Friday, August 05, 2005

And We Could Have Gone Camping...

We were sitting at home, after just deciding that we weren't going to go to the local campground for the weekend because we were worn out. We were trying to get the energy up to do something fun with the family, when M looked out the window and said, "there's a nice breeze out." I said, "good, let's open the windows." M looked at me again and said, "there's a nice breeze out for sailing." Oh, that's what he meant!

We headed out for the boat after changing into our swim suits (the kids like to swim at the beach while M docks and cleans the boat. I get the good end of the deal because I play with the kids while M does the grunt work.) But we didn't get that far.

After eating our Subway sandwiches as we were sailing around the lake, the wind picked up and we were "honking" (going really fast!) and having a great time. The kids were cracking up and I was mostly having fun and kind of worried about the kids as we were heeling. The kids and I were on the high side and M came over too because we were doing so great and he wanted to balance the boat out. Everybody was having a great time, until.

The wind completely shifed.

With all of us on the same side of the boat....YIKES.

The next thing I knew, M said, "we're going over". And we did. We went over. Capsized. Got wet. In the water. Boat on it's side. YIKES.

I helped T fall in the water so he wouldn't hurt himself on the side of the boat. After falling in and under the water and coming back up to the surface, I grabbed the kids. They had their life vests on (safety first, M always says). The three of us were under the sail. I've never capsized before, but I didn't think it was a good idea to be under the sail. Would it push us back into the water? Would it squish out all of the air? So, I pushed the boys about three feet to where I saw light -- right by the boat, which was on its side. Once we were there, we could breathe, but I knew right away that it wasn't a good place to be. What if the boat turned more on its side, right on top of us? So I started telling/yelling to the boys to get out of there, we're going out away from the sail.

I realized two things at this point 1)T was screaming and crying his head off and 2) I didn't know where M was or if he was okay. I yelled for M, but no answer. I figured I'd get the boys out safe and then figure out where M was. By now I could focus on T's crying and realized that he was upset that his Bug Juice, which was in his hand still!, was geting "ruined". I yanked the plastic bottle out of his hand and told him we'd get more later, which increased the crying.

I kept trying to get the boys out from under the sail (all this has taken about 2-3 minutes, but seemed like 30 minutes) but found out that their bodies and legs were tangled in the lines. I yelled to M again. This time he answered that he was trying to right the boat. I yelled not to right the boat yet because the boys were tangled. M swam under the boat to get to our side and helped me untangle the boys.

We got to clear water and I had the boys float on their backs to rest in their life jackets. I looked up and a family in a cushy boat came over to save us. I pushed the boys up into their boat and they warmed them up with towels. The family was a mom and dad, a 2-yr old girl, and a golden retriever. They threw me a life jacket, which was great timing because now that I had the kids safe I realized that I was really tired from guiding them along and treading water!

We watched in the safety of the boat as M tried over and over to right the boat. Meanwhile, we'd see a variety of boat equipment (oars, life vests, buoys) and Subway trash float by, all refuse from our capsized boat. A guy on a jet ski came by and helped M get the boat up. It was full of water and they had a hard time keeping it up. Finally, success.

Long story short, we got our boat, Yankee Doodle, attached to the ski boat and we pulled her into the beach area. M hung onto Yankee Doodle's stern while we towed her to keep her upright. About 90 minutes of bailing later, we all got in and got her to the dock. Surprisingly, we didn't lose the motor or battery during this adventure. M thought that they both had come up missing, but the were actually dragged behind the boat the whole time, gathering pounds and pounds of lake grass as we went.

The "net takeaway" (as they say at work) from this adventure is to never have both M and me on the same side of the boat.

Final words? T said that he had wanted to go on an adventure, but not that kind of adventure. R said he thought we were never going to see the boat again. M said if only he got the boat up before it "turtled" we'd all have been right back in the boat right away, but he said he's glad we're all safe and wants to go sailing again tomorrow. I said let's thank God for keeping us safe and maybe we can splash on the beach tomorrow and think about sailing another time.

2 comments:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Whew . . . you had my heart pounding! Oh-my-gosh! Under the sail, tangled in the lines, and no knowledge of how or where Mike is! Too much! Really scaoweeee! But you all made it fine, and it's a good net takeaway to learn the hard way! You'll have a great sale next time! Did T get his oh-so-important Bug Juice?

jennavar said...

Wowee!! What an outing! Good job sistah looking after those little ones. Under the sail..wow that must of been a little scary!

Give them all extra kisses for me. Love you!