Saturday, July 5, 2008

big trouble on the big lake

Keith and I were excited to take our "new" (it's actually about 30 years old) boat out onto the water today. We went to Drumond Marine yesterday to get all of the things we needed to get the boat ready for the water. Keith spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and getting it ready to take out today. We thought we were all set to go. The weather was perfect. We left the house plenty early so we could launch before it got too busy. It started up like a charm. We rode around lake Mac and decided to take it out onto Lake Michigan since it was so clam out and it wasn't that busy out yet. Yes, just a few days ago my dad made sure we knew that it was never a good idea to take this small fishing boat out onto the big lake. We should have listened. Things started out really good. As we were going through the channel 2 fighter jets flew really low right over us. I got the goose bumps. We decided to turn left once we got out of the channel and head down towards Laketown beach. We decided to turn off the boat and anchor it for a while. After about 30 minutes we were ready to head back into Lake Mac. Keith couldn't get the boat to start. At first I thought he was trying to kid me. Then I realized it was no joke. The engine was not even turning over. Our cell phones were barely working. We had no idea what to do. Uncle Scott came out to Laketown beach to help us with the boat. No luck. Dave borrowed a friend's jet ski and found us. He drove it in all of the way from Pigeon Creek so it took himabout 2 and a half hours to get to us. He started towing us in (very slowly). This lasted for 10 minutes since he ran out of gas. Boy oh boy. We were able to troll into shore. We were now just on a private beach. We sent Keith up the shore to try and find some gas. 30 minutes later he came back with 1 gallon of gas. He had to ride on a golf cart with some lady back in Castle Park to get it from her garage. (Keith gave her his business card..laugh). By this time it is about 4:30. The water is really starting to get choppy now because the wind is picking up and there are so many boats out. We start heading for the channel again. There were a couple of times when waves came into the boat and that was a little scary. I know that God answers prayers because I was praying SO HARD that we would have enough gas to just get us into Lake Mac. The jet ski ran out of gas JUST as Dave got us to the boat launch. It felt SO good to get on land! Keith had to run out and get Dave gas for his trip all the way back to Pigeon Creek. We dropped the boat off, met him at the Pigeon Creek launch to help him get the jet ski out of the water and then took him out for supper. Phew,does it feel good to sit down! We are going to take a little break from the boat for now. It's way easier to just go sit on the beach!
Dolly didn't seem to be aware of our dilema

3 comments:

VandenBerg Family said...

So much for a quiet day on the lake!!!!! I'm so thankful you made it back safely...I just hope you didn't get too burnt! The fact that you had Dolly along and that she had no clue that you were stuck makes me laugh. See you Wed. :)

Carol Sue said...

Not a great "Maiden Voyage".....what a time of it you had. I wonder what is wrong with the boat. The picture of Keith driving it looks so nice...
I am watching the Tigers play in Seattle

Em said...

Don't you feel so helpless when something like that happens! Tim and I were stranded in Lake Mac once.... it was like, oh please, engine just work and get me back to land.... I can't imagine being on the BIG lake!! So glad it worked out!