Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

[26aftcab454]

I witnessed a few "novice " errors occur today at Lake Grapevine. It seams ev eryone with a boat was out.
1. The same "non english speaking " family I have posted about previously here with no clue what a" No Wake" sign means were towing thier kids on a tube in the No Wake Zone. Game warden was in the cove but do not know if he got'em or not.
2. While anchored at the Sandy Beach there was a 19ft inboard driven by a stunningly beautiful young woman with several equaly attrative gals trying to anchor up close to me. I held up my anchor rope for her to see and she reversed before runing over it. There was a pontoon anchored 35 feet from me. She was in reverse backing directly towards my boat and I hollerd to "look out." She puts the boat in forward and runs into the outboard hanging off the pontoon.
The wind was blowing hard pushing them into the pontoon. The Pontoon anchor line was caught under thier outdrive and after ensureing the key was out of the ignition I untangled it and they exchanged insurance info.
3. only a mile or so from the Sand Bar I watched a Fish & Ski bass boat running about 30 mph run straight into another sand bar with breaking white caps all on top. Less than a foot deep. They came to a stop in a shower of mud in about 45 feet. Thier were several people on board with no one hurt so I figured they could push it off as well as I could.
4. Later the same pontoon that was involved in incident # 3 was coming into the marina's floating resturant ramed into the dock at about 6mph. The wife of the owner was driving.

anybody else see some stuff?

 

[Silly Seville]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

I'm glad the engine is out of my boat right now...it kept me from experiencing the Memorial Weekend Madness!

 

[26aftcab454]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

Don't get me wrong that I never do something stupid cause I do occasionaly do but every idiot with a runnig boat was out.

 

[bassman284]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

Hmmm. So you post about stunningly beautiful girls and then post a pic of a couple of fat guys saluting each other with their beers. Don't seem right somehow.

 

[the vision]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

I was going to take the kids to the river today, but decided not to go. The river has been up and down so much with all the rain that there are logs and debris still floating and with my luck I would break something 2 weeks before our vacation. I'm dragging the boat to Indiana for a week so I didn't want to risk it.

 

[Silverbullet555]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

hmmm. So you post about stunningly beautiful girls and then post a pic of a couple of fat guys saluting each other with their beers. Don't seem right somehow.

x2 wtf

We didn't go out today. Weather was too unstable. Glad we didn't because it's been raining for the last couple of hours.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

We put in a couple of hours today, mainly to go swimming. What I saw that was unusual was 5 boats in less than two hours being towed in. I was surprised at how many were dragged back to the ramp ...

TWRA was out in their center console, but Nashville was doing tows with their fire boat. Man, that thing was beautiful. One of the other local rescue squads was out too, not as impressive as Nashville's boat, but still a good move having them out there.

 

[QC]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

I actually spent the day at a small local lake. Just sat at the launch ramp and helped if I could without pizzing anybody off. Spent some time trying to jump a toon. Never got it going, guy hadn't run it since last summer (or longer). Watched some other guys using a primer bulb to squeeze a couple of drops into a crunched up coke can. Decided I could afford not to help them... Helped move a couple of boats off the courtesy dock. Some actually thought it was their personal slip. Not sure why the ramp attendant, ranger guys didn't handle that, but I tried. Watched a guy launch a SeaDoo in jeans and no life jacket not sure where he ended up.

Watched a new boater with a 240 Yamaha jet boat make some mistakes. I helped him a little with fender placement. So he comes back to the ramp a little later in the day. Spends a bunch of time spinning the boat around by hand facing bow out away from the ramp. I figured he was going to grab something and head back out. He starts to take off up the ramp walking, and then turns around and runs back down to the boat. Spun her back around to face the ramp, since he was actually on his way to get the trailer I guess he decided it might work better that way :facepalm: Have to say I have never seen that before.

The wind was blowing about 10 MPH, straight onto the ramp. This ramp is about 6 lanes wide with a courtesy dock on each side. An older couple, probably 70s, comes down and launches a little sailboat. The man raises the sails, full rigged with a jib and main etc, and I am thinking the whole time how are you going to get out against a wind steady in like that. So he starts from one boat length off the ramp and tacks back and forth about 15 times. Bashing off of every boat and the docks. I personally helped push them off twice. Took a lot of guts to try it, but I think it was a serious mistake. All he had to do was walk her down to the end of the courtesy dock and he could've had a good run to port before his first tack, and woulda been completely out of the way.

Felt like I did more good than harm, and I had a blast. I'll do it again, thoroughly entertaining, and I hope I reduced a few people's stress. But I am thinking I support boat licenses a little more than I did yesterday

 

[kahuna123]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

In Florida we don't even consider going out this weekend. Its kinda like handing a Floridian on vacation in Vermont a snowmobile and saying "have at it!"

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

In Florida we don't even consider going out this weekend. Its kinda like handing a Floridian on vacation in Vermont a snowmobile and saying "have at it!"

I've got a whole book of stories with EXACTLY that! This last winter I spent hours getting newbie snowmobilers unstuck at a popular rental spot. They were amazed that I was able to hop on and get them out of the hole that they had spent 2 hours trying to extract themselves from. Also ended up leading a group of 4 or 5 different couples who had absolutely no idea how to get back to the lodge. (in a blizzard of course, and they were all pretty much in full-on panic stage!)

No good memorial day stories though, it rained, weather was crappy, boat didn't leave the trailer.

 

[riptide09]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

No stunningly beautiful women around me. :-( I spent the day replacing my throttle and shift cables which was a PIA.

 

[26aftcab454]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

Sorry I didn't photograh them, I was preoccupied untangling anchor lines and outdrives while not spilling ma beer.There was a guy set up a lawn chair at the end of the ramp. I asked him " is this better than going to the movies ?" he said "much better".
Post yer photos worth sharing!

 

[Piratehooker]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

We were out on Lake George on Monday. Only crazy thing I saw was one of the girls in our group decided to sample the memorial day swimming, water was 53.

 

[QC]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

There was a guy set up a lawn chair at the end of the ramp. I asked him " is this better than going to the movies ?" he said "much better".

This is exactly what I did, but I added in helping out. I had so much fun I want to go back this weekend :facepalm:

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

I watched from the yard on Sunday and Monday; a lot of boats on the river and all were behaving; marine patrol was inspecting closely. Satruday was a cold blow-out.

To each his own but those raft-ups and crowded sand bars don't look like fun to me. All those people drinking beer in waist deep water, I reckon the temp gets up around 98.6?
I do spend a lot of time on unoccupied seaside marshes and barrier isalnds; there's one point at the mouth of an inlet that draws a crowd but they are largely mild-mannered locals and few worth staring at. over the years I've rescued a few; seen some stranded beyond hope ("tide lesson" we call it).

And no public ramps for me. Unlimited waterways. I consider myself fortunate.

 

[QC]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

To me, all of these scenarios are good ^^^^ One of the reasons I like Havasu, you can have the Zoo if you want, private ramp if you want, public ramp stupidity if you want, secluded cove if you want. Camping, luxury waterfront condo with slips, beachfront etc. You can even go rise and fall with the river level if you want (tide lesson).

 

[rivermouse]

Re: Memorial Day on the Lake mishaps

I didn't plan to take my boat out but figured I would ride down to the river and see what I was missing.....It was like a giant parking lot with 50 cars all going in different directions at different speeds and everyone hoping that if they didn't know the rules the other guy did....I like quiet week days when people who work are at work..There were several deaths on near by lakes however.