The marina where the boat had been stored by the previous owner said we needed to get the boat out of the marina early. We left my sister-in-law’s house in Baltimore in the morning and headed down to Annapolis (about a 45 minute drive). It was raining pretty hard but we were in good spirits. The boys were excited that we would be leaving the dock and Matt seemed pretty confident about sailing out. We got on the boat and had the boys put on their life jackets. They were already scampering around it like sea monkeys. We had called another marina right next door to see if they had space for us to dock there. We wanted to be in a marina while we loaded all of our stuff on the boat and figured out the basics. All we had to do was motor over. ‘Motor’ being the critical word. Matt put the key in the engine and pressed the starter button. Nothing happened. He did it again. Still nothing. He did it about 8 more times. We glanced at each other. He commented that it had started when they put it in the water the afternoon before. There we are – sitting in the water trying to start the engine of our new boat. Matt called the previous owner – she didn’t pick up. He called the boat broker who had negotiated the deal. No answer. Now we exchanged concerned glances. Matt finally walked around the marina until he found someone who worked there. Apparently there was an extra button that needed to get pushed to start the motor. Our first step on a steep learning curve…

The motor finally started and we were on our way. The boys loved it – and we weren’t even sailing. Malachi ran all the way to the end of the bowsprit and perched up there as if he had been around boats all of his short life. As we pulled out, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Not such a bad start after all.