Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...

I have a confession to make. 

Something I never thought that I would do. 

Ever.

Never, never, ever.

To be honest, I still feel a little bit dirty about it,  but I knew what I was doing and the consequences of my actions.  I think that the priest at the Church of the Holey Wooden Boat would make me say about 9 Hail Mary Celeste's and tell me to repent my sins.  Maybe a few extra. 

Still, over the weekend, I half expected this:

 

What prompted my sin?  Well, it's all because of sandals and a raincoat.  Herein likes the story.  

On Saturday, DW decided that we should take DS and DD over to a local outdoor goods store to get some sandals for the three of them and a new raincoat for DD so she could pass along her old one to DS in preparation for a paddling trip we will be taking later in the month.  When we arrived, somehow we wound up gravitating over to the boat display.  Some of the boats were 50% off and were really quite good prices.  If you bought a boat, there was also a discount on the accessories.  DW spent a remarkably long period of time looking the boats over.  We then went and purchased the requisite sandals and jacket.  

Fast forward to Sunday.

I'm getting ready to run out and do some errands with DS for a tree-house that we are planning to build.  DW and DD had already headed out for a class the DD takes on Sunday afternoons.  Coincidentally, the outdoor goods store is on the way to the class and unbeknownst to me, DW & DD decided that a pair of water shoes was in order and made a stop at the store.  Shortly thereafter, my cell phone rings.  It's DD.  Mind you, DD doesn't have a cell phone, so she's calling from her mother's phone.  The exchange went something like this:

"Daddy, we're at the store and they only have two of the (sale priced) boats that Mommy likes left."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, Daddy, you'd better hurry up and get over here before they're gone."

*CLICK*

So, being the nice guy that I am, I went over to the outdoor goods store and picked up the boat of SWMBO's wishes - along with a paddle for her, some Yakgrips and a new pair of Hullraisers for my roof rack.

What was the boat of SWMBO's wishes?  A Tupperware(tm) bathtub:

 

 

It's an Old Town Vapor 12XT.  It's wide, stable and nearly indestructible.   Last summer, she borrowed a very similar small plastic kayak from friends we were visiting and liked it.  Not as much as the Charlotte lapstrake canoe that she'd been paddling earlier that day, but she liked it.

So.  "Why? Why? Why? " I can hear you ask - "Canoez - you're a boat-builder.  Why does your wife have a plastic boat?"  Well, I haven't gotten around to building DW a boat and I guess it boils down to keeping the women in my life happy. Both  DW and DD both like to paddle the Charlotte,  but for some reason aren't particularly comfortable with my Wee Lassie.  They're not really that different dimensionally, but they claim that the lapstrake boat is more stable.  

Both of them wanted to paddle the Charlotte for the upcoming canoe trip, while DS and I will be paddling a tandem canoe.  Being that we only have one Charlotte at the time-being and it's not likely that I'll be building one in the next few weeks, I had a dilemma.  DW decided that I should solve that with the new Tupperyak.

Perhaps I should sprinkle a little Holey Water on the new boat? 

So, if you see me out flagellating myself with throw bag lines or beating myself over the head with a paddle, just remember that I'm atoning for my sins...