Wayward Raft

We had driven six-some hours and couldn't wait to get to our cabin for the 4th of July week.
After unloading the car and fixing a simple supper, we were  psyched to look out from the picture window by the dining table as the sun was soon to go down.
 Fresh air. Clean, refreshing lake. Breath it all in.
Will we soon see the eagle flying to it's perch across the lake?

Wes suddenly says,
"Oh, my goodness!"
I question him as to why he has said that, noting there seems to be an intonation of something not sounding so good. And he said it again.  Again I questioned him as to why he said it again with no further explaining.

"The raft is gone!"

Two previous groups have used our cabin this summer, so we know the raft has been there.
The raft has never before gone missing on us.  We have a problem. We have to go out now - just before dark - and look for that wayward raft.  The fishing boat is readied and we take off. 
 Look!  There it is!
We head to the end of the lake and there is our raft with the ladder holding fast in the lake muck.
Wes turns the motor down a bit and heads towards the raft.  I grab the raft ladder and the boat starts to wobble and before we know it I have tipped the boat over! Motor running and all.

Major oops.

We are drenched and I climb onto the untethered raft and Wes cuts the motor and starts bringing the righted-but-full-of-water boat to the shore. He's not much for talking right now, only telling me he's walking back to our cabin to get two buckets for bailing water out of the boat.  I wait and shiver. 

It was almost dark by the time we've towed the raft back to the cabin. Wes tied the end of the broken  rope to some bricks, we dried off and called it a day.

How lucky we are to have a very hot-hot-hot drying rack on our cabin property in the form of a sauna. Our wet clothes (and unmentionables) were dry by the next morning. Our bruises, too were more visible by the next morning!

 

Wes ended up with a bruise on his side belly.
Me?  I ended up with a bruise on the side of my knee from hitting
the raft ladder full force when
I tried to secure it from the boat.
That's when the boat decided to
topple.

The next morning we discovered the raft was again missing!

While sitting at the breakfast table pondering what our plan would be to retrieve the raft, we noticed our wayward raft was finding its way home without our help. What???
A closer look revealed a human swimming in the water pushing our raft along.
Wes went out to investigate and found a young, apparently strong, tattooed man who told him he was planning on enlisting in the Navy this fall and he needed some strength-training practice.  Good thing he was strong - he swam the raft back with the bricks still attached to the anchor rope!!

The raft, again, was placed in the shallow waters in front of our cabin while we secured a heavy cinder block to add to the bricks.  This worked and the raft held for the remainder of our stay.

All is once again right with our raft/dock/boat world!

Wes is very pleased to have the raft back where it belongs!

Unfortunately, I seem to be developing a penchant for over-turning boats.  You might recall it was the canoe last year, and that led to the discovery that cameras can sometimes be "fixed" by placing them in an oven.  What I learned from that experience was not to bring my camera on any boat trips...what will I learn from this boat topple?  Check in again next year.

For a review of the last unexpected "dip" in the lake, here is the link:
http://thelindahls.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html