"That boat ain't got no motor!", or, the story of a boat trip
Adding to the postings describing outings in our home made boats. It's a
little long and self-indulgent, but I hope you'll find it a bit of a
departure from the normal nitty-gritty details of boatbuilding normally
found on this channel:
This year, my wife got the whole family season passes to the local water
park. I never thought I'd say this, but it really is fun to go there. I
mean, the water slides are fun, and it's a great way to get out of the
heat. Especially over the long holiday weekend. My kids love it too.
But the water park has it's downsides, too. We went on Saturday morning
intending to spend two or three hours there early and leave before it got
crowded. While there, we left our belongings on some lounge chairs in the
kiddie area. When we returned after a session in the wave pool, all our
stuff was gone. Stolen! Everything! Including everyone's shoes! It was a
long hot walk across the asphalt to the car, let me tell you...
We now had some bad karma to overcome added to our need to escape the
Independence Day weekend heat. When my wife suggested we head up to the
lake with the kids and do some boating and swimming, it seemed to be just
the thing. The only point of contention between us was what boat to take?
Our brood consists of my bride Lori, my daughter Alison (age 3 and a half),
and my son Evan (16 months). Lori wanted to take her father's ancient
Folboat; I wanted to take our Michalak designed Sportdory. She had good
memories of paddling the springs of northern Florida with her parents and
sister in the Folboat and no experience in the dory. I personally hate
paddling the Folboat. It's such a tub! The prospect of paddling it with a
wiggly kid in my lap made it even less appealing. Somehow I managed to
convince my wife the dory was the better craft for the job.
We loaded the crew up and made our way up to Lake Allatoona, an Army Corps
of Engineers reservoir about thirty miles northwest of Atlanta. Allatoona
is called a lot of things (mostly "the Dead Sea" by local fisherman) but
the Corps calls it the most heavily used reservoir in the USA as measured
by user days per year. On weekends, especially holiday weekends, the lake
is practically swarming with high (horse) power fiberglass hulls operated
largely by low (brain) power individuals. Picking the right spot to take
two small children in a small row boat is critical for maximum safety and
enjoyment. Fortunately, one arm of the lake known as Stamp Creek is marked
"No Skiing" for most of it's two and a half mile length. It is also guarded
by a long "No Wake" zone at it's entrance which keeps most of the zoom-zoom
crowd away. They just don't seem to have the patience to idle their two
hundred horsepower jet skis for a third of a mile to get to the best, most
beautiful part of the lake.
We put in at the Stamp Creek Day Use area and rowed south about half a mile
towards some islands that were a favorite fishing destination of mine many
years ago. I thought I remembered a gently shelving shoreline that would be
good for swimming with the kids in that general area. All four of us fit
quite comfortably in our 15' dory. My wife sat in the stern propped up
against the aft thwart with the kids arranged halfway in her lap in front
of her. I rowed from the forward rowing position way up in the bow. The
weather was sunny with a very light breeze and temperatures in the 90's. I
know that umbrella's are taboo in boats, so we had a large golf "parasol"
aboard to keep the sun off of my crew. As the "galley slave", my only
protection was a ridiculous looking cowboy hat and some SPF 30 sunscreen.
The effect of the shade offered by the umbrella, uh, parasol was striking.
I'm now trying to figure out a bimini arrangement for the rower and
passengers. With all 425 pounds of us aboard the boat wasn't trimmed
perfectly -- a little down by the stern. But the additional load made it
much less tiddly than when rowed solo, a comforting feeling when carrying
such precious cargo. Being down by the stern made it row really really
straight, too.
We rowed around a bit, just enjoying being on the water. What was even
better was the relative solitude we enjoyed contrasted with the unruly mob
at the water park the previous day. The kids loved swimming in the lake (in
PFD's of course) and we enjoyed the cool water. My daughter and I swam out
to a small mud island formed by the lake's unseasonably low level where we
"discovered" it, claiming it for the glory of the "Princess" Alison. She
also got a great geography lesson experiencing first hand the definition of
an island by walking the 300 foot circumference of our discovery.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach and a lesson in "kerplunking" rocks.
Across the cove was a group of 80 foot long houseboats who were sure looked
upon us with a mixture of sympathy and self-satisfaction. Their lot in life
is to be surrounded by every convenience in air conditioned luxury and ours
to sit in the dirt next to our cheap plywood boat eating bologna
sandwiches. The funny thing was, that we were as happy with our craft as we
were sure they were with theirs. And our boat cost about one one thousandth
the cost of theirs. You've got to get your dose of self satisfaction
somewhere, I suppose...
As we left our beach we heard something that made us realize just how far
out of the mainstream we were. A boy on a runabout who was maybe 10 years
old gave the surprised exclamation "Hey! That boat ain't got no motor!" He
went on to babble to his sister how he'd never seen a boat without a motor
before. It was obvious this kid had no concept that anyone could possibly
enjoy a boat that had no motor! "All boats have motors, don't we know
that?!" Apparently not many other people understood us judging by the way
they all gave us puzzled stares as they motored by.
Before we returned to the ramp, we rowed by the houseboat raft-up, just to
show them our innate superiority (and to jealously ogle the cool water
slides mounted on their stern decks).
It was a great outing. And it totally erased the memory of the water park
theft the day before.
Postscript: We did eventually get all our stuff back except for one box of
Animal Crackers. When the thieves realized they had stolen nothing of
particular value, they ditched it not far from where it was taken. I was
glad to get it all back, but at the same time I was a little offended that
our stuff wasn't good enough for a bunch of scumbag thieves...
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
John Bell (from a hotel on the humid banks of the Tennessee River in
Northern Alabama who can't get his Micro built if he keeps up this horrible
travel schedule.)
John M. Bell
Kennesaw, GA
mailto:jmbell@...
http://jmbell.home.mindspring.com
(770) 592-2165 - home
(770) 595-2311 - car
(770) 514-6016 - office/voicemail
(800) 492-5089 - nationwide digital pager
little long and self-indulgent, but I hope you'll find it a bit of a
departure from the normal nitty-gritty details of boatbuilding normally
found on this channel:
This year, my wife got the whole family season passes to the local water
park. I never thought I'd say this, but it really is fun to go there. I
mean, the water slides are fun, and it's a great way to get out of the
heat. Especially over the long holiday weekend. My kids love it too.
But the water park has it's downsides, too. We went on Saturday morning
intending to spend two or three hours there early and leave before it got
crowded. While there, we left our belongings on some lounge chairs in the
kiddie area. When we returned after a session in the wave pool, all our
stuff was gone. Stolen! Everything! Including everyone's shoes! It was a
long hot walk across the asphalt to the car, let me tell you...
We now had some bad karma to overcome added to our need to escape the
Independence Day weekend heat. When my wife suggested we head up to the
lake with the kids and do some boating and swimming, it seemed to be just
the thing. The only point of contention between us was what boat to take?
Our brood consists of my bride Lori, my daughter Alison (age 3 and a half),
and my son Evan (16 months). Lori wanted to take her father's ancient
Folboat; I wanted to take our Michalak designed Sportdory. She had good
memories of paddling the springs of northern Florida with her parents and
sister in the Folboat and no experience in the dory. I personally hate
paddling the Folboat. It's such a tub! The prospect of paddling it with a
wiggly kid in my lap made it even less appealing. Somehow I managed to
convince my wife the dory was the better craft for the job.
We loaded the crew up and made our way up to Lake Allatoona, an Army Corps
of Engineers reservoir about thirty miles northwest of Atlanta. Allatoona
is called a lot of things (mostly "the Dead Sea" by local fisherman) but
the Corps calls it the most heavily used reservoir in the USA as measured
by user days per year. On weekends, especially holiday weekends, the lake
is practically swarming with high (horse) power fiberglass hulls operated
largely by low (brain) power individuals. Picking the right spot to take
two small children in a small row boat is critical for maximum safety and
enjoyment. Fortunately, one arm of the lake known as Stamp Creek is marked
"No Skiing" for most of it's two and a half mile length. It is also guarded
by a long "No Wake" zone at it's entrance which keeps most of the zoom-zoom
crowd away. They just don't seem to have the patience to idle their two
hundred horsepower jet skis for a third of a mile to get to the best, most
beautiful part of the lake.
We put in at the Stamp Creek Day Use area and rowed south about half a mile
towards some islands that were a favorite fishing destination of mine many
years ago. I thought I remembered a gently shelving shoreline that would be
good for swimming with the kids in that general area. All four of us fit
quite comfortably in our 15' dory. My wife sat in the stern propped up
against the aft thwart with the kids arranged halfway in her lap in front
of her. I rowed from the forward rowing position way up in the bow. The
weather was sunny with a very light breeze and temperatures in the 90's. I
know that umbrella's are taboo in boats, so we had a large golf "parasol"
aboard to keep the sun off of my crew. As the "galley slave", my only
protection was a ridiculous looking cowboy hat and some SPF 30 sunscreen.
The effect of the shade offered by the umbrella, uh, parasol was striking.
I'm now trying to figure out a bimini arrangement for the rower and
passengers. With all 425 pounds of us aboard the boat wasn't trimmed
perfectly -- a little down by the stern. But the additional load made it
much less tiddly than when rowed solo, a comforting feeling when carrying
such precious cargo. Being down by the stern made it row really really
straight, too.
We rowed around a bit, just enjoying being on the water. What was even
better was the relative solitude we enjoyed contrasted with the unruly mob
at the water park the previous day. The kids loved swimming in the lake (in
PFD's of course) and we enjoyed the cool water. My daughter and I swam out
to a small mud island formed by the lake's unseasonably low level where we
"discovered" it, claiming it for the glory of the "Princess" Alison. She
also got a great geography lesson experiencing first hand the definition of
an island by walking the 300 foot circumference of our discovery.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach and a lesson in "kerplunking" rocks.
Across the cove was a group of 80 foot long houseboats who were sure looked
upon us with a mixture of sympathy and self-satisfaction. Their lot in life
is to be surrounded by every convenience in air conditioned luxury and ours
to sit in the dirt next to our cheap plywood boat eating bologna
sandwiches. The funny thing was, that we were as happy with our craft as we
were sure they were with theirs. And our boat cost about one one thousandth
the cost of theirs. You've got to get your dose of self satisfaction
somewhere, I suppose...
As we left our beach we heard something that made us realize just how far
out of the mainstream we were. A boy on a runabout who was maybe 10 years
old gave the surprised exclamation "Hey! That boat ain't got no motor!" He
went on to babble to his sister how he'd never seen a boat without a motor
before. It was obvious this kid had no concept that anyone could possibly
enjoy a boat that had no motor! "All boats have motors, don't we know
that?!" Apparently not many other people understood us judging by the way
they all gave us puzzled stares as they motored by.
Before we returned to the ramp, we rowed by the houseboat raft-up, just to
show them our innate superiority (and to jealously ogle the cool water
slides mounted on their stern decks).
It was a great outing. And it totally erased the memory of the water park
theft the day before.
Postscript: We did eventually get all our stuff back except for one box of
Animal Crackers. When the thieves realized they had stolen nothing of
particular value, they ditched it not far from where it was taken. I was
glad to get it all back, but at the same time I was a little offended that
our stuff wasn't good enough for a bunch of scumbag thieves...
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
John Bell (from a hotel on the humid banks of the Tennessee River in
Northern Alabama who can't get his Micro built if he keeps up this horrible
travel schedule.)
John M. Bell
Kennesaw, GA
mailto:jmbell@...
http://jmbell.home.mindspring.com
(770) 592-2165 - home
(770) 595-2311 - car
(770) 514-6016 - office/voicemail
(800) 492-5089 - nationwide digital pager