Let's Go Boating TV: September 7, 2026

Show Notes

Welcome back to Let's Go Boating TV. I'm Franklin Pillsbury the fourth. It's Labor Day, which for most of the country means the season just ended. Rachel's with me, and I'm about to tell her that's backwards.

Franklin Pillsbury IV is joined by Rachel Donovan for the September 7, 2026 edition of Let's Go Boating TV. Practical, plain-English boating for families getting their first boat on the water in Southwest Florida.

Follow @LetsGoBoatingTV for more tips and helpful hints about boating.

. . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

What is Let's Go Boating TV?

Climb aboard and discover the stories, people, and passion that make boating more than a pastime, it is a way of life. Hosted by Franklin Pillsbury IV, this podcast celebrates the heritage of boating, the joy of life on the water, and the lessons learned from family, faith, and community. Each episode brings you engaging conversations with boaters of all generations, industry insiders, and everyday water lovers. From first-time boaters learning the ropes to seasoned captains sharing legacy stories, we explore how boating connects us, teaches us, and changes lives.

Whether you’re here for inspiring stories, practical tips, or just the sound of waves and dockside wisdom, Let’s Go Boating TV Podcast invites you to join the journey. Because at the end of the day, we are all united by water.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Welcome back to Let's Go Boating TV. I'm Franklin Pillsbury the fourth. It's Labor Day, which for most of the country means the season just ended. Rachel's with me, and I'm about to tell her that's backwards.

Rachel Donovan: It's the last day of summer, though. Everybody I know is putting things away this week. Grills, pool toys, all of it.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Up north, sure. Down here you just got through the hard part. What's coming is the good part.

Rachel Donovan: The good part is after Labor Day? That's not what the calendar told me.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: The calendar lies to first year owners. And then we'll get to safety, because a lot of families are going to hear that word this month and reach for a video instead of the one thing that works.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: So here's the lie. You bought the boat in the spring. You used it in June and July, when it's ninety five degrees, there's a line at the ramp, and a storm shows up every afternoon at three. That's the only boating you've ever known.

Rachel Donovan: And now everybody's telling me it's over, so I'd just assume that is what boating is. Hot and crowded and a little stressful.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Right. And the weather is about to get better. October and November down here are the months people move to Florida for. The storms back off and the humidity breaks.

Rachel Donovan: What about the ramp? That's the part I'd dread.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: A Saturday morning at the ramp looks nothing like it did in July. Fewer trucks, and the ones that are there are in no hurry.

Rachel Donovan: See, that alone would change my whole morning. Backing a trailer with five people watching is exactly what I picture when I picture owning a boat, and I hate it.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Everybody hates it. Which is why this matters. Right about now is when a first season family quietly decides about year two. Nobody says it out loud. They just stop hooking up.

Rachel Donovan: Why now, though? The boat's still practically new.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Because the summer was hard, and every trip felt like an exam. Backing down in front of people. Wondering if you tied it off right. If that's your whole memory of owning a boat, it sits in the side yard until March.

Rachel Donovan: And then you're rusty on top of it. So what's the fix, just go more often?

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Go smaller. Take the pressure off the trip. Two hours, not eight. Launch, run twenty minutes to somewhere shallow and easy, let the kids swim, come home. No fishing plan, no destination anybody's counting on.

Rachel Donovan: That's barely a trip.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: That's the trip that saves the boat. What you're buying with a short easy day is reps. You back the trailer one more time. You dock one more time. Around the tenth time it stops being a performance and starts being a chore.

Rachel Donovan: And a chore doesn't scare anybody.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: You can do a chore in front of your kids all day long. And your wife, who's been quietly deciding whether this is worth the hassle, gets a Saturday that was easy. That's worth more to your second season than the best fishing day you'll ever have.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Second thing. There's a new boating safety video series out this week from Discover Boating, the industry's own education arm, made with a national insurance company behind it.

Rachel Donovan: Is that a good thing, or is it a commercial with a life jacket in it?

Franklin Pillsbury IV: It's good. Go watch it, it's free and it's accurate. I want to talk about what it can't do for you.

Rachel Donovan: Which is what?

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Nothing on a screen has ever made anybody safer on their own boat. A video teaches you what's supposed to happen. It has never taught a nine year old where her life jacket is while everybody around her is yelling.

Rachel Donovan: Okay, that's fair. So what closes the gap?

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Ten minutes at the dock before you leave. Not a class, not a certificate. Ten minutes with the engine off and the kids paying attention.

Rachel Donovan: Walk me through it. If I'm standing there Saturday with two kids and a cooler, what am I actually doing?

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Three things. First, everybody puts hands on the gear. Not you pointing at a compartment from the helm. Your thirteen year old opens the locker himself and touches the jackets, the throwable, the fire extinguisher, the horn. Once, while it's boring.

Rachel Donovan: So it isn't a mystery later.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Second, everybody says the radio out loud. Where it is, what channel sixteen is for, how to say your boat's name and where you are. Your wife should be able to do all of that without you.

Rachel Donovan: Because if you're the one in the water, you're not the one on the radio. I hadn't thought about that at all.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Most people haven't. And the third one is the one families skip. Somebody goes in the water on purpose.

Rachel Donovan: On purpose. You're going to have to explain that one.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: A hat. A fender. Anything that floats. Throw it over while everybody's watching and run the real drill. One person points at it and does not stop pointing. Somebody else calls it out. Then you turn around and go get it.

Rachel Donovan: Why is the pointing the big deal? It sounds like the smallest part of it.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: Because a head in the water disappears in about four seconds. The boat turns, a little chop comes up, the sun's sitting on the water, and it's gone. The pointer is the whole job. Give it to your nine year old.

Rachel Donovan: She would take that seriously. She's got a real job instead of being cargo.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: It's the most important job aboard. Run it once with a hat on a flat calm day, and if it ever happens for real, nobody has to invent a plan while their heart is going.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: So, two things. The season didn't end this morning, it started, and the next two months are the easiest boating of the year. Put a short lazy Saturday on the calendar and go get the reps.

Rachel Donovan: Short trip, low stakes.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: And ten minutes at the dock before you leave. Hands on the gear, everybody knows the radio, and throw a hat in the water and go get it back.

Rachel Donovan: With the nine year old pointing.

Franklin Pillsbury IV: With the nine year old pointing. Enjoy the holiday, be patient with whoever's ahead of you at the ramp today, and follow at Let's Go Boating TV for more tips and helpful hints about boating. We'll see you next time.