I heard a report yesterday from the lake that people were caught out in it. Boats damaged/on rocks/sunk/sinking/etc. No reports of injuries, thankfully.

Anyone have more news?

It was Crappy. This was our first storm of that intensity on our boat. We were worried about our safety and the safety of the boats around us out on the lake. The temp dropped a good 15 degrees instantly and the straight line winds were freaky.

We keep thinking about a sailboat that looked as if it was going over. We had our five year old with us so we were of little help to anyone. We had our hands full attempting to make decisions that would keep her safe and not fearful of boating for the rest of her life.

The 600 dock slipped a bit towards the 700 dock and the port-a-potty was flipped over. I hope everyone was safe. We are luck we have a small cruiser--I was happy to see that the open-bows we saw before the storm were still with us after the storm.

I'm glad we were not on the lake but when we saw the storm. We headed home from Polk City .. only about 3 miles. From the time it took to go from the square to the bridge it got bad. Driving across the bridge we could barely see the guard rails. But as Deer always says .. “It will blow through”


Are the docks breaking apart or are they dragging the anchors?

My buoy was unharmed if anyone was worried about it

You know my boat didnt even get wet from the storm. Gotta love those Crownlines!

Crownlines like that stay really clean too I hear.

I just got a letter from the marina stating that they plan on repairing the docks plus reinforcing them at the end of the season. This season has been pretty rough on the docks. The marina can only do so much and they have had their hands full all spring/summer. Let's hope the weather is better next year.

There is a lot of this year left. I hope it stays better as well. Maybe next year the ramp at the marina will get some funding too. Having your parking lot under water, and your ramp unusable is not an ideal condition for a marina.

Subject: Boating
> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:52:31 -0500
> From: xxxx@xxxx.com
>Here's what happened...
>
> We had just over 3.5" rain Sunday night. Went through the first storm in
> the boat. We checked the forecast before going. It was beautiful out.
> Then it started looking bad up north. One of those nasty pop up storms
> was coming. We had just turned on the weather radio as we were heading
> for the ramp, then about 4:15 here comes the DNR boat with lights
> flashing and alerted us of a tornado warning to hit Polk City at 4:30.
> We pitched the carpets down below and attempted to get the cover on.
> Denny had gone to get the trailer and the storm broke loose with great
> fiery. The temperature dropped like a rocket. It was terrifying. I
> didn't think I was going to make it to 51. I am alone in the boat, the
> cover came loose and was smacking me so hard I thought it was going to
> knock me overboard and then one motor went down. Then I lost the other
> motor. Couldn't restart one motor because the ignition switch came
> loose and was spinning in place. White caps as big as I've ever seen.
> It was raining so hard, couldn't see, so I went down below. Had no idea
> where I was. Figured I'd run into another boat or hit shore sooner or
> later. The worst part was Denny didn't have his cell phone but finally
> patched through to my cell using On-Star. OMG was I glad to hear his
> voice. Thankfully, I was in the middle of the lake when the storm came
> to rest. Got one motor started and was heading to the ramp and here
> comes Denny in the DNR boat. He got back on the boat and got the other
> motor started. I put his cell in two zip bags so we could communicate
> this time and he jumped overboard and swam to shore to go get the
> trailer. We had to wait for 5-6 boats ahead of us. No more got the boat
> on the trailer, up the ramp, and it started to rain. We didn't even
> cover the boat, just got in the truck and headed for home. Denny no more
> got the boat in the shop and heavy rain cut loose. Whew! I was impressed
> with the other boaters stranded in the storm, they stayed calm, and
> everyone was moving quickly to get their boats on the trailers. I
> definitely have a guardian angel.

Dang Paula, You mean one of the two times you have been out was in the storm!
Denny is going to get crap for leaving you in the boat alone during that storm.

We had a pretty rough time also. We were swimming in a cove on the west side of the lake with our 4 kids and listening to the radio. Heard nothing about a storm but seen the storm clouds so I called my folks to see if were watching tv and they weren't. Just as I hung the phone up I heard thunder and got everyone on board and then over the radio came the tornado warning. I figured our best shot was the marina so I hammered it over there hoping to find an empty slip. Everyone else had the same idea. Couldn't find anything open, then the wind came up and boats were flying through the marina so I decided we were going to take our chances on open water. We put the kids (ages 14,11,8,7) in the cuddy and closed the door. Started raining so hard Justine and I could only see about 50' to 60' in all directions. Put the throttle just above an idle for steering and went with the wind until we got to the dam and put her into the wind. That's when it got fun. The waves were at least 6' tall, at the bottom of the waves I was looking up at the water getting ready to come over our bow... then holding on to the windsheld so as not to get knock down. Kids screaming, fighting the wind, rain, and waves was multi-tasking at it's best (who says men can't multi-task) but I had a LOT of help from Justine. Then to make matters worse the engine started sputtering and dogging out when I tried to throttle up. The wire came off the bilge float, so we were taking on water from the rain and the waves and had water up to the top of the oil pan and rising with every wave. We just kept chuggin along until the storm went by. We then started bailing with drink cups (no manual bilge pump) until we had the water out. Started back to the ramp and another storm came up and got us wet again but nothing like before. One thing I forgot to say was this was our first year owning a boat... yep we were newbies. I always wanted to do some ocean boating... got my wish. Moral of the story is be careful what you wish for!

P.S. Justine stood right beside me the whole time and was my eyes and ears. Would have been a completely different situation. Thanks baby!

Hey Jon... Is this the second boat or first? New or old engine? nice to have a boat that you have trust in so you can ride out the storm and have fun. But you need to act fast and buy some new toys I would think a new handheld is a good request. When you make it out safe and the wife thinks you are Mr. hero you can buy all kinds of cool stuff and just say its for protection. Now is also time to start looking at sleds. I think Connie maybe able to make a evening cruise in the next couple weeks to feed the birds and then its time to buy antifreeze.

Hi Jeff, it was our second boat with the old engine... and that's basically where the new engine came from. When I had power it was kinda of fun riding the waves. I did find something I want on our next boat that I don't have on this one... windsheild wipers. Looks like the only weekend we are going to have open for boating is Oct 4th (my birthday) and the weekend after that, then it's probably time to put her away. The only good thing is, I am going to store her in my heated warehouse, 65 degrees all winter. Still going to winterize just in case the power goes out. After all the extra expenses this year I don't think there is room for a sled in the budget this year, plus I wanted another gun for hunting season. I do want to make sure we all get together again before the seasons over.