Our new boat, Nine Songs.

We purchased her one week before Christmas 2008.  We had no idea if the boat would run, or what it needed to get "seaworthy".

Here's a picture of Katlyn standing next to our boat, the first night we brought it home.

I was eager to get the boat looked at and see just what the damage would be, but before I could even think about taking the boat to see a mechanic there was some work that needed to be done with the tires on the trailer.

Once springtime came around we took the boat to Allcraft marine in Cincinnati.  They informed me that a lot of work was needed to get the boat where it needed to be.  Here are some pics of the work.  As you can see, the engine had to be removed.

After a couple of weeks the boat was ready to come home.  We brought her home over 4th of July weekend 2009.  But there was still work to be done before she was ready to hit the water.  The boat had sat outside for a long time and the side panels on the inside were completely rotten.  The base of the drivers seat had also rotted out, so we needed to put a new seat in as well.

Sometime during tearing out all of the rotten wood I began to wonder if buying a boat was such a good idea....  I took the pressure washer to the name on the back of the boat and changed it from "The Scamp" to:

Just when we were about to install the new drivers seat, it started to rain.  But it was going to take more than a little rain to slow us down...

Here is the seat once we figured out how to get it in...  Not pretty, but functional.

Not too much was needed to get the cabin ready to go...

Finally, the big day had arrived.  Our friend Nick and his wife Sarah agreed to meet us at Manhattan Harbor for the first launch of Nine Songs.  Here are the girls sitting on the dock anxiously awaiting their first trip.

Other pictures from the first boat trip.

It was a very good day.  The only thing that was really eye opening to me was that we were with our friend Nick and his wife Sarah and they had a smaller open bow boat that could move up and down the water no problem at all.  I quickly found out that our boat could get up and scoot pretty quickly, but using right at 30 gallons of gas in less than three hours of driving the boat got my attention quickly.  I have learned to take it much easier on the throttle.