My Lake Powell!!!!

[03geetee]

Wow great pictures man thanks for sharing!

Glad the boat ran good and the kids had fun thats what its all about.

JTR

[DemolitionMan]

Great Pics! One day I want to make out to one of the western lakes.

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Originally Posted by gatorguy

Just found out I will be deployed next year starting in April for 6 months. Looks like I will not be on my houseboat durring my July week. Hopefully I can switch for an early october week. Sure would hate to miss the trip all together. Aside from being gone from my family for so long the worst part is going to be missing almost an entire season.

Didn't realize you are in the military. Your efforts and sacrifices are and will be greatly appreciated.

[gatorguy]

Another trip to Powell with a ton of great fun and memories. This time we got there in Saturday. The women hit the Walmart to stock up, and the kids and I went for a 9PM ski in the last fading light in Wahweep Bay. The water was surprisingly smooth. My goal was to ski every morning and evening of the trip. We spent Sat and Sunday in the slip while we waited for a few of the others in the family to show up, and we left the slip Monday morning after a quick ski.

We ended up at the very left end of Last Chance. We had the little cove all to our self. We couldn't see another houseboat from ours although there were a few close by and about 1-2 dozen in all of Last Chance. The water was only about 8' deep at the end of the houseboat, and there many small trees sticking their branches up in the area we were in. We thought the trees would be a problem, but they never were, and they kept others away.

I set up the slalom course at the end of Last chance where it would be out of the way, but it was still a magnet for morons. Someone hit and broke the boom on ball #2. I fixed it by hose clamping a broom handle to it and wrapping it in duct tape. We also lost 2 buoys to morons driving over them. I replaced them with 1/2gal chocolate milk jugs. They worked great. I was able to ski the course every morning and all but one night. I am now an addict, and wish I could do it even more.

My birthday was on the Monday the 16th, and my dad's was on the 19th. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a birthday than on the Houseboat out on the lake. No need to bring pressents, just gas for the boat.

I met a guy who wanted to ski my course, so I traded him pulls through the course for barefoot lessons. I'm by no means a pro, but have certainly been bit by the barefoot bug now.

Another random/funny thing was that the guy in the houseboat one cove over from us turned out to be the son of a lady who goes to my church all the way back in tiny Anadarko Oklahoma. Turns out to be quite a small world after all.

We had one small problem with the PS205, and it was on account of my being cheap/lazy. On Thursday my brother-in-law needed to go home, so we drove him back to the marina. We went the scenic way past Antelope marina, and took a side trip up antelope canyon. On the way out a go-fast boat needed help. I agreed to tow him to the main channel, about 1 mile, where he could then call for help (his plan, not mine). Help was over 2hrs away, so I towed him another 1-2miles into Antelope point. I limited my speed to 1500RPM, about 10mph. I didn't want to trash my boat by pushing it to hard. All I've ever heard was bad stories about towing other boats. Well, after dropping him at the fuel dock and clearing the wakeless zone, I put the hammer down to cruise back to Wahweep and the engine just would bog down and wouldn't do more than 1500RPM. So I cruised from Antelope to Wahweep at 10mph. I was afraid it was a bad fuel pump, which by the way is not available in Page AZ, and at $325 and shipping from SKIDIM is highway robbery. I replaced the $15 inline filter from NAPA (the parts girl in the marina was useless. She couldn't even cross check a part number from a NAPA to whatever they stocked) which took less than 5min took a quick test drive and everything was fine. I neglected to change it with my winter maintenance, but will never skip it again. Because of the extra time it took, we didn't get back in time to ski that night.

We had a few firsts on this trip. One of my 7yo twins did his first deep water combo start without the skis hooked together. Also my 15yo, who thinks the only cool thing in the world is to wakeboard, tried to slalom and got up on his 4th try from a long line deep water start after one try on the boom. I think watching me ski the course got him interested in trying it. I surfed with my 2-1/2yo on my shoulders. Each time we started going she would squeal with delight. She also went on a very tame tube ride with her big brother.

The Crystal Angel II anchored in Last Chance on Thursday while we were there about halfway up the canyon. They drilled re-bar straight into the sandstone (I thought that was a big no-no.) They had a nice little DD SN to ski behind, but they cheaped out on the wake boat. I figure if you have $8.5 million to spend on a yatch, you would not buy a wakesetter, but I guess he has more money than brains. What really looked funny was the tiny 8x8 pop up sams club shade they put up on the beach in front of the $8.5million boat.

We had a blast the whole week. No one got hurt. I made 6 balls at 15' off @32mph. Learned some barefoot basics. Spent a great time with my family. My kids progressed in skiing. The wife surfed even though she said she had no desire to do anything behind the boat, she just likes to hang out and tan. My wife also decided we need a newer/bigger houseboat, which is just fine with me, because that just confirms that we will be going back forever.

To follow are a bunch of pictures and video links of the trip:

1 Houseboat and MC in the slip
2 Overnight stop on Burlington CO. Next to a pig farm. Never smelled anything so bad.
3 Trailer tires before the 3200mile round trip tow
4 Trailer tires after trip. (Thanks Pete. These have been all over the place without a single problem.)
5 Cheep gas in Gallup NM

[gatorguy]

1 Antelope Canyon
2 Me and my princes in the marina
3 The only place I could find to eat was on a upside down bucket in timeout
4 One last meal before we all go our different ways

[gatorguy]

1 Pumping up the buoys. This is the biggest pump we had.
2 Our spot
3 Everyone wants to be like Grandad
4 Can't skip a day of workouts

[gatorguy]

Son slaloming off boom: http://youtu.be/l-3ndGPPYZ0
Me skiing course at start of trip: http://youtu.be/NtnqKdfwf5E
Barefoot attempt off boom with handle: http://youtu.be/UX8f5_9KE38
Barefoot attempt off boom: http://youtu.be/2G36TYDVyFM

1 kids bury each other
2 Brother-in-law and his dog
3 King of the tube
4 Biggest fish caught

[gatorguy]

1 Too much skiing? NEVER!
2 More fish
3 Fire ban? I don't think so.
4 Leave them where they fall. Nothing makes you sleep better then a long hard day in the sun and water.

That's all I've got for now. More to come next year.

[mzimme]

looks like a blast out there

[AZX9]

I would love to rent a house boat at Powell but can never come up with people to chip in and can take vacation.