First time out at night and on the 4th in the boat. WOW

We went out , but stayed out near Hart Millers Island with only about 20 other boats. We weren't very close to any of the shows but we could see about 50 going on at the same time. It was nice scanning the horizon, and seeing a display every two or three degrees.

Our short ride home was uneventful, except for when we got to within 150 feet of the cut. Just as we came off plane, some absolutely clueless guy in a small center console comes flying out of the shallows between the two islands and crosses our bow about 60 feet ahead of us. We had been watching him, but we figured that he was just headed for the channel as well and would slow before entering it. Its a good thing that we were already slowing down because it would have been extremely close if we had kept our previous speed. I really don't think he saw us at all...

Beautiful night, otherwise...
Michael
 
My first time out on the boat for the 4th as well. Like everyone else I saw some idiots but the police were all over them. Truly a sight to see, hundreds, maybe even a thousand boats and the fireworks were great. I was tied up with two friends. When the fireworks were over we just hung out to watch the boats scatter and bore the brunt of the wake. When it was all clear we went back to our slips. We had a great time. I can't wait till next year!

Down side is my dock mate got a $200 ticket for accidently knocking his stern light to the off position when grabbing a coke. He realized it a couple minutes later and turned it back on (he has a pontoon so it it is elevated and harder to notice than most boats). Too late for the local police though, they saw the light go out and back on; they listened to his explaination and said too bad, we are writing you a ticket. There is just something wrong with that. :smt009
 
We avoided most of the hassle by starting our raft-up at noon. We were in North Lake in Hollywood. Didn't leave until about 1PM on sunday... Other than the dumbasses shooting fireworks from boats we were oblivious to it all.
 
Coming back from the West Palm Beach fireworks, there was a lot of chatter on 16 between a boater and the Coast Guard, regarding a swimmer crossing the channel between the boats. I don't know if they located him.

We anchored on the east side of Peanut Island, and stayed overnight.
 
chuck1 said:
At least you did not almost run over a kid. I'm coming out of a big cove area from the marina (Main route) in to the main body of the lake. Here comes some dummy crossing in front of me from my port side pulling a tube with 2 kids on it. I'm thinking to my self what's up with this, looks like he is heading right at me.:smt021 I'm looking around and spot another kid bobbin in the water???????

1st mistake - 3 kids on a tube in the main channel.:smt021
2nd mistake - don't leave the kid in the middle of the main channel with boat running up and down it.:smt021:smt021
3rd mistake - Cut hard to starboard and protect/pickup downed skier ASAP!!!!!:smt021:smt021:smt021

Don't know how I could have lived with myself if I had run over the kid.:smt013
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Are you not suppose to have a spotter, a horn and raise an orange flag when you have someone down in the water?
 
mawyatt said:
You must have been at Clearwater for the fireworks! We anchored away from the channel west side and just took our time and headed back to Home Port with all the lights on inside the boat and cockpit so we were visable. Yes, lot of crazy people heading back.
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Yes there was few crazies on the St. Johns in Jacksonville, Florida, but all in all I would have to say most were behaved, I did see a number of boats without light. Of course there was a very heavy number of gov-mint members on-hand, sheriff, police, etc

But all-in-all it was a nice night with a spectacular view, my first time seeing the fireworks from actually being on the water and up close. :thumbsup:
 
Up until a few years ago, we used to pile on my parent's pontoon and go up the river to see several shows. They have a larger pontoon, think it holds 17 or so?

It was always a pretty good ride and a good raft up, but it is also a smaller river/lake, so not as much traffic as some of the larger lakes around.

One year, my parents were away, I was around 23 or so, and a bunch of my buddies came out on the 23' bowrider we had then. I am pretty sure, as a young fool, I broke pretty much every rule and p'd off a few people :grin:

What, like you were always good? :smt001
 
We love watching the fireworks from the water. I'm willing to put up with a few idiots (gotta keep the ole noggin on a swivel) to have the show take place directly over head. Somebody already said it, but watching the tail lights of all the cars stuck in traffic trying to leave as we idle out of the cove.

We tied up with some good friends, put the kids on one boat a the adults on the other.
 
I always enjoy July 4th fireworks.

This year, we missed the Atlantic City crowd due to other committments on the 3rd, but we did the Toms River fireworks on the 4th. Nothing too chaotic, but I would say that about 1/3 of the boats had their running lights on while anchored. Didn't see that many grossly overloaded boats. Most of the boats were in the 26-34' range.

We only had one minor issue where I mis-interpeted the running lights on a blowboat (because they were positioned slightly differently than most of the power boats around us, I misjudged the distance). Fortunately, the admiral identified the boat well before we got into a problem.

So far this season, I have noticed that the Orange and White Barrel that marks the entrance to Silver Bay disappeared the night of July 3rd.

The first marker for the Toms River Channel, which normally sits about a hundred yards south of the two ICW markers, seems to have moved to a position just east of the ICW markers sometinge the night of July 4th.
 
Last year or the year before was the first time that a no wake zone was designated after the show on SML. It was always a nightmare as the show is on the main body of the lake, no real coves to anchor in, just wide water with over 1k boats. We tried hanging around late on year and almost got run over, its safer to go with the crowd. We haven't gone to the show in at least 3 years though, nowadays a bunch of us pitch in a few hundred and make a trip to SC to pick up fireworks for our own show. This year we went through $2,200 in about 20 min :thumbsup:
 
burwellj78 said:
Down side is my dock mate got a $200 ticket for accidently knocking his stern light to the off position when grabbing a coke. He realized it a couple minutes later and turned it back on (he has a pontoon so it it is elevated and harder to notice than most boats). Too late for the local police though, they saw the light go out and back on; they listened to his explaination and said too bad, we are writing you a ticket. There is just something wrong with that. :smt009
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This is why I prefer to avoid the hassle. Nothing against our law enforcement I know they have to put up with a lot of crap, especially around holidays. But they can go a overboard in situations like this. It's unfortunate.

We spent the 4th of July at Torch Lake this year. We had more fun watching all of the boats (and police) go up and down the river. I decided not to put my boat in the water that night as I saw too many boats with more beer than people in them...... figured it would be quite a show when the fireworks were over...... and it was :). Gary would have enjoyed all of the can boats with their headlights on......

-Ryan
 
We havent been out in 10 years or so on Texoma, the rush to exit is just to much no mater where we parked. We now take the golf cart to our club point and enjoy from there.
 
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