Sweet Emotion

“You talking bout’ things that nobody cares,”

I have a beautiful 12′ raft named Sweet Emotion.  She’s an older NRS (Sprite I think) bucket boat with so many patches on the floor I thought about naming her Patches.  I bought her from a friend for $75 and was pleasantly surprised when my old NRS frame was a perfect fit.

Although the rear tube had a slow leak, the other 3 tubes held air and I thought I had a great boat on the cheap.  After finding the leak, with the old soapy water trick, I applied another patch and named the boat “Sweet Emotion.”

The leak was along a seam which was understandable for a boat that old.  I have looked and still have not found a serial number so the vintage of Sweet Emotion remains unknown.

A month later Sweet Emotion was stacked onto her 14′ big sister “Juanita” and both rafts were strapped securely to the trailer.  Her first trip was to be a Thanksgiving float down the Upper San Juan.  Because it was cold we decided to stay at the Mo Kee Motel in Bluff. We were also informed that the water at the launch site was off so we unstrapped Sweet Emotion and pulled out the water containers stored in Juanita, under Sweet Emotion.

The next morning, after some breakfast libations, we headed to the put-in about 5 miles down the road.  I couldn’t wait to launch Sweet Emotion.  About 3 miles down the road I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see Sweet Emotion starting to plane and then gracefully lift up, flip, and auger onto the highway.

Oh my god!  The horror!  There was a 6″ gash in the front tube.  Immediate deflate and needless to say Sweet Emotion did not launch that day.  If we had only checked to see if she was securely strapped before we headed to the put-in.  Morning libations were identified as the culprit.

Three months later Sweet Emotion was back at the scene of the crime sporting a huge patch on her nose.  This time she made it into the water and performed magnificently.  That’s her on the right next to big sister Juanita.  Note big patch on the nose.  Another month later she was on the Racecourse punching through holes like a champ.  If you look close you can make her out in the foam.

Although Sweet Emotion is not my primary boat, she certainly has earned her place.  I guess I learned to check the straps, how to patch a huge gash, and more importantly, watch those morning libations.