The picture is of my childhood playground. This particular story took place primarily on the far right of the image, in what we call the open lake.
Walt and I used to love doing what I call boat surfing. You take a small boat onto the open lake a day after a three day blow. The waves are still very large, but they are gentle rollers. You drive in the same direction as the waves, staying on top of a wave as long as you can, then crash down between the waves. Water splashes out in all directions so that all you can see is water and a small patch of sky above. Then ride the next wave, etc., repeating as long as you can. It’s fun!
Unless there is something wrong with your boat.
One day we were out on the mainland very late, and it was quite dark as we headed back to the Island. We had a flash light, but it wasn’t a very good one, and Walt accidentally hit a steel buoy along the bay. I went up front and discovered that the front cap of the boat was missing! We got back safely, having missed the far less dangerous wooden buoy at the point of our bay.
The next morning Walt got up really early and fixed breakfast for everyone. Mom took one look at him and asked what was wrong. After a long day of hard labor, she sent us to town to have the boat fixed.
On our way, we noticed that the wooden point buoy was missing! At the marina we saw a nice wooden boat with the wooden buoy hanging out of it; that had been raised from the bottom of the lake earlier that day.
They had to special order a new front cap for our boat, which wouldn’t be in for a week or two.
The weather cut up again, and so afterward, Walt and I headed out to the open lake for some boat surfing.
A note to the wise – if you are missing the very front of your boat, don’t take it out surfing! When we crashed down between waves, it was like being hit by a firehose, we were lucky to get back home alive.