Heading to DriftJam on Lake Murray

Dude_Himself

Got most of our stuff packed... going to take the wife and 3 kids to Lake Murray tomorrow for the weekend, sleeping on the hook. Saturday is DriftJam - a giant concert on the lake. We'll hang way back away from the rafted-up rows, but they'll rebroadcast over the FM radio so we can hear.

Anyway, nervous and excited - only our 3rd time overnighting and first trip away from our home ramp on this boat.

trip_n

@dude_himself=thats great parteee...on==hava great weekend

randy56

Staying way back is probably a smart move especially since you have the kids. There maybe some adult entertainment up there in the crowd.  anchor lite working good? Have a good time.

J3ff

take some pics and videos and share them with us?? Looks like another washout here will look forward to seeing them while I sit on my boat and listen to the rain hitting the hatch above the table. Sigh. 

Dude_Himself

So exciting day.  Levy the house at 9am. 3 hours to travel 2.9 miles to hook the boat,  due to boats in the road (plural) another hour home,  then to 526 -> 26 -> Murray. Stopped and got my 2007 Rinker 280 EC weighted:

Dude_Himself

Cool trucks stop. 

That's me with the boat. 



Then we made it too the lake finally, splashed,  fueled, and motored out to cool off and get settled when I smelled rain. 



So we beat feet to where we'd have the best chance to ride it out.  Spence Cove. 



Kids thought it was awesome to play with their water- activated flashy lights.

Dude_Himself

After the rain we were greeted to a gorgeous sunset and a prettier moon rise:






Meanwhile the girls played house inside while daddy listened to some great music outside. 







The water was much clearer before the storm,  but it's still fun to watch fish swim by. 

Bed soon, and tomorrow DriftJam 2018!

Dude_Himself

I'll leave ya'll with this, the moon as I see it from bed. 

J3ff

Cool pics - **** you pack that boat!! Are you still out there? The weekend is just starting here! 

reneechris14

Looks like a lot of fun.
Great pictures.

Dude_Himself

The boat is packed. We're used to do this with a 20' cuddy. Crazy. 

Sunrise, I did not get enough sleep.



Kids got breakfast and a view. 



Watched a pontoon scuttle.



Starting to get crowded. 

Willhound

Cool pics!

randy56

Great way to start summer!

Dream_Inn

Very nice pictures!! Great family time!

trip_n

its 9:24 central time
update and pics plz

Liberty44140

Looks like fun. Nice van!

Willhound

"Watched a pontoon scuttle"
No kidding! How many freaking people were on that thing?

Dude_Himself

Yeah,  like 18 people.  They got excited as they got close,  and all ran to the nose. I had the blower running but other boats closer moved in for the assist. 



DriftJam was AWESOME.



Afterwards we went out and looked for a quiet cove,  but the lake was crazy with all the traffic suddenly leaving. We spent the next 3 hours rocking around as we tried to cook dinner, cool off, and rest. It got pretty bad, but we checked and there were easily 50 boats in line at the ramp we used. 

Dude_Himself

We motored west for 20 mintutes, but every cove we found was either populated by party pontoons. So we hid behind an island and got the kids ready for bed. The challenge was the mid-ship mattress would get wet any time we ran the generator and AC. I didn't know it was the AC circulation at the time, the boat was hot, and the house battery was dead. Afraid to run the genny,  we decided to motor around a bit to cool off and charge.

Dude_Himself

After a while we made our way back to Spence cove. It had cleared out, was calm, and we were beat. We dropped the anchor, kids went to bed, we sat on deck and talked about the success and failure of the trip so far. Skunked water, no generator/AC, limited ice, and cabin fridge not being turned cold enough had raised our stress levels. Karen was bit by something while talking, got upset, and went to bed. I found this by her seat:



I finished packing stuff up, flipped on the underwater lights, and went for a swim. 



Afterwards I feel asleep on the transom. I woke up an hour or two later: the dog had to go. It was good timing: we had drug anchor and were in 200' of water. I pulled us back into the cove and reset the anchor with more scope, then turned in for the night. 

At some point in the night the 5 year old sleptwalk around the boat, so Karen slept with them the rest of the night to be safe.

Dude_Himself

After breakfast we weighed anchor and started for home, but the boat kept turning to starboard. Karen noticed a line floating behind us: when we drug anchor we caught a line! So we're in 100' of water, and this line is firmly attached to the bottom. I pulled and tugged, used the engine to drag it, and after about an hour I gave up. I could drag it several hundred feet, but it was too heavy to raise and I ended up with horrible blisters. Good quality rode, I'm guessing maybe an engine block on the other end.

Getting back to the ramp I had a cluster f$@#. The shallow ramp allowed the aluminum trailer to float, and a slight wind from the stern kept blowing the boat sideways. I ended up at one point stern to the trailer and had to shut down and get out. A nice local,  I'm sure laughing on the inside, was kind enough to help me hook the winch strap my 2nd attempt. I was able to wind the boat in to push the trailer against the ramp,  and while it took a few extra 'dunks' we got the boat hooked and out. 

Pretty uneventful drive home, except for witnessing - and barely avoiding - a bad accident. Caught it on the dash cam too.

At home we emptied the boat out, and while everyone napped I crawled through the boat until I found/ repaired the AC/genny leak. I have a shower sump power issue to troubleshoot, and I flushed/bleached the freshwater tank. We lost the winch handle, so I ordered a replacement. We'll have to splash the boat this week to pump out the holding tank. 

All in all: it was a good weekend. What could we do better?

  - Better prep of the boat. Traffic in Charleston Thursday night/ Friday morning sucked, so we didn't have a chance to prep it before we left. 

  - This was our first overnight trip of the year, and third ever on the boat. We pushed it by doing it 3 hours from home. 

  - We need more food and COLD DRINKS. In hindsight,  we could have run the genny to cool the fridge and charge batteries, but we thought it was the source of our leak. We relied on coolers/ice, but there was never enough cold water on board, and we kept filling bottles to have cool water. 

  - The cockpit fridge/icemaker is inoperative. It worked be nice to have ice, but that ice would only be potable if I maintain the water supply. Might either separate icemaker water supply,  or remove it and replace with a second 12V Dometic chest fridge/freezer.

  - We need a motion sensor to prevent kids from sleepwalking overboard

  - When packing, only bring essentials, in small separate bags, organized by where they are stored on the boat.

reneechris14

Sounds like a great weekend I hope your doing it again this weekend.

Dude_Himself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1NahZHui6c

halifax212

You're doing it right @Dude_Himself . Great adventure with the family.  Really enjoyed the thread tonight...keep them smiling.