June 28, 2021

Searing heat enveloped Okanagan Valley this week as my life spun into chaos. Summer has arrived with intense warmth as the days melted together.

I cruised the refreshing water of the Okanagan Lake with my dear friends Brad and Byron. We splashed into the water and soothed our bodies scorched by the raging heatwave. We trolled the glassy surface of the waters in search of an elusive lake lunker… 

“Beep, Beep, Beep!!!!” an intense alarm brought us from our relaxed state. “Check engine,” the screen flashed at me.  What the heck was wrong now? I had my motor fixed and had hoped to make another season with Serendipity – Luxury Lake Tours 2015 Campion Biltmore. My faith in the motor had a tenuous hold. Now it was being shattered by the piercing alarm bell.

We stopped the engine and sat to wait. In a few minutes, we started it again and powered up. The alarm was not going and we hoped it was because we had been trolling slow, maybe it needed to run fast to get the carbon out… Running a motor fast that had an alarm in hindsight seems like the absolute wrong thing to do. But at the time it felt like a good idea. The Evinrude Etec 200 seemed to run well as we sprinted across the lake to get to the dock at the Manteo Resort. So our fear was pushed down. 

My fear was lingering intensely beneath the surface. 

We grabbed the bimini top for the boat and headed back across the lake. Our hope was it would be fine as we started to troll back and fish again. In a few short moments, my line started to wiggle. 

Fish on!

Excitement mounted as I grabbed the reel and started to bring in my prize. It was a little guy. Brad and Byron reached out to touch him for luck. I smiled softly at the ten-inch rainbow and released him back into the depths of the lake to let him go to grow bigger. 

“Beep, beep, beep!!!!’ the alarm screamed again. We shut the motor off and sat drifting. What the hell was wrong? 

After a few moments drifting we fired up the motor again and set off. The alarm wasn’t going so we powered up and headed home. 

Big mistake. 

It wasn’t long before we lost power and the alarm was going again. If I had stopped and looked at things closer I may have prevented a further catastrophe. But I will never know. Now we were dead in the water. Thankfully Captain Rob was out on the lake with Serendipity II and he came with his guests to tow us to the launch. 

My stomach churned in regret as we were towed to the Westbank boat launch. I blamed myself for not listening to the alarm sooner. What could I have done? Why did I keep going? Anxiety and regret surged in my veins and a storm washed over the mountain tops to pelt us with drops of water. It was like mother nature was pouring her fury on me for not listening to my instincts. 

I will never know if there was anything that could have been done to prevent the failure of the motor again… My faith in the Evinrude has been shaken and it will take time to ever rebuild the trust. We pulled the boat straight to the dealer and hoped for a fast solution. 

It was not to be.  

I couldn’t sleep, the heat and my own brain kept my body from much-needed rest. Things were going out of control and I couldn’t stop my thoughts from spinning with regret and angst. I needed to let go. I needed to find a way to move forward. At least it broke down when I had friends on the boat and not in the middle of a tour…

I needed another boat.

The irony of the last thought finally sank through my brain. It was a first-world problem. There are people starving in the world, people with nothing. And I was losing sleep because my boat broke down. It was time to shake it off and do something positive.

Then Rob called to tell me Serendipity II wouldn’t start… What the? Our first Evinrude was reliable for 1400 hours and the new one had barely 100 on it. It was also the beginning of a crazy busy summer.

In a heatwave.

I guess I had to buy this boat I found for more than it probably sold for brand new. The sales guy at Dockside did his best to help out, but still, it was way more than I wanted to pay. The layout was good and the motor was not an Evinrude.

Rob had called at 3:30, his tour was at 5:00… I told him to delay the tour I was on my way with another boat. 

Dockside had the boat in the water as I pulled up with my bank draft. My stomach churned and my palms were sweating as I handed over the money. In my mind, I really had no choice. More first-world problems… 

I sped across the lake and hooked up to Serendipity II and pulled it to the dock. Twice in one week, I was pulling a boat that wasn’t running to the dock. Thankfully it was just fowled sparkplugs and it was a quick fix in my driveway at home the next morning.

Not a great start to the summer. Now there was nowhere to go but up.

Our new pontoon boat could carry fourteen passengers. We could offer larger group tours. The silver lining was there and we will make the most of the heatwave in the days and weeks to come.