Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Tubing and the dangers of Crab Island

Tuesday was boat rental day; Kevin, Gramps, and I headed over to Eglin about 9 am to pick up the deck boat. About 9:30 we began our journey back across Choctawhatchee Bay to pickup Suzanne, Grandma, Christopher, and Matthew at Lions Park in Niceville.

On the map below, the Grandma/Gramps Pirate Cove is 'A'. Lion's Park is to the northwest; boat pickup is in Weekley Bayou to the far southwest. Tubing occured in Rocky Bayou, which is to the east....we had to go under the Hwy 20 bridge (better that way...away from most of the boat traffic).



Matthew and Grandma

Matthew and Captain Gramps

So, we arrive at Rocky Bayou around 10 am and spend the next 2 1/2 hours tubing. Last time we went we (mainly Kevin) just lied against the tube. This year I suggested that kneeling on the tube would be more of a challenge, so, for the most part, the boys took me up on that. Last time Christopher would only go on the tube with me....this year, he called 'first' and went on his own.

Christopher video below. Warning - 15 minutes of footage here.....





Christopher was awesome on the tube...almost always up on his knees, going no hands in the beginning for the crowd and having a whale of a time!


"We Rock...We Rock....."


"Let's go!!!!"

The conclusion of each tube run signalled the pickup of one boy and the migration of two other boys into the water for some swimming and tube boarding. Dad had to help Matthew and Christopher up onto the tube, and, jumped into the bay to make sure everyone was ok after each run as well.



Dad, Kevin, and Christopher on the way to the tube


Matthew went next....he wanted Kevin to take his first turn with him, but, complained about being 'crushed' because Kevin was on top of him, so, took the rest of his turns on his own after that. Spent the last part of this turns (that ended on the tube) trying to do front flips off of the tube for his dismount...

Video of Matthew's tubing below....warning, 20+ minutes of video attached.







Matthew getting ready for launch

And then there's Kevin.


"I squeak when bounced"

Gramps went out of his way to drive the boat back through our wake to shake Kevin off of the tube.....Kevin never came off except when he wanted to at the end of the day. He bounced quite a bit....a few times he lost his knees at ended up flat, but, came back up on his knees and kept going. Kevin video tomorrow....


Ready for Launch

Dad took two turns on the tube.....turns out getting on the tube from the water wasn't very feasible for the Dad (Suzanne captured those moments on video; I'll upload them later), so, had to go with a boat mount for my two turns on the tube. Dad's center of gravity is a little higher than his boys, so, Dad wasn't on the tube as long and, well, when Dad wiped out, his crashes tended to be more.....ummm...spectacular. Think I hit head first the second time.....

Dad's video below...it's pretty short!






Reading the warning label on the tube....asking Gramps if he's a qualified driver.

After tubing was complete, headed across the bay to Crab Island. Crab Island is an area just north of Destin that at one time was an island....oh, let me grab the quote.

"Just north of the Destin Bridge is known to all the locals as Crab Island. At one time, Crab Island was actually two islands made from sand that the Corp. of Engineers dredged up from the East Pass. This island was large enough back then to inhabit sea grass, small shrubs and nesting seabirds, but time and weather have made it what it is today - an island that appears only when the tide is out which provides a local haven for area boaters and a great place to anchor and enjoy the sun and sand while relaxing with friends"

So, we make the trip across the bay, pull in to this area with about 50 boats, anchor, and prepare for lunch and some swimming. Boys are dying to go in, so, we can see that the water is only 2-3 feet deep here and off of the boat they jump.

That's mistake number one.

Boys are in the water, yell down to them to stay near the boat as the current is pulling them away....all of a sudden Christopher is crying, he can't swim back.

This is mistake number two....not jumping in after them immediately.

I didn't understand what was really happening, and figured that Christopher was just having a bit of a meltdown. Yell at him to start swimming, he's crying more...finally jump in after him. And realize the problem almost immediately....even though the waves on the surface are heading to the northwest and we're anchored about northwest to southeast, front of the boat facing northwest, the current is moving southeast, out towards the Gulf, and it's moving fast. Really fast.

Get out to Christopher and the boys....tell Kevin to swim for all he's worth back to the boat to get a life jacket....grab Christopher and I'm standing in 5 feet, not 3 feet of water, and am struggling to hold him and not lose any ground to the current.

Made mistake number 3 here....should have grabbed Matthew at this point....he was about 3-4 feet away, but, not in any obvious trouble. So I concentrated on the boy who was in trouble.

Start, slowly, trying to walk back to the boat. The people in the next boat over realize that we're in trouble and start walking towards us with noodles....they help me to get Christopher back to where I can stand better and can make good progress towards our boat. Gramps, at this time, has jumped in to go after Matthew...they are to the southeast back beyond another boat, and, thankfully, they helped Gramps and Matthew climb on board.

Ate lunch on the boat...relaxed, helped Kevin to understand how badly his parents screwed up (from not jumping in first to check the water first to not jumping in sooner to walking against the current instead of walking to the side perpindicular to it) and decided to call it a day.

Pretty scary experience all around.

Last photos of the day below....all taken on the trip back to Lion's Park.