Cars on Boats

Over the years many things were carried to the island camp on the big Noé boat:

A herd of sheep

 A Jeep 

A sailboat

 A sandrail and go-karts

 Kayaks

 Electric generators

 Pounds and pounds of live tilapia babies and harvested ones on ice

 Harvest of onions

 Household effects of a family - more than once

 A horse or two

 Campers, of course

Getting things onto and off of the boat can be tricky! When the sand rail from the video needed to go out, it was a touch and go situation. My biggest fear was that Uncle Byron would overshoot the deck of the boat and end up in the brink on the other side! Once we had a big 50 gallon jug of diesel fuel on the front deck of the boat. It was one of the few times we took the boat into Casa Nova across from the island. The church folks there gave the fuel to help with the costs of their retreat. It was very late and we were in a pretty big hurry to leave and still get across the lake and back to our port in Sobradinho near the big dam. It was already dark and the waves were throwing the boat from side to side. Normally when we come back from the island the waves crash into the front bow. The big, heavy barrel of oil was sitting just in front of the little pilot's cabin, right in the middle. Uncle Byron thought that it was very heavy and would be fine sitting there. But low and behold when the boat took a sudden sideways dip and water came flooding over the deck as the side of the boat touched a wave - the barrel of oil disappeared. Today it's probably still somewhere in the middle of the lake. 

This week Uncle Byron went looking for a lost anchor. The water in our lake is very low because of a long drought. He took two men who like to dive. They had Uncle Byron's GPS with the place marked. He has been waiting for several years for the lake to go low enough to try to recover the anchor. They were not successful. The spot where the anchor is located is still fairly deep. But as they came back they found an underwater ridge and the boat got stuck on land in the middle of the lake! It took them a while to get it "un-stuck" and going again. Uncle Byron said that as they all were under the edge of the boat trying to rock it off the ridge that he felt it go free and said, who's holding the rope? Oops! No one was. But they all scrambled as fast as they could and managed to get back on the boat. It would have been pretty funny to get a call from one of the time asking for help - Help, we are stuck in the middle of the lake and the boat just got away! 

Hope you all have a great week!