Labor Day

With an extra day off from work, we had a lot of fun over Labor Day in SC. It was Mari's 2nd or 3rd time visiting Daniel's grandparents at Lake Murray. We went for rides on the pontoon boat and swam a lot.

Monday morning my two sisters in law and I had an adventure.The usually calm lake was perfect for sailing with a strong, steady wind. Leaving the men with the children, we leisurely sailed the small man-o-war out of the cove. Surprisingly, no other boats were out on the lake and having so much space to ourselves was rather nice and relaxing. Until we hit the middle of the lake and our rudder fell off! At first it only detached from one side. Realizing this was bad, we turned around to sail home when it decided to come off the other side as well. Unable to steer and in the middle of the lake we contemplated our options. My first thought was to swim for shore. But shore was far away and we couldn't all leave the boat. We tried to paddle, but with just one small paddle and wind blowing us in circles, that didn't work. After that, we tried to use the paddle as a rudder and unfurl the sail just enough to blow us to shore without losing control. It worked! We couldn't steer this way all the way home, but we made it to a dock. A couple guys saw us tying onto their dock and came out to see what happened. They invited us in to call home. Then gave us towels and bottles of water as we introduced ourselves and waited for Daniel to arrive with the pontoon boat. The wind continued all day and into the next day. With the boat needing repairs, Daniel, K, and I were kinda bummed that we couldn't sail for the remainder of our visit. However, we did enjoy that brief sail, even though it ended in a rescue. Seeing someone else's lake house was cool too!
Monday night there was a violent storm. Strong winds blew the dock away, boats and all!

Daniel and Grandpap ran out in the middle of the downpour to tie a rope around the dock to prevent it from colliding with other boats or getting too far away. We lost power for 4 or 5 hours that evening. We enjoyed playing games by candlelight, although the kitchen heated up fast without AC.
Tuesday morning put the dock back.

We always have a wonderful time visiting Grandma and Grandpap. We are looking forward to going back soon!