qwikkotatx
Member
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 16
- Points
- 17
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2024
- Boat Model
- FSH
- Boat Length
- 22
I just finished a round trip from Houston to Panama City to purchase a new 222 FSH E that was on eBay at a heavily discounted price. I had purchased it through eBay but they use a 3rd party to manage payments and required documentation that the dealer was delayed in uploading. I ended up canceling the online sale and purchasing it direct from Panama City Cycles. The drive East didn't begin until late in the day and I slept in the truck in a hotel parking lot in Slidell, LA. My back was not happy about that but I was up at 5am to finish driving and a hotel would have been a waste of money. Ok, I am fooling myself. I wish I had gotten a room. I got to the beautiful area of Lynn Haven, FL around Noon last Friday and grabbed some lunch and Advil.
The dealer was close by but very busy with motorcycle sales. It took about 2 hours to do the paperwork and boat walkthrough. The boat was in great condition for being outside for a year and I was blown away with all of the features and storage. The salesman told me about a nearby boat ramp and I asked him if he could flush the engines if I got back in time. He said sure.
I had the trailer hitched up around 2:30 and made it to the ramp about 3. I was launching a boat by myself for the first time and it was a bit nerve wracking. The ramp was very nice and a guy in a flats boat helped me with some pointers. The jet drive setup with twins took some getting used to but I got out of the dock area without hitting anything luckily. Low tide and narrow exit to the bay. I was still breaking in the engines so had to take it easy and keep it under 5k rpm. Thank the Lord for the Simrad that the E model comes with. I would have definitely hit some sandbars due to the low tide. All smiles once I hit deeper water.
After the dealer flushed the boat I filled up the livewell and the fancy Engel cooler with fresh water to be able to clean the boat with the next day as I wanted to take it out in Destin. I drove that way and got a hotel since my financial decisions were already questionable, hah.
I drove to Ft Walton Beach Saturday morning to launch at Ross Marler park. I made the mistake of trying to launch on the side of the ramp with a guardrail and impartial dock. I got some hull scraping on the port side but it is what it is. The air was chilly but the water was warm and I eventually got the boat tied up correctly and the trailer parked.
Again, thanks to the Simrad chart plot I managed to stay in deep water and follow the channel towards the Destin bridge. It is very narrow in some places and gets shallow fast. About halfway to the Crab Island area I hit 1.5 hours and break in was over. Full throttle was eye opening compared to boats I have rented in the past. Again, huge smile on my face.
I got stuck behind some fool trying to get his trolling motor out under the bridge in the main channel area but eventually made it to a wide open area and threw out the anchor. I had some time to kill but no real bait. I had some fish bites in my tackle bag and caught the boat's first fish which was naturally a hardhead (junk catfish). Still, it was really cool to be able to sit on the transom and not have a huge outboard in the way.
I pulled anchor and made my way over to the Harborwalk area. My Wife flew in and after a $200 taxi from PCB I picked her up at AJ's restaurant. She had to help me dock as I was trying to reverse in and the wind was blowing me away from the pilings. I was digging around in the storage area for something and noticed the table mount was included with this boat. I put the bow platform in the aft table position and eventually moved it back to the bow where we had grouper sandwiches and beers. Very cool feature. This and the privacy area made my Wife fall in love with the boat.
We made our way over to Crab Island to anchor but ended up just relaxing on the boat. The water was a little chilly and She was worried we might get stuck on the sandbar or intake too much sand. We had to get on the road so headed back to the dock and flush the engines using a 12V 750W inverter and a 110v sump pump stuck down in the livewell. We found a car wash slightly north of the intercoastal and laughed when we saw it had a boat engine flush connection. I sprayed the hull and trailer down and we took off for Baton Rouge to spend the night. That was the toughest part of the drive as I was very tired and it got dark fast. I locked the trailer chains to the truck hitch and put a heavy bike cable lock through the trailer wheels and we drank a bourbon to wind down. The drive back to Houston was rough with all the construction on I-10 and lots of poor overpass transitions that had us bouncing around. Finally made it home mid-day and let the kids climb all over the boat. They were very happy to see it arrive. Still getting to know it but took them out for a brief time last Sunday. Hoping to make great memories on this boat and become better at the helm.
The dealer was close by but very busy with motorcycle sales. It took about 2 hours to do the paperwork and boat walkthrough. The boat was in great condition for being outside for a year and I was blown away with all of the features and storage. The salesman told me about a nearby boat ramp and I asked him if he could flush the engines if I got back in time. He said sure.
I had the trailer hitched up around 2:30 and made it to the ramp about 3. I was launching a boat by myself for the first time and it was a bit nerve wracking. The ramp was very nice and a guy in a flats boat helped me with some pointers. The jet drive setup with twins took some getting used to but I got out of the dock area without hitting anything luckily. Low tide and narrow exit to the bay. I was still breaking in the engines so had to take it easy and keep it under 5k rpm. Thank the Lord for the Simrad that the E model comes with. I would have definitely hit some sandbars due to the low tide. All smiles once I hit deeper water.
After the dealer flushed the boat I filled up the livewell and the fancy Engel cooler with fresh water to be able to clean the boat with the next day as I wanted to take it out in Destin. I drove that way and got a hotel since my financial decisions were already questionable, hah.
I drove to Ft Walton Beach Saturday morning to launch at Ross Marler park. I made the mistake of trying to launch on the side of the ramp with a guardrail and impartial dock. I got some hull scraping on the port side but it is what it is. The air was chilly but the water was warm and I eventually got the boat tied up correctly and the trailer parked.
Again, thanks to the Simrad chart plot I managed to stay in deep water and follow the channel towards the Destin bridge. It is very narrow in some places and gets shallow fast. About halfway to the Crab Island area I hit 1.5 hours and break in was over. Full throttle was eye opening compared to boats I have rented in the past. Again, huge smile on my face.
I got stuck behind some fool trying to get his trolling motor out under the bridge in the main channel area but eventually made it to a wide open area and threw out the anchor. I had some time to kill but no real bait. I had some fish bites in my tackle bag and caught the boat's first fish which was naturally a hardhead (junk catfish). Still, it was really cool to be able to sit on the transom and not have a huge outboard in the way.
I pulled anchor and made my way over to the Harborwalk area. My Wife flew in and after a $200 taxi from PCB I picked her up at AJ's restaurant. She had to help me dock as I was trying to reverse in and the wind was blowing me away from the pilings. I was digging around in the storage area for something and noticed the table mount was included with this boat. I put the bow platform in the aft table position and eventually moved it back to the bow where we had grouper sandwiches and beers. Very cool feature. This and the privacy area made my Wife fall in love with the boat.
We made our way over to Crab Island to anchor but ended up just relaxing on the boat. The water was a little chilly and She was worried we might get stuck on the sandbar or intake too much sand. We had to get on the road so headed back to the dock and flush the engines using a 12V 750W inverter and a 110v sump pump stuck down in the livewell. We found a car wash slightly north of the intercoastal and laughed when we saw it had a boat engine flush connection. I sprayed the hull and trailer down and we took off for Baton Rouge to spend the night. That was the toughest part of the drive as I was very tired and it got dark fast. I locked the trailer chains to the truck hitch and put a heavy bike cable lock through the trailer wheels and we drank a bourbon to wind down. The drive back to Houston was rough with all the construction on I-10 and lots of poor overpass transitions that had us bouncing around. Finally made it home mid-day and let the kids climb all over the boat. They were very happy to see it arrive. Still getting to know it but took them out for a brief time last Sunday. Hoping to make great memories on this boat and become better at the helm.
