After You - Keller

(I didn't turn on the GPS until we were halfway through the ride.)

Gervais Lake on a beautiful September afternoon. After launching from Spoon Lake, the little bubble in the middle of the map, we headed north.

Lily, my awesome first mate, apparently heard there was a cold front moving in. She was bundled up and as it turned out that wasn't so bad. Sunny, but cool. Here she's enjoying a mid-cruise snack. We like to have snacks on the boat.

One of the many reasons for going out this time was to try out the new motor! It's a Gamefisher 3.5hp motor I picked up used and cheap. She fired up quite nicely and pushed us around the lakes on just a splash of gas. Her top speed wasn't quite 10mph (ok, by a couple) but it ran solidly. It has twice the power of the electric, but there's a lot less "give" - so when that prop spins, it spins! No slowing down for hills! As a result the push is considerably stronger. In fact, it's fast enough that "steering by weight" really comes into play. By standing in my usual spot in the cockpit and just shifting my weight left and right, I can get the boat to turn left or right by degrees. If I walk to one side of the boat I can get a strong turn out of it, without even adjusting the motor. Quite nice not to have to keep a hand back there. I am always within reach of the motor, however, and understand the risks. So don't start.

The motor is loud, so conversation on the boat dwindled. Lily eventually ended up doing some reading and hanging out in the cabin.

After the last bridge passing into Keller Lake, I let Lily try her hand at navigating the boat using the electric motor. She can't do much damage, and I was Right There in case she needed help. But I think she enjoyed it, and when she's legally old enough to drive a boat I'll let her take over a whole cruise. For now it's stolen moments like these to keep her interest!

We spotted a few birds and the electric motor let us get fairly close. We were going to try and get around the island in Keller Lake, but there's a walking bridge that we wouldn't have been able to clear - by inches!

All in all a wonderful expedition, the motor worked great, and launching/recovery both went quite smoothly.

After You - Mantrap Lake

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For our second outing Up North it was decided that Mantrap and it's connected lakes might be interesting. Were they! Grandpa lent me his battery as a backup, which was good as mine was apparently not fully charged. As a result we got down the lake, through a channel and into another lake when the motor slowed. I swapped batteries and headed back. Ended up using all of our alloted time doing that, however. So we didn't lose much travel in the process. But it just gave me a taste of the lakes and their potential.

Hanna and Eli were along for the ride and halfway we had the traditional candy bar snack. It was cloudy, threatened rain just a little, but never did.

Given the beautiful landing (with dock!) and parking area, not to mention the core beauty and length of the lakes -- I will definitely be back! And next time I'll bring the new gas motor, which should give me a much, much longer range. Can't wait!

More photos here

After You - Lake George

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Our first outings on Lake George were a success. Launched at the public landing across the lake and Jill and niece Brooke and I took the boat across to the dock on the land. Lovely. Brooke didn't speak the whole time, but she did get a chance to sample some of the books in the After You'd children's collection. First mate Lily maintains that.

You can see the newly installed curtains. They're a hack job but meant to be placeholders for the real ones. I really wanted to get the curtain up under the lantern so I could keep junk in the bow and not worry that it looked messy. Ship shape!

Later that afternoon I took Lily and niece Hanna out on a ride. We discovered a previously unnoticed bay, saw at least three eagles waaaay up in the sky, Loons, and had a lot of fun. Lily introduced Hanna to the joys of sitting in the "front spot" that she enjoys so much.

More photos here

After You - Bear lake

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An epic voyage. With a full battery I took the boat downlake to the channels which lead to the dam at the end of the lake. The goal was to see how far one can get on a single battery charge.

When my parents first got the cabin it came with a small motorboat and a 6 or 9 horse motor. Just enough for fishing. We once took the boat down to the end of the lake through the channels - rowing a bit, poling a bit, motoring a bit. Jim was in charge, I just remember thinking it was super awesome cool. We'd never been down there since. We took the latest, new, big motor speedboat down there this spring just me and my family, but only entered the channel and turned around. A taste to inspire.

So while I needed to know how far I could go, I also figured this would be a great opportunity to see how well the After You could manage in thick weeds, winding channels and an electric trolling motor. I was expecting every kind of trouble short of flipping or sinking. I came close.

Heading downlake was awesome. Another epic voyage across a massive sea -- well, it feels like that with a small motor on a good lake. Only took 45 minutes or so, if I recall correctly.

Entering the channel was exciting. The boat slipped through like it was built for it, and the motor was holding up just fine. Being near-silent, sneaking up on wildlife was a routine matter and this trip was no exception. I followed the Great Blue Heron down the channels for about half an hour. Every time I got closer he'd move down another hundred yards. On the way out I saw two of them together in the same spot. Sorry for spoiling your date, dude.

By the time I got to the second (last) bridge the battery was already running slower. I was tired of pulling it and dropping weeds off the prop - though that was really quite easy. All I had to do was bend over the motor a bit, tilt it forward, back, forward and then wait for the boat to drift over the massive pile of weeds I left behind. Once it cleared I dropped it and we were off again. Sometimes for another hundred feet, but more often just another ten feet.

I took a turn rowing through the weeds as well. I wanted to see how feasible that was, as well as preserve even a bit of battery. I was thrilled (but not surprised) to find the motor simply lost power gradually. If I turned it off for a bit it seemed to come back a bit stronger. But it definitely was starting to slow to a speed that wasn't completely efficient.

Under the last bridge there was some semi-submerged pilings and I decided that was enough to turn back and call it a success. Maybe I'll head down there again some time, but probably in the spring when the water is clearer. And operation "underwater cam" would really apply nicely here as well.

So I turn back and head back up through the weeds. But the time I got to the part of the channel which was fairly clear and just a long run up to the lake I was running short on travel hours. The plan was to call Jill from the boat radio and she'd come down in the big boat and give me a tow back up the lake as much as I needed it. It depending on the staying power of the motor, really. Cell phone was backup, as this was a bit of a stretch for the boat radio, as well.

The radio was barely getting static so I reached for -- oh wait, where's my phone? Console box, right. No... it's not there... Maybe I dropped it in the cabin. Not in there. Frantic search later and I'm realizing that my Super Awesome Nexus One Android Phone was lost at sea! Had I seen it go overboard I would have gone in headfirst after it. Looking at the GPS track later it appeared to be right by one of the bridges. I will go visit the spot from time to time as a memorial.

Finally got Jill on the radio as I coasted into range. All I had to do was cover about a hundred yards of channel, but it was uplake and into the wind. So I spent most of my power on keeping in the channel and out of the lilypads. Jill showed up and had to wait for me to limp out to her in the bay. We hooked her up to the big boat and we were towed up the lake at record speed. Well, record for the After You. Was kinda fun to see this wake behind her:

More photos here

After You - Bear Lake

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An impromptu spin around the shore near the cabin as the girls went canoeing at dusk. Quiet, calm water, beautiful evening light and a full battery spinning me silently around as they canoe for a short while. More bliss.

More photos here

After You - Calhoun

Jill dropped us off at the lake and we headed through Isles, Cedar, and finally to Brownie and back. Lily needed a pit stop on the way, so we stopped at the public beach on Cedar Lake for her to use the potty. There was a dock and everything!

Her entry in the ship's log has something to say about duckies.

The entrance to Brownie Lake is a culvert about 5 feet wide, which leaves us 6 inches or so on either side of the boat. But it's spooky cool!

After You - Long Lake

Another Solo outing. Sadly, few pictures. Nice lake, going uplake was easy and fine. Wanted to see how far up the creek I could get. Made it to the first pool and it just got too shallow. It least now I know. :)

Downlake there were a lot more jetski and larger boats. Learned a lot about making it through wakes without slamming the hull into the next wave. Launch and retrieval went well for being alone.