So Long, Summer
Posted by LeviLovR on September 18, 2023 at 00:39:41
The remnants of hurricane Lee passed over Maine yesterday. Weather forecasts sounded pretty dire but in the end things were not as bad as they had predicted. There were large waves along the coast and severe rip tides and some places did get some heavy rain and power loss. Where I live things weren't bad, some moderate rain fall and some strong winds but nothing horrible. Actually had worse wind back on December 23rd when my neighbor's car port blew over his house, over my car and into the end of my house with surprisingly no damage!
So today the weather was gorgeous with beautiful blue sky, warm, sunny and no wind. Thought I would take a ride to the lake and check things out. Hadn't been there since Labor Day when the water, which had been high all summer, had dropped severely due to power company opening the dam and draining the lake. Bad for boats, but good for me as I got totally soaked pushing boats on and off trailers and due to the warm weather took several dunkings to cool off. I figured it would probably be the last time this season.
When I arrived at the lake I was surprised to see the ropes and buoys marking off the swimming area were still in place. I thought they might have been a tangled mess from the wind and waves or that the town might have taken them in all together. No boats anchored in the cove except one tiny sailboat that looked like it came through the storm quite well. All the pontoon boats had been removed. The water was extremely low now, only inches deep on the far side of the dock where the sailboat was. The pleasant surprise was that on the side where I sit it looked like someone had dug out and deepened the channel next to the dock. I immediately thought it was Derek, the owner of the pontoon boat rental service as last time I talked to him he was saying he would like to bring his excavator down and dredge it but he needed permission from the town to do so. He didn't plan to charge them a fee either. I thought maybe he had just gone ahead and done it anyway in order to get his own boats in and out of the water.
I really wasn't expecting much boat traffic due to the depth of the water, but I was mistaken. Several boats came in but not everyone was able to launch, even with the newly dredged channel. The channel was not as deep as I thought, only a bit up over my waist, and a couple of large rocks had come lose and fallen into the channel right at the end of the dock which were so heavy I couldn't move them by myself and they posed a hazard for boat propellers. The channel only went the length of the dock and beyond that the water became shallow again.
So I told everybody that came in to use the left side of the dock and avoid the right side. Everybody needed assistance, even the smaller boats. Some I had to assist by walking them out beyond the end of the dock until it actually got deep enough so they could drop their motors down and not have them drag on the bottom. So most of the boats were able to get off and get out on the lake. Getting them back on the trailers might be a different story but I didn't stay for that.
Much to my surprise Derek showed up. He had rented a small boat, not a pontoon boat, and the customers were returning it. I asked him if he was responsible for dredging the channel. Yes and no. He had not used his excavator as he had not gotten permission from the town. However he removed all his boats prior to the storm as the last hurricane that came through had destroyed several boats (not his) and he wasn't taking any chances. In order to get the boats onto the trailers they had gunned the engines and the force had actually pushed all the sand and silt aside deepening the channel - an unexpected benefit.
Don't know how much longer the town will keep the ropes and dock in the water. I have seen them keep them in until October and I have also seen them remove them earlier. I do know that not too many boats will be able to get in as the lake keeps going down and my days there are becoming fewer and farther between.
So long, Summer! See ya next year!