’t even used it that day. I’m the one that took care of a boat that I didn’t even want.
Three years ago by brother sold his trailer at the lake. (that’s a whole other story) He hasn’t been there to use the boat on a regular basis but when he is there he acts as if the boat is his. He doesn’t contribute toward the gas, I’m still cleaning up after him and his kids and I’m still covering it when he was the one to use it.

Two years ago there was some mechanicals problems and it almost sank in our slip. We were quoted on the costs to fix the problem as well as other problems that were caused due to the fact that the engine was underwater for more than eight hours. I didn’t have the money, and my brother wouldn’t help. He no longer used the boat and therefore felt he was no longer obligated to pay his half.
My mother has resolved that this year it’s going to be fixed and if that means that she pays for it then so be it.

It is currently sitting in the drive way. Tony and I spent over two hours cleaning it today because my brother decided that he didn’t want it in his 4 stall garage anymore. He put it in his barn with the horses, cow and chickens. There were bugs and dirt and grime and mildew and cat hair all over the inside of it. That’s two hours cleaning the inside of it. You know the part that is under the cover. Can’t wait to see how long it’s going to take to clean the outside. Not to mention the cover it’s self. That thing is trashed.

The boat is being fixed next week Monday. And I am already freaking out about the next time my brother will be at the lake with his kids. I know I am just borrowing trouble. But I WILL NOT be cleaning it out at the end of the day like I used to. I will also be compensated for the gas he uses. We are living in my mother’s basement on unemployment for goodness sakes. I can’t afford for him to take his kids out all day with my gas money that I pain staking built into my already over worked budget.

I don’t even want this boat. I want the Nautique back.