Forgot to write about my hunting trip with Matt. He got a new hip a few months back and so picked a spot with muskegs not far from the beach he felt he could comfortably reach. I got the old 150 going and it ran fine down to the spot on Admiralty. The area was great but we didn’t see any deer and only a few tracks in the shallow snow. On the way out, I looked and saw what I thought was a seal not 10 yards away in the water. Then I realized it was a river otter, so I chambered a shell and the otter dove. He came up for a close shot, but I missed. The otter moved off shore and swam south. Everytime he came up he’d look back, and stayed well off shore till he was out of sight.
We got the boat loaded up. It would not start. I wore down one battery and then the other. Luckily it wa s nearly flat calm so I cranked up the 8 hp kicker and we ran home on it. I was glad I remembered the propane heater since it was not exactly wa rm out in the fading sun of late winter. We made it home without incident. I ordered a new used 90 hp Honda 4 stroke from a dealer in Port Angeles and it should be here on the barge and hopefully I can get it mounted this weekend.
Today is Jan 1 and so usually a sad day as it’s a 7 month wait till deer season opens again. But the weather is so crappy with wind and a driving rain that we wouldn’t be out today anyway.