Clear Lake - Day Three

So this morning we went and picked up the patio/party/pontoon boat that Dad rented. The plan was to drive all of the boats, wave runners and the patio boat over to Konacti Harbor, anchor and spend the day over there.

Clear Lake is a large lake (for those who have never been) and it is a strange lake from a topography standpoint. It is very shallow for quite a ways out, hence the grasses, algae and such, but then drops off and gets very deep very quickly. I was driving the patio boat (my three weeks of boating experience making me the “expert” and thus the Big Boat driver) and the wave runners and the ski boats quickly out-distanced us. We were cruising along just fine at our top speed of NINE miles per hour when we hit the drop off and the s#*t hit the fan. The waves got really heavy and a couple proceeded to break over the bow, soaking everyone and everything. Kids started screaming. We slowed way down and made it thru the chop across the lake and thru the inlet, and around the point, where we anchored and spent most of the day, swimming, skiing, wave runnering and just having fun in the sun. Jake, Faith, and Tanner got on the SeaDoo this time and TJ loved it. Marisa got to drive it by herself several times and I didn’t think she was ever going to come back to the patio boat.

Towards late afternoon, the wind started picking up and the kids were ready to head back for some rest. Yeah, right. Lisa, Phil and our family decided to head back on the patio boat, thinking it safer than one of the ski boats in the gigantic surf that we knew we would encounter (see yesterday’s post). I knew that crossing would be a challenge, but had no idea just how much of a challenge. We likened it to The Perfect Storm. For almost two hours the boat was hit by wave after wave, soaking everyone and everything. All we could do was laugh, but we were all cold and tired and wet and worried about the kids (we had all three of ours and three of Lisa’s including her 10 month old baby). We covered the kids from head to toe with wet towels to keep the oncoming waves from direct hits to the face. The boat was ankle deep in water at points. We kept saying, “No one is going to believe this. There is no way we can explain this to anyone so that they really understand how miserable this is! But, as in all things, attitude is everything and we all laughed a lot, held the kids tight, sang some more Gilligan’s Island, and toughed it out. It was definitely a memory maker.

We made it back to our dock at 5:30 but Marisa and I are still feeling wobbly-legged at 10PM tonight -and no one has any desire to take the patio boat across the lake again any time soon! In fact the plan for tomorrow is for some shoreline fishing…..