Saturday we had a birthday party for my niece. She turns 16 on the 19th, and due to a community theatre musical, the 9th was the only day we could have her party. We had it out at Patoka Lake (8800 acre lake) at the beach. Here are the SHT's that happened:<br /><br />First: I stopped before the ramp to take off the bow cover, transom straps, etc. It can handle 3-4 boats launching at once, but everyone is curtious in stopping to get things ready ahead of time. Well, except for these three women...they pull around the few of us preparing our boats and on to the ramp. Their boat had a full cover, needed the plug, coolers, the works! So what do they do? Pull on to the ramp and prepare it there!! Luckily they pulled up enough that we could still work around them to launch. They got a few dirty looks though.<br /><br />Second: buddy is moving from the back to the front and I said "ready". "Yeah" and we take off...all of the sudden "MY HAT!" Yup...his baseball cap went in...and we didn't get to it before it sank. His favorite hat lost.<br /><br />Third: Didn't want to beach the boat near the beach area because it was rocky, so I threw out the anchor and waded in about 3' of water. Well, somehow when throwing the anchor out it came off the hook on the end of the rope...Anchor lost.<br /><br />Fourth: While tubing on the lake, I was snaking back and forth and didn't realize I snaked in front of another boat. He looked at me and raised his hands as if to say "Do you own this lake"...I'd like to apologize to him...didn't see him. Then again, he was overtaking me, so he should have been watching, right?<br /><br />Fifth: Friend joined us on the beach with her jet boat. Never been on one, so I was going out to take a ride with her. She started it up too close to shore and a couple of flat rocks lodged in one of her intakes. I towed her half way to the ramp, she used one jet for the rest of the way.<br /><br />That's about it. All day of tubing, I never ran the bilge, so when I pulled the plug I had a TON of water come out. We stopped on the ramp since there was no one around, that helped it drain faster. All in all it was an AWESOME day, and I couldn't have asked for a better one. Anchors and hats can be replaced. Everyone is safe and alive and had a great time, that's what mattered to me.
<br /><br />I feel sorry for people that just want to set at the house or shop on weekends.
