First boat

I promised that this log would begin at the very beginning and then I spent day after day, thinking to myself, what is the very beginning? What leads a person to decide that he can leave behind everything you know and get in a small boat and attempted travel entirely around the world by his or her self. And I realized that those are in fact, the questions that the journey itself is meant to answer.
So.
My first boat.
Last year, almost exactly a year ago, I found myself spending time (Perhaps too much time) looking at ads for used boat's. I looked at cruisers and houseboats and trawlers, but mostly, sailboats. Eventually I found a listing of a boat for sale near where I live, that was being sold by Marina.
The ads said "This is a nice shallow draft sailboat with trailer. Included is the boat mast boom, two bags of sales. Some safety gear and trailer the Marina's staff has used or water trail this boat ourselves. The boat was in use by the prior owner at one of our dock slips for two seasons before we halted out in shrink wrap it. So we believe it to be complete and ready for use"

It looked good in the picture and most importantly, perhaps. It was listed at just exactly the amount of money I had in the bank. So I went out and looked at the boat. Of course, I've never owned a boat and had no idea what I should be looking for, but that's okay...Right? It wasn't very mildewy, and it seemed to have all the parts far as I could tell, although the motor mount on the back was naked. The man at the Marina told me that perhaps for a few more hundred dollars Something could be done about that. We negotiated a bit more. I started with my entire bank account. I subtracted the amount I needed for my next rent payment, and then made an offer. The offer stipulated that the boat had to have the motor that ran mounted on it with a gas tank and that he should include dock space for the rest of the season. The idea as I explained to the seller was that if I bought the boat I needed to be able use it. And I wasn't going to be able to afford to fix it up. I needed the boat to be operable from the start, and so an agreement was struck. I would buy the boat, with sales and motor and dockage for the rest of the season. The boat included a trailer as well, on which I could store the boat in the winter and the boat would be launched for me but I'd pay labor for the launching.
I wrote a check and left with a combination of great joy and fear. I have two days off each week, but they're not the regular weekend, rather than having Saturday and Sunday I have two separate days, so no my next day off I came down to see which dock my boat would be floating at, and founded it exactly where it had been, on the trailer. I was told they simply hadn't got around to it yet. On my next day off, I returned and was told that there was a problem with the motor mount and that I was going to need a new turnbuckle for the back stay. The next time I called before going down and I was informed that the Bay, which this Marina sits on was having very low water and the sailboat wouldn't really be able to get out into the lake. So the boat would need be launched down at the river. I made it clear that I'd like the my boat to be launched by my next day off. I was thinking that I'd get my son who lives with his mother and bring him down to see my new boat and we'd taken it out together for the first time. The following Friday I went down to the river and looked for my boat to see which dock it was at and did not find it. So call the owner of the Marina to ask where I might find it. He told me that his people had put the boat in the water but it was sinking, so they pulled it back out and I should look for them at the launch sling. It seems that the hose which connects the drain in the cockpit to an outlet under the water line below the teller was cracked. When the boat was placed in water the cockpit drain went to work draining the great lakes into my boat. This hose was replaced with a Pice of scrap plastic flex house and gentlemen launching the boat showed me how to step the mast and where all the cables would be connected to the boat to hold the mast up. I found out later that the side cables are called shrouds and the ones to front and back are called stays (I'm going to try to remember to mention things like that under the assumption that some people who read this may not be boating people and some these terms may not mean anything to you as they did not to me yet on that day). So the boat was relaunched the motor put in place and started. It ran for about 30 seconds before it stalled. the two men working on my boat tried this several times before removing the motor and taking it off to be fixed, but mentioned to me that thay were going to go to launch first.
Great start.
I finished attaching the cables, that hold the mast in place. I tightened them until they all felt reasonably tense to me. I installed the ruter. Then I went off to the marine supply store, West Marine to be specific, and bought some life jackets. then I went and got my boy.
By the time I returned to the boat. The motor had been reinstalled, but the workmen were nowhere to be seen so I called the Marina owner again and asked what dock the boat was supposed to be at. I started the motor and we shoved off into the river. The dock I'd been assigned was about 300 yards down river and we got almost two thirds of the way there before the motor died. I tried to turn the boat toward the dock by pushing the teller (the handle on the ruter) which snapped off in my hand I tryed to restart the motor I tryed to remember what I was thinking when I spent all my money on something I know nothing about.
So there we were my son and I the first-time on my boat drifting down the river toward the lake (or maybe towards somebodies half million-dollar yacht) with no ability whatsoever to control the boat movements or direction. Fortunately a passing power-boater offered us a tow over to the dock. My son (he is not a Little boy) jumped off with a rope and we tied up.
My first voige.
Now, there was no way that I was going to go out into the lake without a working motor to bring me back up the river and into the dock. But I also didn't feel completely satisfied with my day of sailing. So I decided to at least raise the sails. I got the three canvas bags that had been presented to me as the sails for the boat and pulled out each of the sails. I had a mainsail (the big triangular one) were all so familiar with. I also had a jib (that's the sail that goes in front of the mast and fills the space between the four stay and the mast) and a genoa, which also goes in front of the mast, but stretches further back along the side of the boat for when there is less wind and you need more sail. First I raised the mainsail. It had a rope sewn into the leading edge, (the luff) which fit into a channel going up the mast and another along the foot that fit into the boom there were also two reef points where the bottom of the sale could be folded in And then the sail tied to the boom to shorten it when the wind is too strong for the size of the sail. Naturally I was still a little frustrated that I wouldn't really be able to take the boat out on the first day because of the motor, but I was really shocked when I raised the sail and found that it was about 4 feet taller than the mast. It turned out to Genoa was also completely the wrong size sail for the boat that it came with. So now I have a sail boat that didn't have sales that fit didn't have a working motor and the teller was broken off.

This was my first day as a sailor

I received a bill from the person who sold me this ... "boat" for the labor incurred during launching $540.18