Tuesday, October 16, 2007

some excitement in the 'hood

Well, we had an exciting afternoon. When I walked out on the dock, I noticed an unusual amount of oil film on the lake. Mark went down to see if there was a problem with our boat. Nope, our boat was fine. Our neighbors' boat, however, was in the process of sinking. We called our neighbors and then notified the water patrol. Very shortly we had a Sherrif's truck and a fire truck on the street, and soon after that more fire trucks. The owner called their boat mechanic, and he came out and oversaw getting the boat out of the water. (To make matters worse, our neighbor is in Chicago on a business trip, and his wife works about 45 minutes from here.)


Gary (one of our neighbors) brought down a huge pump and pumped out as much water as he could. (In our opinion, Gary deserves a huge thank you and maybe a nice dinner out!) Then Mark towed the boat over to the landing and several neighbors helped to get the boat up on a trailer. Luckily, our neighbors have good insurance and the clean-up and engine repair will be totally covered by the insurance company.

The film on the water was actually gasoline. This is good news because the gas will evaporate and clean-up will be faster and easier than if it were oil. There is some oil mixed in, but could have been worse. This photo shows a fireman putting an oil or polution boom in place around their dock to try and contain any further spill.

The bad news for us is that most of the oil and gas are in our swimming area - what a mess! I'm really glad it's not swimming weather!! If we get some strong winds, this will disperse over a larger area of the lake. It got a lot worse after Mark snapped this photo. The best guess right now is that a critter (probably a muskrat) chewed through one of the seals on the outdrive. We were glad we noticed it when we did, but that boat is our neighbors' pride and joy, so we're feeling for them. It is nice to be a part of a neighborhood that pulls together when someone has a crisis.

7 comments:

Susie said...

Poor guy! Imagine coming home to find your boat sinking. That would be quite the shock.
Good thing it wasn't oil, that would have really been a mess.
xo

Anonymous said...

It sounds as though you have a great neighborhood! The boat owners must be very thankful for all the attention and help they received! I also liked your 'gift of time' post! Sometimes we need to take and seize the moment! Nice photos of your blooms.

Anonymous said...

Howdy! You sure don't have any dull moments up there!!! Mighty neighborly thing to do!!!

I love that pic of you and dad! I know I have never seen that before! Too special!!!

Love you TONS! Patti

Anonymous said...

What great neighbors you are! Around here, I don't think anyone would help another person like that.

Trailhead said...

Today's Thursday -- how are things looking after two days? Has most of the gas evaporated? (I'm such a geek.)

kris said...

Hey trailhead - Wednesday the oil/gas film was closer to shore - smaller, but still there. Yesterday and today have been very windy and blowing away from our shoreline. When I went down today the water actually looked clear. So I think it a) evaporated and b) spread to a larger surface and in effect disappeared. I'm guessing when we pull the dock the pipes will be quite slime-covered at the water level - and probably our rip-rapping is nicely oiled. This was bad news, but could have been so much worse.

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

Yikes!!!! Unbelievable how a little creature like a muskrat could take down a craft like that, isn't it? Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage