That Sinking Feeling

ah, the fourth of July: stars and stripes, fireworks, long days on the lake and the traditional Lake Austin water balloon fight, cook outs, and sinking ships.

Wait, what was that last one? Yes-- we capped off a fantastic day of celebrating our independence by towing my brother's brand new electric-less boat back to the boat slip and as fate would have it... we never quite made it back to their boat slip.

Picture it with me if you will: almost midnight on a mostly quiet lake, the ACC fireworks over and a quiet boat full of 11 party-goers pulled behind another boat. But wait! Another fireworks show can be seen! In the distance a spectacular fireworks show is exploding from a private lake front residence. On the front of our boat, Nathan proudly holds the large American Flag waving in the air (Iwo Jima style) that you can see in the glow of the fireworks. Which of course inspires songs and commentary about towing the other boat to freedom and the like... you know, the 'huddled masses' and all.... You've seen the pictures: Haitian refugees piled onto a boat and sliding through the water in the dark of night. That's what it looked like behind us.

The fireworks show ends and a few minutes later, a boat zooms by us.

Seconds later we hear shrieks of "STOP! STOP! STOP!!" The boats stopped but the first wake from the speed boat flooded the front of the in-tow boat and the bough never resurfaced. Picture a toy boat being pushed down under the surface of the water... oh, but it wasn't a toy boat and the people on board were quickly swimming away from the sinking boat. The whole ordeal took less than 10 seconds and as soon as the boat was completely underwater.... that big*ss boat rolled right over!

"HOLY SH*T!" is right!!

Quick head count and lots of shouting for people followed by throwing life jackets overboard. We pulled some people onto our boat but it was already full. Shrieks to other boats to "stop!/slow down!/no wake!/capsized boat!" surprisingly worked quite well and within a few minutes, we had a couple boats drifting up to fish people out of the water and some folks at a nearby house yelling offers to help.

The calls to 911 got a police boat on it's way and it came hauling arse up the lake.. oh, but wait... it zoomed right past us... nice. Forget the 4-5 boats of people honking, yelling and waving... and of course the wake it left behind for us to deal with. Then again, with my brother clasping on the bottom of their boat (which was barely peeking up from the top of the water) we might have been at the point of not being able to make it any worse (given that everyone else was out of the water)

Just when we thought things were under control... the 8-month-preggers Elizabeth had a panic attack (understandably so) and so we quickly found a boat to take her to shore and soon thereafter, a ride home.

Some ingenuity at work: within 10 minutes, we strategically tied ropes to the boat and managed to tow it to roll it back over. Still completely full of water, of course, but at least now balanced underwater right-side-up with one rim of the boat slightly above the water line. Matt swam (is that a real word??) it into an abandon dock that the neighbors offered to us to get it out of the way and somewhat hold it still for the night.

Anyway- another hour or so of dealing with firemen, search & rescue and police and we finally were out of there and found rides home for everyone. We fished a few more personal belongings out of the water but between the wind and things sinking, there wasn't that much remaining to recover except for a bunch of cups and cans. We even scooped out Reagan's backpack-- still full of his stuff!!

So... The night finale *kinda* overshadowed the 1000+ water balloons we tossed at the morning's annual Lake Austin water balloon melee. Or the great day of sunshine and friends. Or the fireworks shows. Or even the extremely hilarious "tow to freedom" under the fireworks, American Flag, and singing of "We're Comin' to America." Yes, this will forever be the Fourth of July when we sunk the ship.


Ode to This Forth:
...the firecrackers red flare,
water balloons bursting in air,
police searches through the night
and the ship is still there...

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave?
o'er the lake of the free
and the final home of our stuff.



HAPPY 4th! ~from the bottom of our... lake