June 06, 2010 - Hope Island

We weren't really planning on going out this weekend since Kevin went to a birthday party on Saturday that didn't end until about 1:00PM.  That really chopped up the weekend, but the weather was spectacular on Saturday, so I talked Kathy into heading out depsite our late start.  We left the dock around 3:00 and made the short trip to Hope Island in about 40 minutes.  We dropped anchor on the South side of the island.  The winds are forecast to be from the North tonight and then non-existant for Sunday.  We immediately got the kayaks into the water, as well as our rowing dinghy.  Off to shore we went to bask in the nearly 70 degree sunshine.  Granted 70 may not seem that warm to some folks, but for us, this is the warmest it's been in 6 months or more. 

A beautiful "summer" day!

We climbed some rocks, messed around on a huge driftwood root-ball, and enjoyed being on a warm beach in the sun.

Cindy and Steve, and a huge root-ball.

Cindy stops to smell the windflowers.

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Cindy and her lovely orange flowers.

As usual, our kids catching some air.

Kathy and Kevin kayaked over to the island, and back to the boat again.  Kevin is getting really good at Kayaking now, and it won't be long before we can turn him loose.  He's been in private swim lessons for quite some time now and he's becoming a good swimmer. 

Kevin and Kathy kayaking in the perfect weather.

When we returned, Kathy took our cat Zappa out for a spin on the kayak.  Amazingly, Zappa was actually pretty relaxed about the whole thing and didn't even jump ship when they returned to the boat.  So, Kathy took another lap around the boat with Zappa onboard her kayak.  I don't think Zappa is really a cat; he's a dog in cats clothing!

How many cats do you know that will do this?

It is very calm on Saturday night with virtually no wind and no waves.  Much to our surprise we wake to rain Sunday morning.  It turns out that neither Kathy nor I checked the 'general/rain' weather forecast on Saturday, so perhaps this rain was expected?  The last time we checked which was on Friday they were calling for sun both days with rain starting late Sunday.  On Sunday we stay inside and play games.  Around 1:00 the rain stops and we decide to try out our latest boat toy; a towable tube (an "AIRHEAD BLAST").  We've been wondering how the dinghy would handle towing a tube.  It does GREAT.  25hp is plenty to get the kids moving at 25mph, and it can get us bigger adults going too.  Cindy absolutely loved the tube and was laughing the whole time.  Kevin was afraid to go by himself, so after Kathy took a turn alone on the tube (to make sure it was OK with an adult), Kevin got in the tube with Kathy.  It was a bit sluggish getting them up to speed, but we did manage after 20-30 seconds of slow going to get "up on plane".

Cindy being towed on a tube by our dinghy.

Cindy loves tubing!  More, More, MORE!

Kathy and Kevin take a turn.

Even Steve goes for a spin, between rain squalls.

Sunday was basically rainy all day.  We did manage to get our tubing done between rain showers (mostly), but other than tubing the weather kept us indoors all day.  Rainy days are just fine on our boat though because we have a diesel furnace that keeps us nice and warm, and dry.  We turned it up to 73 degrees after tubing so we could all warm up from our fun in the 53 degree water -BRRRRRR.

It's always fun on the boat.  This is GREAT family time.

Update:  Sunday was the end of week number 22 in 2010 (according to the ISO week number calendar) and we have been out 13 weekends on the boat so far in 2010.  With 30 weekends left in the year, I think we can get out at least 13 more times.  This would allow us to meet my goal of "using our boat every other weekend" in 2010.