Anyone Else Have an Exciting 4th?

[bturner]

I thought I'd start this thread to see if anyone else and an eventful 4th. The lake gods saw fit to bless us with an absolutely stunning day on Lake Erie. Managed to put 3.5 hours on the boat surfing out on the big water. Probably some of the best surfing you can get when you can get it. I know you guys on the bigger reservoirs are used to this but for us little inland lake guys this stuff is legendary. Pick a direction and go, no turning around and no other boats anywhere on the lake to worry about. Aside from some awesome water we did have a classic event that thankfully turned out Okay. One of the kids next door was being introduced to boating on his own in a 14' aluminum boat from the 70's and managed to get ejected from the boat while turning too fast. There's no dead man switch on these old motors so the boat was still running wide open and going in circles. Thankfully the boy had a life jacket on, was able to swim away from the path of the boat and a nearby fisherman was able to get him out of the water and well clear of the boat.

One down, one to go.... the circling boat.

We were just coming in from about 3 hours of surfing when we heard the neighbor yelling at us to help them out. At the time we had no clue where he was. I yelled for everyone to sit down, checked to see everyone was clear then nailed it to get over to the area the boat was circling. The fisherman (absolute great guy) flagged us down and we took position of the boy. We were soon joined by the neighbor's 2 jet skis and started making plans to resolve the issue with the driverless boat. Several attempts to get next to it with one of the skis proved to risky but so was letting it continue to spin. I made a low speed pass at the boat throwing the biggest wake I could without ballast and that changed the course of the boat. The small boat was now heading parallel to shore. A second similar pass with one of the jet skis managed to get the boat headed to shore where it beached itself.

That was enough excitement for me for one day and enough fun for one weekend. Went back in for a couple quick ones to calm the nerves a bit. Oh, sorry no pictures this time. Instead of taking pictures like so many people do these days we focused on getting problem solve but I do have these from earlier....

[JDC02SANTE]

Wow bturner , that's a day!

Got my boat in the water for the first time on the Father-in-laws small shallow lake. I "unearthed" all the stuff the guy gave me when I bought the boat. Surfboard, Wakeboard, Wakeskate, homemade shaper and 2 ropes. All older stuff, but at least I can experiment/learn before I pull the trigger on new gear.

Got my 15 yr old son up on the surfboard and the wakeskate behind my boat for the first time (he's surfed once before behind BIL's Mastercraft). He totally loves the wakeskate.

I've got a lot of trial and error to get a good surf wake. I could definitely see a difference in the wake in shallower water now that you mentioned that, I was confused why it kept changing. Also forgot to grab the shaper when we went back out to try surfing, so I haven't tried it out yet.

[SilentSeven]

Runaway boat. That's entertaining. I like the swamping tactic!


We had a 200+ acre wildfire come within a mile of the community. Area was under stage 2 evacuation alert. Due to the location, Washington State Department of Natural resources went into all hands on deck mode with their wildfire teams....ground crews...choppers...aircraft.

The choppers were dipping in the lake right dead smack in front of our cabin all afternoon. Three of them working the fire... dip...fly off...back in about 3 minutes....over and over. Prolly saw over 50 dips.

https://youtu.be/OA1K2zMr9G4

Got to the point where they dispatched the DC-10 tanker that's based in Moses Lake Washington to come make a retardant drop....big sunuvabitch.

Fire is now out. Looks like no property damage. The community was lucky as the wind was blowing the right direction. Too close for comfort! Big time props to the ground and air crews.....

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[CHassmann]

The video of the helicopters is very cool! Great that the fire got put out.

[Scooter G]

Crazy story bturner, team effort skills!
Front row tickets SilentSeven, that had to be a blast to watch. BTW we're getting a little haze from that blaze here this morning, mixed with a little spent gun powder.
Good job JDC02SANTE, looks like you've got a good collection of workable stuff there.

We owned the lake on Friday, butter all day. Monday gave us wind, but a great day for the surf boards just the same. 4th, you couldn't pay me enough to go to the lake. The lake is fine, it's the jack holes that can't figure out how a boat ramp and pecking order works in & out. Ohhh, to have a place on the lake...

[bturner]

I had a ramp incident yesterday of sorts as well(as if the aluminum boat incident wasn't enough). Had a guy decide to attach all his tiedowns, unload is gear, then empty his cooler and drinks while on the sitting ramp. 3 rigs waiting to launch and me waiting to load. I have a strong feeling acholic beverages were a factor in their lack of self awareness. All you can really do when adult juice is part of the picture is wait out the stupid and get on with your day.

[Scooter G]

You are much more patient than I am Turner, my mouth can't stay closed, and it's not getting any better as I get older, but always with a smile you understand.
"Hey can we help you guys unload, we've got a few guys waiting on you, and I'm the patient one of the bunch". You just expect it. My air horns get used way too much.
Ohhh, to have a place on the lake (wait, did I say that already).

[bird_dog0347]

Our weekend was fun, and packed with stuff to do, but nothing as exciting as a runaway boat! We went up Friday afternoon and just got back home a couple of hours ago. We didn't do a ton of surfing or wakeboarding although I did manage to get my oldest son up on one for the first time this weekend (he's only ever surfed). We managed to get a lot done at the dock though, projects we've been saying we want to do for years so it felt like good progress while the lake was full of idiots as it usually is this weekend. This morning was the best though, only saw one other Malibu out there surfing and it was pretty calm so we had a good time before cleaning up and shutting down the boat/house to get back to real life.