OFB Performs Rescue
Bridget thinks she'll get a laugh if she crashes the boat
No wind, bright sun, and a successful rescue–an awesome day on Our Family Boat!
I had some trouble getting out of bed after working all night. Michelle sent Bridget to wake me up twice with no result. Michelle finally came upstairs herself and exhorted, “Do you want to go boating today or not?”
We loaded up the truck and headed to the storage yard. Michelle is planning a “girls’ day out” on OFB, so she’s trying to learn some of the mechanical aspects of handling the boat. After we got the cover off, I showed her how to hook up the trailer to the truck. Off we went to the lake.
As we entered the park, we stopped along the way several times to take some pictures of signage and the landscape of Lake Mead National Recreation Area for the blog. Enjoy!
We had no trouble getting the boat into the water, except the launch was a little crowded. It’s a four-lane boat ramp, but as I was backing down into the water somebody decided to squeeze between our boat and the boat next to us, creating a fifth lane. What a knob! Michelle drove the truck up the hill to the parking area and the golf cart girl drove her back. Once aboard, we headed out of the marina and onto the lake.
SURE, we'll interrupt our day to rescue you!
We motored out about 500 yards or so and stopped to apply sunscreen and such when I heard someone yell, “Help!” Ahead of us, another boat was stopped in the water. We drove up to it and the family aboard explained that their battery was dead, and asked us if we could tow them to Callville. We had just gotten out of the marina and we hadn’t even started our day on the water, but if the situation were reversed (and eventually, I’m sure, it will be), we would want someone to help us out. We told them we’d be happy to help and they threw us a line. We towed them back to Callville Bay at a slow speed, got them to the dock, said our goodbyes, and headed back out to the lake. The OFB team saves the day and receives some good Karma points!
Instead of heading to Virgin Bay, this time we went the other direction and went toward Black Island. Bridget took command of OFB and drove for a while! She did great except she needs to learn to make slower, wider turns. We swam and relaxed on the boat. Bridget and I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips, and I decided to try my hand at tubing.
I discovered that getting the boat up to the proper speed is the key to good tubing. As the boat starts moving, the tube has a tendency to submarine, so you need to lean way back. At a slow speed, the tube has a tendency to jerk forwards and back a little bit as the slack in the towrope is taken up, but once you get up to a good speed, it’s like sliding on glass. It was amazingly stable, and I was able to put both arms and legs up in the air and just ride on my bottom or my belly. The other key is to keep the rider in the center of the wake; once he’s off to the side of the wake a lot of that stability is lost. I fell off a few times (that was fun though) when I changed positions from sitting on the tube to lying on it. I had an awesome time!
Bridget did a little tubing as well, and then Michelle and Bridget went swimming while I relaxed onboard. They had a nice mother-daughter talk about whatever mothers and daughters talk about. Part of the conversation I heard was a discussion of the difference between anatomy and biology.
I decided I wanted to try beaching the boat (Bridget calls it “breaching”), and we scouted the shoreline looking for a good place to make an attempt, but didn’t find anything immediately. Next time we go, we’ll stop at the entrance station and I’ll ask the ranger to recommend a good spot.
We did some more tubing, swimming, and boating, and at the end of a long, fun day, headed back to Callville. We had to use our GPS to get back as we weren’t terribly familiar with the part of the lake where we had been all day.
I went to get the truck, and the golf cart chick was nowhere to be found, so up the hill I trudged. We recovered the boat with no problems, and drove up to the wipedown lane to unload the boat. Once we were all set, we headed back to the storage yard and dropped OFB back off at space D23, put the cover on, and headed home. I did have some difficulty getting her back into her space because they recently rented space D22 to an awfully large boat and I didn’t have as much maneuvering room as normal.
An awesome day!
Check out the photos; click on any picture below to open the gallery.
