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.