Not trying to bogart the board, but we had such a nice weekend. Spent Thursday through Monday on the lake, drove home Tuesday. Between truck and boat, we gave $350 to Chevron. Rode each morning on the leeward side of the island for a couple sets each (I had to sit out two days cuz my back got a little strained the first day.) Thursday and Friday sat in the channel - we never do that, but it was really nice in there with just a moderate roar. Saturday hung out in Steamboat, Sunday went up almost to Needles to get some riding in. Found a really cool little cove in the Gorge area, did the rope swing at Topac bridge and enjoyed the cold water. Had four good-sized adults, two kids and a single overfilled Bump in the boat and the wake was so fun that I rode for an hour (had to make up for the two prior days I couldn't ride :-).
Ended up running aground on the way back, just north of the sand bar. Water was way lower than I remember and the prop and rudder grabbed the sand/mud until the boat stopped from 25 mph to zero. SCARY!!! At first I thought the engine had just missed (which would've been $cary enough), but then it really slowed down in a hurry. So lucky there weren't any rocks in there. Had everybody move forward then opened up the floor in the trunk where the rudder tiller's at to see if it had broken off and/or was letting in water. Checked the forward bilge for water, then stepped off the back into knee-deep water (!!!) and started pulling the boat into the deeper water. Had some goggles, so I made sure the prop was straight and checked the runout of the driveshaft by carefully watching it from the side while it was in gear for a few seconds. Figure the stainless prop probably helped us in that situation cuz a NiBrAl might've bent - that's what they're soft for.
Sunday's northbound trip was really a nice day. Monday, we headed south after our morning sets. Anchored in a little cove south of Steamboat on the CA side to have lunch. Ended up with seven of us (including the prince and princess) in masks watching a whole fleet of striped bass in a feeding frenzy around us. So very cool. One of the guys there got me over my fear of lake diving and I ended up getting down to about twenty feet for the first time since being in the islands.
Never did try the tantrum (started to once but got scared - not used to charging in at the wake that fast). Didn't try the TS BR. Did try the blind one a couple times and landed another HS BR. Getting to feel a lot better TS and have been grabbing Indy a bit longer and better both HS and TS. TS jumps are just feeling great to me right now. Threw down some really slow-motion TS FS ones, but never grabbed them. Not sure if I tried the HS FS one or not, but did get a TS FS half cab pretty tall and across the wake.
My son Brandon got up on the wakeskate (actually it's my board with grip tape and no bindings) his first try. Tried having him surf on that thing too. He had some marathon runs, and started learning about edging through the wake. The pic below was his best TS jump to date. HS jumps aren't often that big.
Some boat blew up on the launch ramp - threw its engine hatch over the dock and into our lane. Smoke was flowing all through the Sequoia and the poor redneck was just looking at it like he was in shock. Pretty ugly. The boat, that is.
Spent a good amount of time behind our friends Avalanche, and at first the wake was just too obnoxious for me. By Monday, with the little stock ballast full and some clean water, I was just loving that wake. Still tends to crumble a little, but the steepness is fun at lower speeds.
We cruised pretty slow to keep the ride nice for my wife, and of course spent more time than usual idling though the channel and the big bay there, but in the end we logged 16.0 hours, burned 48.2 gallons; that works out to 3.01 gallons per hour. Especially important now, huh?
Few pics of Brandon (not quite eight) behind the empty S22:
Coming in from the south on the last day:
The Crowe's Centurion Avalanche on Monday:
The pretty princess waving to bats or something:
Finally, brandon got to contribute to the new shoe tree:
And I didn't even mention the naked amputee, either....