Great trip even with a fire on one engine and being left to
float into a rocky cliff for an hour or so. We boarded Wednesday and drove to
buoy 14 when the engines just quit on us. Ryan worked on getting it restarted
and while he was trying that Dawes and I smelled smoke and ran to the back of
the houseboat with fire extinguishers in hand. Dawes went out as Ryan is
yelling to close the door because the smoke was so bad. I shut the door and
watched Dawes lift the hatch a smidge and spray and then immediately retreat to
the roof. I watched the smoke plume and pulled the pin on my fire extinguisher
and watched ready to give it another spray. As I went out to do just that Dawes
came back down and we moved wake boards up to the roof so we could look at both
engines. The smoke dissipated and Dawes checked that the fire was indeed out. We
were left with no power to our engines and as such started drifting quickly to
the rocks on our left. Nathan was very frightened. Ryan was trying to hail Aramark
and not having any luck. We could hear them but they were unable to hear us.
Ryan and Dawes quickly untied the ski boat in hopes of pulling the houseboat
away from the rocks we were getting closer and closer to. My kids and Paige
were very nervous. I was not very helpful as I was so scared. I could see we
were going to crash into the rocks and was trying to figure out if I should be
in the front or back pushing us away from the rocks. Meanwhile Ryan and Dawes
were successful hooking the ski boat up to the front of our houseboat but
unable to accomplish a thing. The houseboat was too big it was whipping the ski
boat around so they disconnected I felt like we should get the kids onto the
ski boat but Ryan said no we should stay on the houseboat. So I gathered the
kids and made sure everyone had their lifejackets on. I grabbed an extra kids
jacket and we said a little prayer. I have never been so scared in my life. We
started hitting against the rocks and it was loud. Dawes got back on the
houseboat and kept watch from the roof. He assured me we were experiencing
minimal damage because of the rock wall curving out at the top and thus only
the upper deck appeared to be experiencing damage. We would hit the rocks about
once a minute. Then for a time we drifted away from the rocks into the channel
and that was even more scary because the rocks on the other side were much
lower and would cause even more damage. But eventually we floated back to that
wall of rock and continued slamming into the rocks. After our prayer I was
given great comfort to know we would be okay. Ryan was able to contact the
national park services and they communicated our situation to Aramark. About an
hour later a small boat arrived and boarded our houseboat to see what our
situation was. He ended up pulling us back to Wahweap. When assessing the
damage we found some tares in the canopy, scratches on the side of the
fiberglass and some indentions in the aluminum on both the back corner and
front corner, on the port side. There was a small crack up top on the balcony
in the fiberglass. The downstairs back bedroom window got pushed in and we
couldn’t get it to close after that. Once we were close to the dock Jonny tied
up behind the houseboat and steered us right into our slip. It was amazing. There
were mechanics there waiting to help. They worked for an hour or two and said
they were not going to be able to fix it and felt like there were three
possible outcomes but they wouldn’t know which until the next morning at 8:00.
1) we could stay in the slip 2) they could tow us to a beach and drop us if
they could isolate the generator 3) they could put us on a rental houseboat. We
went and had a lovely meal on the dock at the new restaurant. Ryan told
everyone they had had a hard day and order whatever they wanted. We got fried
pickles and pork egg rolls. Everyone got a milkshake and we had a great dinner.
We loved the lights on the tables. That night we lost the ability to pull lake
water so we didn’t have showers or toilets or anything. I couldn’t imagine
going out without that water. The next morning the mechanics showed up and were
able to fix the lake water and isolate the generator and even get the other
engine up and running. The Painters found us and launched at Wahweap we loaded
their stuff on the back of the boat the kids went swimming and then we loaded
up and took off toward Loan Rock.
Our burnt engine
Ryan and Dawes had found a great spot but it turned out to
be quite muddy so we anchored at a big beach close to the beach all the campers
go to. The beach was great and the water in the bay was awesome. Saturday we
had a lot of other boaters but it was still great. The weather was interesting.
The first night we had thunderstorms and we were all sleeping up top but we
didn’t get wet. The next day was windy and the kids were able to tube to their
hearts content. The next day was beautiful water and a bit over cast. Sunday
rained like crazy. Monday started off windy but ended up perfect same with
Tuesday and Wednesday. Although both Sunday and Monday night were rainy and we
had to shuffle everyone so they remained dry. The twins slept in the room with
the little door in their pak n plays. We moved the mattress to the living room
and Ryan slept there and I slept there when it rained. Natalie and Alli slept
in the other room downstairs. Emily and Jason got the small upstairs room and
Mike and Paige/Steve and Terri slept in the back master bedroom depending on
the day. The Painters went home on Sunday and Steve and Terri arrived on
Sunday. Mike brought Chris’ boat down and we had a ton of fun but the night of
the storm the boat wasn’t tied up as well as it should have been and it got
some big scratches in it. Brand new 2013 wake setter. Heather and Dusty came
Sunday with their wake setter. It was so fun to surf behind those boats.
