The Boat is Back!

Finally all the work at Sale Creek was done, so we went to pick it up yesterday. Shifty was nice enough to give us a ride up to Sale Creek. (Our Hero!) We got to the marina early, paid our bill, picked up a little fuel, and headed out. We hit the river around 10:30. The forecast called for 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms. And it was pretty cloudy most of the trip. Nice and cool, though.
Overall, it was a pretty uneventful trip, so there isn't much to blog about. The sun came out about 45 minutes before we got back to the marina. It was so hot! And we both ended up a little sunburned. That spray sunscreen is really nice and easy to use, but it's easy to miss spots. So I had a very splotchy sunburn. Trevor had the usual burn on the back of his neck and shoulders.
About 30 minutes before we got back to the marina, our tiller cracked. We were switching off driving, and I leaned on it a little. I didn't even lean hard (no chubby jokes here), so it must have been weakening for a while. Luckily, it was still drivable. I wrapped a rope around the end where it connects, just to make sure it didn't crack all the way and fall off. So we made it back.
Parking the boat took a couple of tries. I think the motor is working a lot better than it was, thanks to all the recent usage (a happy diesel is one that's run a lot), so it was more responsive than I'm used to. Didn't hit any boats, though! (Luckily, I'm pretty responsive, too.) But I got it lined up perfectly on the second try and parked it like a champ. We had grand ideas of putting the boom back on and everything, but we were (read, I was) tired and ready to get back in air conditioning.
So now the boat is back and ready to be made livable. Yay! The oil leak is stopped for now, so things are looking cautiously optimistic for an early November departure. *fingers crossed*