Eric’s Blog

One of the things that I’m most excited about our move is where we’re going to be keeping the boat. Full disclosure, the boat is already there, we took it over earlier this Spring on one of the trips we took to go see Sarah at JMU. I found a place on the Potomac River, about 45 minutes from the house, that is a fully functional marina with a boatel. It is called Hope Springs Marina and we’re already in love with the place and so happy that we set this up.

https://hopespringsmarina.com/

The Best Part

I think the best part of this is that our boat will be turn-key used from here on out. All we have to do is send a notice through the application what day and time we want the boat ready and they’ll take it out of the boatel and put it in the water for us. We turn the key and go. When we’re done, we park the boat in the queue for the forklift, they pick it up out of the water and put it back in the boatel.

Before, it was always such a chore to get the boat out for a day. When we were done, we had to put it back on the trailer, clean it, flush the engine, and put it away. It was so much work. Now, we’re going to be able to enjoy our boat without having to worry about all the work that comes after enjoying it.

There are a lot of bigger boats than ours, so we know we’re not going to have issues with running soft aground like we have in the past. Plus, they’re will be more people to get to know and talk about boats with. We will also be close to help if we do run into trouble.

We’re also excited about the fact that we can take the boat up the Potomac River all the way to DC if we want. There are marinas along the way to stop and get gas, I definitely want to try doing this at least once.

Better than what we currently have

One of the best parts is that the money we normally spend on our Homeowner’s Association Owners dues for Captain’s Cove will pay for the yearly boatel and marina fees. We don’t use any of the emenities with the HOA. The golf course isn’t free any more, it costs money to play on top of the money we pay in dues every year. The pools were closed last year on Memorial Day and Independence Day because “they were doing maintenance” [yeah right, who is doing maintenance on a holiday?] The Marina Club is open to anyone who wants to go there and usually there’s just a bunch of local bar-flys in there getting drunk and being rowdy. I think we’re finally going to get something for our money. There’s even a members-only area that we already have a passkey to access. #squeee

Hassle-free maintenance and winterization

There’s also an on-site maintenance facility and they’re an authorized Mercury dealer/maintenance shop. If we need something done to the boat, we call the on-site shop and tell them what we want. They do the work and send the bill to us. I won’t have to wait weeks or even months to get something done to the boat, nor will I have to do the work myself because I don’t want to wait weeks or months. We had to get an automatic fire extinguisher installed in the engine compartment as a safety feature because the boat is being stored inside. I called them up a week or two after we dropped it off and asked them to install it. It’s just that easy.

The marina is just off the main fork of the Potomac River and the southern most heart is where our house is being built. It’s a little bit of a drive, but no further than it was from Bellwood to Lake Raystown when I was growing up. We weren’t going to get any time to run the boat here on the Eastern Shore this year. This way, we’ll be able to use the boat this summer after we move across the bay.

What do you all think? Good deal or no? We’re super excited about this and if you’re ever in the area and want to go out on The Vista Cruiser, just let us know.