SUZY'S NIGHT DREAMS
July 02 - 04, 2006 Lake Gaston
The fourth of July weekend begins at Lake Gaston. We visited with friends (Jean, Bill, Evelyn, Julie, Tim, George, Lynn and others). We are able to use Jean's dock to tie up after having helped her refresh it from the original state it was in last year.
We got the boat up to the lake and put in at a local site maintained by the NC wildlife commission. Ran the boat over to Jean's dock and started pulling out the bits and getting ready to see what we could get into. Had to get in the water and get wet. Very Hot!
Here's Mivon after a dip in the water. She look's cute, No?
We spent the afternoon running around, playing on the tube and proving yet again I can not ski. Later in the evening after dinner we ran out grabbed some ice and decided to try to catch the fireworks up near the Eaton's Ferry Bridge. First time I would have the boat out at night and in a crowd of other boaters and no idea how to navigate back to the dock at Jean's. Not all that familiar with the lake.
Here I am sitting in the drivers seat out in the middle of the lake just off the channel. Here is where we are going to watch the fire works.
Mivon was not thrilled with me taking the camera away from the boat, floating in the river to take the picture after this one! "You are going to drop it in the river!"
Lights on, flags flying, in the dark and in 60+ feet of water.
Need a bigger flag and going to have one for the 4th!
And for those that wonder why a cuddy cabin boat? Here is one reason why, makes a great tent! Yes it is snug and cozy.
A beautiful and quiet morning on the lake. See un pato slowly searching for breakfast.
The two of us hiding in the cabin early in the morning. Note the OJ on the dash. Breakfast time~
One thing about boats, Mivon gets to fish,
I get to fix
Julie and Ely on the big 2 man float. He did not want to get on it at first but Mama convinced him it was alright.
Out playing on the water.
Mivon and I rode on the big float together to show Tim and Julie how to do it.
Next it was Tim and Julies turn to ride the float together.
The trick to tube riding is to get a good driver. The driver can just pull you along in the wake of the boat giving you a nice reasonably bouncy ride but not all that exciting or they can use a bit of physics to make things interesting. When you turn the boat at speed reasonably sharply, the pendulum (that's you on the tube) swings way wide at a greater amount of speed. Up to twice the actual speed of the boat is possible. The rider can actually come up even with the boat before they slow down and have to get hauled back into the wake of the boat. The following sequence shows startup, middle, oops and end of the ride. Bill was driving and got me outside the wake beautifully but on the way back I wasn't quite up to full speed. The third jump over the wake / waves was nearly sideways and the tube got away from me. WHHEEEEEEE!
Starting
Getting outside the curve
On the way back in, lost it..
waiting in the water for pickup
Here is Mivon doing the same thing but staying on. She is much more graceful than I!
Getting outside the wake.
Skipping across the water.
Bouncy bouncy bouncy!
Got Julie and Tim to do the little tube as well. Here is Julie riding and staying on.
We also got Bill out on the 4th riding the wake.
Tried water skiing again but what a flop. Neither Julie or I could get up on the skis.
I got close but not close enough. Gotta keep trying or go get a wake board.
A good day! And we still have more weekend to go.
July 02 - 04, 2006 Lake Gaston