HOUSEBOATING

HOUSEBOATING
Our growing family rented a houseboat 25 years ago. We all enjoyed our outings together. It took some effort to set up these events, so someone suggested that we establish a “Family Activities Coordinator”. We all thought that would be a good idea, with the understanding that the responsibility would be rotated among the adults every calendar year.
The year was 1982. Anne volunteered to be the first Coordinator. I don’t remember who suggested “House-boating”, but we all agreed that it would be fun to try it. As it turned out, we had too high expectations for a wonderful weekend!
The rental period was from noon on Friday (Sept.24) to 4 P,M. Sunday (Sept. 26). The cost was $323.00, plus the gas used. The boat slept ten. “Flagship” was the name of our boat. The crew, and passengers were:
Marie and Ray
Anne, Rick, Doug and Brad.
Mary and Greg.
Joan, Manny and Melissa.
I am getting the above information from a copy of our “Boarding Pass”, and the following, from a copy of the “Flagships” (#5042) Log, that Manny sent me recently.
We all assembled at the Holiday Flotels- Delta dock at 11540 West Eight Mile road, in Stockton. The following is from the Ship’s Log:
Friday afternoon, Sept. 24,1982.
Marie, Manny and I (Ray) arrived at Holiday Flotel’s dock about 3:30 PM. We signed the contract and got our instructions.
We started to load our supplies on board. A HF employee cane aboard at 1645 to explain the controls and systems. He said that he couldn’t take the boat out to check us out after 5 PM, according to Coast Guard regulations. He said that they came to work at 7AM, and he would be around to check us out about 7:30 Saturday morning. He said that it was filled with gasoline, butane and water. (To be continued.)