Our Crazy Boat Adventure

Last weekend, Mr. Bear and I went to the river for some fun and relaxation. The weather was beautiful except for some wind. It was quite a busy weekend at Lake Havasu because of the Desert Storm Poker Run. That meant that there were a lot of fast, big boats zipping around. Mr. Bear loved it! I had a great time getting the opportunity to relax and do nothing but enjoy the sun and time with Mr. Bear.

Even though we were out there from Thursday to Sunday, we only got our boat in the water on Saturday. It was breezy, which isn’t the best conditions for our small boat but we went across the lake with no problems. We watched the Desert Storm shootout and then cruised the channel by the London Bridge. It was ridiculously packed; there was so much boat traffic it was crazy! Luckily, we found a good spot to park the boat and hang out in the channel for a while. After a few hours, we decided to head back to the other side of the lake where we were staying. The wind had really started to pick up a lot and it didn’t seem like it would be letting up anytime soon. This is where our adventure began.

The lake was crazy with huge wells! You would have thought we were in the middle of the ocean. People were coming back from the lake in boats larger than ours and more equipped for the crazy swells telling people not to go out there is they didn’t need to. Well, we needed to go out there, we didn’t have much of a choice, and we had to get back to the other side. So we headed out. We got about ½ mile out and the swells were so big we kept going up and down. Mr. Bear is pretty good at maneuvering the boat and was doing really well, then we came down pretty hard off of one of the large swells and the screws holding the foot throttle pulled out. Yikes!!! No power to the engine!!

Mr. Bear was calm and had to think fast, since water was going to come into the boat given that our boat was small and those swells were huge. I was ready to put my life jacket on and do what ever needed to be done. Mr. Bear told me to lie on the floor and hold the foot throttle in place and so I did and he drove the boat back to the channel. He says that he was almost ready to give an abandon ship order if he wasn't able to get the boat out of the lake. We actually didn’t take in too much water and I stayed pretty dry, but then again I was lying on the floor under the bow. Mr. Bear, on the other hand, did get wet.

Mr. Bear parked the boat and he was going to take the ferry to the other side of the lake, get the truck and trailer and drive it around and get the boat. There was no way to get the boat across without power. Of course, the ferry was shut down! Uh duh, the wind and the water was crazy. Luckily, Mr. Bear found a couple of guys in a boat better equipped for such conditions and asked if they would bring him over and they did. They got over to the other side of the lake with no problems. I waited with the boat for 2 hours until Mr. Bear could get around and we got the boat on the trailer and back to the other side.

What a crazy adventure! We had never seen the lake like that. While I was waiting with the boat, I saw other boats being towed back to the channel. It was still a great relaxing weekend with a little blip of adventure. And of course, when we left on Sunday the wind had die down and the weather was perfect to take the boat out. We always get perfect weather at the river when we are ready to leave.