Hydroplane Pain

This past weekend had the marina in an uproar again as they hosted some hydroplane races. Apparently this used to be a yearly thing here in Oak Harbor on the Fourth of July but stopped some years ago and they decided this year to start it up again, I really wish they hadn't.

The calm before the storm.

Mark scrounging up fenders.

Doubling up on fenders.

For those who don't know what a hydroplane is (don't feel bad, I didn't know either) they are these small little boats made out of balsa wood and fiberglass with what sounds like a jet engine on the back. They skim across the water at crazy speeds, kicking up a huge roostertail behind them and sink when they stop moving.

Of course we happen to be docked right by the loading ramp where they set up the pit for these things. The marina shut down all public access to the marina and no one was allowed to leave the marina via water while the races were going on, nor were we allowed to anchor in the bay so we were stuck, no way to get away from these things. 

They had around 50 boats partaking in the races and they were all parked on the loading ramp and since they can't stay in the water long without moving or they sink, they required this giant crane to put them in the water for their races and then remove them again, this process went on all day long.

And here in this picture you can see the reason for our extra fenders, it's not like they have a slow setting, no it's immediate take off at full speed, so for two days these loud, jet engined boats blast off about ten feet from our starboard hull, tossing their wake at us and we bounced and bobbed all day agains the dock.

I will admit I took perverse pleasure in the times one would randomly die and someone would have to go tow it back in before they sank.

We didn't want to leave the boat while these things were flying past us just incase the wake became too much and we needed to intervene, so we couldn't actually see them racing, the boys sat on the boom and got to see a little bit of it. I just grit my teeth and prayed for the weekend to be over.

The noise and motion didn't phase this one too much.

The boys loved having all the action right outside our door.

Mac has decided he is going to race hydroplanes when he grows up, he is going to build himself a big sailboat to live in; big, because ours is too small; a sailboat, because motor boats can get stuck at sea if their engine dies but sailboats can always sail and he's going to build it himself because he wants it done right, then he is going to have his hydroplane docked next to it.

He got started on building his hydroplane prototype, complete with a paper helmet.

These were just the small ones, the large ones were completely enclosed and rattled your teeth when they started up.

Speaking of rattling teeth, Aislinn has had a loose front tooth for over a month now and we are all getting pretty sick of it being in there. But as much as we all try to wiggle, poke, prod, beg or plead, it refuses to come out. We resorted to the old string trick, however that didn't work either and we are still waiting.

Managed to get in some baking for our church's conference this week, I am always amazed how well I can work in this small space. 

Thankfully the hydroplanes were only here for two days and I am back to enjoying my peaceful marina again, the weather continues to be beautiful, and we are plugging away at working on radar and rear tramloline installation and have some friends coming this weekend of a sail, hoping to avoid any catastrophese this time.