Neat weekend boating

[dirtyoldman]

Well, I finally got a chance to get on a decent size lake and really open the boat up and try it out. I went to Truman lake in Missouri and explored most of the lake. We hit all the marinas and all the restaurants there. Checking out the mileages later I added up 180 miles on the boat, mostly at 30-35 MPH, so about 5.5 hours cruising and maybe 2 at idle or no wake speeds. I figure my sea ray used about 8 GPH cruising and much less at no wake speeds. My first tank I got 4 MPG, and the second one lower, but the kids were complaining about spending too much time boating, so I ran faster than I had before.

I was really curious about fuel consumption, because I want to put it on a river and do some destination cruising and never really knew what my range was or any of that data. I used less fuel than I was assuming I would. I was estimating 8-10 GPH at cruise of about 30 MPH, or close to 3mpg.

Overall, I was really pleased with the way the boat did, and the family and I had a great time. Truman Lake was pretty nice. I wish it had better swimming beaches and that the resort we liked was closer to the dam and open water away from the trees in the water, but those are small complaints overall.

Plus, I only hit two stumps (although I think it was the same stump twice). That's a new record for Truman lake and me.