Dinghy Installation on Kismet

Installing Our New Hurley Davit System

   Hurley Davit System Worked for Kismet! We had been towing our dinghy for over a year when we finally decided to get serious about finding a davit system. Towing is easy and inexpensive, however towing can also become problematic in rough seas or at higher speeds, so we wanted to find a solution, a viable launch and retrieve system where the dinghy would rest upright while overhanging the swim platform slightly. We thought it should be lightweight and detachable when needed, We also needed it to be somewhat flexible, so we could still use our swim platform without completely…

Read more
Crew of Thomas James Sailing Vessel, Kilarney

Meeting Captain & Crew of the Thomas James

Thomas James – Visit with an Exchange of Boat Tours! While cruising through the Killarney Channel, on our way to Collins Inlet, we received a call on our VHF. After switching to channel 68, Bill, the guy hailing us, told us that, as he was standing on the balcony of his channel-side home, he noticed our red Ranger Tug slowly cruising by. He said he was so excited to see the "cute tug" he'd love to have a tour and chat with us about it as he had never seen one in person before. As we were trying to figure out his…

Read more
Kismet Anchored in Colins Inlet, Georgian Bay

Keyhole Island – A Little Peek Into the Northwest Side of Georgian Bay

Keyhole Island on the Northwest Side of Georgian Bay. Georgian Bay is on our cruising bucket list, a trip like this deserves a dedicated stretch of time to explore properly. With that said, we decided to get our toes just a little wet. After we left Covered Portage Cove, we passed through the channel in Killarney for a short, one-day, cruise and anchor in the northwest side of Georgian Bay. Four miles or so east of Killarney is the western entrance to Collins Inlet and a 10-mile run to Mill Lake. It was Collins Inlet, a narrow channel, where we spent…

Read more
View from the Top, Covered Portage Cove

Doubling Our Pleasure in Covered Portage Cove

Rendezvous with Freedom's Turn in Covered Portage Cove! Doubling our pleasure comes to mind when we think of our visit to Covered Portage Cove in the North Channel. Not only was it our first time anchoring in this cove, but we also had the pleasure of rendezvousing with friends Charlie and Linda on Freedom's Turn (above). We met them in 2008 while doing our second Great Loop boat trip and cruised several times together, including a trip to Chattanooga and even the Bahamas. With a lot of shared cruising experiences in common, we were excited for the reunion in Covered Portage Cove. We…

Read more
Kismet Anchored, Covered Portage Cove, North Channel

Covered Portage Cove – The Perfect Anchorage

Covered Portage Cove anchorage – High rocky cliffs and near-perfect protection from the elements. From South Benjamin Island we made our way past Little Current, Strawberry, and Heywood Islands as we skirted south of Frazier Bay to enter Lansdowne Channel on the way to Covered Portage Cove, just west of Killarney, the old provincial outpost that separates Ontario's North Channel from Georgian Bay. We had only dinghied to Covered Portage Cove anchorage in 2007 when we had docked our boat for a few days in Killarney. We vowed then to put it on our list as a future anchorage spot. When I…

Read more
Kismet Anchored, Torch Lake, Michigan

Torch Lake – Kismet Likes to Anchor Here

Torch Lake has lots of fond memories for Lisa and me. We each boated here before we were married and began our boating adventures together on this lake. We used to trailer our 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner to Torch Lake to spend long weekends on the hook, but since our mode of boating has changed over the last fifteen years it's been a long time since we've been able to bring one of our boats to any inland lake. We kind of like the flexibility we are now enjoying with our Ranger Tug, Kismet. Torch Lake is named, not for…

Read more
Kismet Docked on New River, Fort Lauderdale

Keeping a Promise in Fort Lauderdale

Lisa made me promise we'd stop in Fort Lauderdale for a week, so after staying in Homestead for two nights to catch up on work and other chores, here we are putting the boat in the water right at Cooley's Landing Marina (below), on the New River at the beginning of the downtown Riverwalk area. Cooley's is one of our favorite marinas in Florida. Nice facilities and location. We can walk to shop in Las Olas, eat out at a choice of restaurants, grocery shop, or get plenty of exercise walking right along the river. Lisa always raves about Cooley's…

Read more
Kismet at Anchor, Florida Keys

The Route Less Taken – Key West to Marathon

When leaving Key West by water, and heading east to Marathon, there are two Intracoastal Waterways (ICW) route choices. There is the unobstructed, direct route of Hawk Channel which runs parallel to the Keys and cuts into Florida Bay at Marathon. Hawk Channel is somewhat protected from the coral reefs that separate it from the Atlantic Ocean; this is the most popular route because you don't need to worry about dodging shallow water. We've taken Hawk Channel several times but have never taken the route less traveled, the Florida Bay ICW. One of the reasons the route north of the…

Read more
Kismet Cruising Florida Flats

Mission Foiled – Uninhabited Marquesas Keys – Islands West of Key West

Just for you Rob! We left Key West Harbour early in the morning – with calmer waters and clear skies forecasted, we thought it was time for a little excursion to the Marquesas Keys. The Marquesas sit 18 nautical miles west of Key West and are uninhabited. Our thoughts were that it would be fun to anchor out and enjoy the serenity of these isolated Keys. Although It was a pleasant enough cruise out, shortly after we had cruised halfway around the island and dropped anchor the wind kicked up. There really wasn't an option to move to the lee side of…

Read more
Florida Flats

Dock Fever? – Let’s Visit the Florida “Flats”

Ever since we arrived for our month-long stay, it's been very windy and this has inhibited our plans to explore the surrounding area of Key West by boat; we were getting itchy to push away from the dock. We're usually not interested in taking random boat rides, so when we do sever the dock lines and head out, we like to have a purpose and a plan. Key West, being the southernmost spot in the U.S., is somewhat at the end of the road and although the cruising options for a day out on the water are limited, the choices…

Read more
Kismet Bottom Paint Job

Boat Yard Blues – Part Two

I am truly in the swing of things on day two in the boat yard. The good news is the On & Off product helped de-wax the hull, one of the steps needed to properly prepare the hull for bottom paint. Next, I applied acetone to the hull to assure that all wax, from when the hull came out of the mold, was completely gone. After a good washing, I taped the hull off an inch below the boot stripe then applied a very light 220 grit scuffing followed by a final washing in preparation for the painting, which I…

Read more
Jim on Kismet in Boatyard

Boat Yard Blues

We never addressed the issue of bottom painting our Ranger Tug until one day, while taking our boat out of the water in Ft Myers Beach; we were surprised by the excessive growth of barnacles on the hull of Kismet. We recognized the problem and we wanted to take care of it ASAP. After arranging to have our boat hauled by 3D, a self-service boat yard in Key West, I began researching how to clean the hull and what to apply to help the process along and what kind of paint we might need. Because we use our boat in…

Read more
SaniGard

Getting Rid of Odiferous Aromas

If you're a boater or have ever walked a marina dock, sat on the back deck or cockpit of someone's boat, you've most likely had the occasion to inhale the odiferous and unpleasant aroma coming from the vent of a black water holding tank as someone flushed their business down the boat's toilet. I came across a solution a couple of years back and I've just installed it on our Ranger Tug. It helps us, our guests, and dock neighbors not be bothered by disagreeable odors. The product I installed is an inline, charcoal-activated, holding tank vent filter called SaniGard.…

Read more
Manatee trawler

Thanks to all the “Ted’s” Out There

Recently we made a post about meeting Ted, on Manatee (below - left), a very friendly boater whom we spent only about an hour's worth of total time with. We first met Ted while we were both traveling south on the GICW (we slowed down for a short conversation about where we were headed), we finally met up with each other in Goodland, Florida where we anchored near the Calusa Island Marina where Manatee was docked. In an hour's length of total time, I don't think you could say we were good friends but good enough for us to know Ted…

Read more

Dinghy Davit Decision

   Lisa and I gave a great deal of thought to the purchase of our Ranger Tug and GMC tow truck but, until recently, we never gave much thought to the dinghy we'd need and how we'd transport it on and off of the water. We finally had some boating downtime over the holidays and were able to do some research after a great deal of thought settled on a small 7' 7" Achilles inflatable, with a soft bottom, made of Hypalon material and powered by a Tohatsu 4 HP 4 stroke outboard. It arrived in a neat little package…

Read more
Cottonwood Canyon, Lake Powell

Good Morning Cottonwood Canyon

Our last morning in Cottonwood Canyon was as still as could be. This made it even harder to leave this beach anchorage, but we knew we would have a morning full of visual delights as we headed out toward our day's destination, Davis Gulch, and Llewellyn Gulch. The sky and water could not be bluer and the rock walls stood in high contrast as the sun slowly turned them bright orange.

Read more
Kismet Beach Anchored, Oak Bay, Lake Powell

Two-Night Stay in Oak Bay

On our fourth day out, we found the well-protected, but wide-open, Oak Bay for a couple of nights' stay, we shared a beach with only one other houseboat. This is one of the most popular bays for boaters in Lake Powell. Today we were more comfortable with picking a spot on the beach and it only took us a few minutes to tie ourselves down, mostly because we'd left our lines and spare anchor tied in place on the boat. Most days, we’d leave our beach anchorage to explore new canyons. Later, about mid-day, we’d start looking for a new…

Read more
Kismet Cruising Cathedral Canyon, Lake Powell

Cruising Cathedral and Secret Canyons

The mystery of the unknown is one of the most compelling reasons why we love exploring new (to us) boating destinations. Lake Powell more than satisfied our quest to be inundated with awe-inspiring sights as we made our way up the lake, around the crested buttes and all the rock canyons that the lake has to offer. At 186 miles long, with 2,000 miles of shoreline and 96 uniquely named, and flooded canyons, there was always something new to see, just around the next bend. Our first narrow canyon cruising exploration came on our third full day on the lake.  While…

Read more
Padre Bay Canyon, Lake Powell

Canyon Cruising

The Amazing Lake Powell Lisa and I have talked for a long time about our mutual interest in cruising Lake Powell on a houseboat, it's been on our to-do list for quite some time. For one reason or another, it never worked out until now, although it won't be on a houseboat but on our very own tug boat, Kismet. Prior to the building of the Glen Canyon Dam, which was completed in 1963, Lake Powell did not exist and boating was nothing like it is today. It took 17 years to fill the canyons up to their full pool…

Read more
Ranger Tugs Rendezvous, Bremerton, Washington

2011 Ranger Tug Rendezvous

The Boats... They're Everywhere! Sixty-eight Ranger Tugs and Cutwaters in one place, at one time. They were many sizes, from 21 to 29 feet. If set end to end they would have measured 1,768 feet or one-third of a mile long. A rainbow of colors was represented – yellow, dark red, fire engine red, blue, green, tan, and white with owners from as far away as Maine and New York, on the east coast, Michigan, Texas, California, Montana, Colorado, and Oregon. Most were from Washington State, many hailed from British Columbia, Canada. With 68 boats present, Lisa and I had…

Read more
Ranger Tugs Kismet

Sea Trial Fun – Kent, Washington

The big day finally arrived, the day we saw the results of our long-planned transition into becoming owners of a Ranger Tugs R27 trailerable trawler. We were so excited to see our new boat, that we arrived an hour earlier than scheduled to start our new boat orientation and sea trial with Andrew. Andrew Custis, Ranger Tugs Customer Service Manager, is responsible for our new boat training and introduction. The better part of a day was spent on Lake Washington with Andrew going through the boat systems and answering our questions, the session finished after a sea trial – Andrew wanted…

Read more
Ranger Tugs Rendezvous

Itching to Get Back on the Water

Above are photos of a Ranger Tug Rendezvous, courtesy of Herb Stark. When I was a child, our family would drive to Lake Chemung (Howell, Michigan) to spend summer weekends, a family event I always enjoyed. Like many things children look forward to, like getting to the lake, it never seemed to happen soon enough. If I said it once I’d bet I said it a hundred times, “Are we there yet?” and I’m beginning to feel the same way about heading out west to get back to boating. This time with our Ranger Tug R27 trailerable trawler. Later this…

Read more
Ranger Tugs R27

Final Decision is Made in the U.S.A.

One of Our Top Priorities was to Buy a Boat that was Made in the U.S.A. Over the last several months, we’ve learned more about trailerable trawlers, towing, and tow trucks than we ever could have imagined. This knowledge has come from Internet searches, talking with manufacturers of trawlers, boat shows, marina visits, and owner forums. However, the most important source was often from boating friends and sometimes from people we didn’t know who reached out to us to share their experiences and why they bought the boat they did. We heard from a couple who, like us, had downsized…

Read more
Favors's GMC Sierra Pickup Truck

Also Made in the U.S.A.

Now that we’ll be towing our trailerable Ranger Tugs R27 cross country, down south, or anywhere in between, we wanted a truck that could do the job effortlessly and dependably. We chose the GMC Sierra 2500 and equipped her with a Duramax Diesel engine, 4WD, trailering towing package and a few creature comforts to make our travel days more relaxing. Besides the 11-year dependable track record of the Duramax, we liked the fully boxed frame, diesel exhaust brake, automatic locking rear differential, and the StabiliTrak that came with the GMC. To read more about these features check out the more…

Read more
Cutwater Salon

Another Trailerable Boat from Ranger Tugs

We recently heard about this new model trailerable boat built by Ranger Tugs. We haven't been on one yet but we'd Therefore to get back your stamina this drug can be bought from any internet or local pharmacy at discounted prices. Looks like a comfortable, well-built boat. For more photos and information visit their website:  http://www.cutwaterboats.com

Read more
Back To Top