Stranded At Sea

Yesterday my family and I made the 4 hour trip to Nevada to spend the day at Lake Mead. We ended up leaving around 2:30 in the morning because my Dad wanted to be able to get out there early so we could get the most out of our day trip. The day started out great. We got some really good boating in. My sister and I got to tube, she fell off twice while I held on for life! There was no way I was letting go and getting in the fish infested water. It's just a phobia of mine, which I know I need to overcome. I'm not even quite sure when this phobia started because I remember when I was younger I was fearless of the water. Thinking back... I think it may have been when I was 10 years old. I went to a summer camp in Hawaii called 'Explorations'; in which Hawaiian children are taught about our culture, etc. We get to do alot of hands on trips and one of them was making a human fish net (the way Hawaiians used to do it) and I don't know; I'm thinking something happened then. Maybe I got bit? Or maybe the slimy feeling of the fish on my feet and legs freaked me out? Not too sure. But I kind of remember this crazy phobia of mine starting sometime after that.

Anyways, now that you got that background story on me, back to our day at Lake Mead. The sun was beaming and the temp was hot. I don't mind the heat at all though. I actually prefer it. I get cold pretty easy, so 107 degrees doesn't bother me too much. While my parents and sister complained about it, I soaked it up. Maybe a little too much because I feel like I look like I just stepped out of a tribe in the Amazon, I got dark! So as we boated around and enjoyed the scenery, we got kind of caught up in it and really lost our sense of time and wasn't paying too much attention to how long we had been out on the lake for. We started out with a full tank of gas in the morning and figured it'd be enough for the day. When we realized we we're starting to run low, we knew it was time to start heading back to the dock. Thinking we knew where we were going, we began to make our way 'back'. This lake is pretty huge (way bigger then our usual day trips to Lake Perris in which we pretty much just ride laps around). We turned into a cove which we thought we had docked from, only to find out it was just a cove... we began to ask boaters how to get back to Boulder Harbor and was directed to keep heading South. After seeing it in the near distance, "brumpt brumpt brumpt", we had ran out of gas!!! So there we were, my dad, mom, sister and I drifting engine less in the middle of Lake Mead. Boaters began to pass us thinking we we're just hanging out. My mom pulled out her cell phone, happy to see the signal bars and called a Lake Mead emergency number. After being told the cost of towing would cost somewhere around $185; we resorted to try to ask for help before committing to paying that. I pulled out the fog horn and began to blow and wave my arms to oncoming boaters. After about 15 minutes, we saw a boat in the distance begin to head towards us. As they were pulling up, the young guy driving the boat was heading right towards us and not stopping. We all began to panic and were confused as their boat hit the side of ours. After realizing it was an accident and that they weren't some crazy pirates trying to attack us, we let them know what happened and they were so kind to throw us a rope to tie to our boat and towed us to the lake gas station, which was about a 20 min boat ride away from where we were. They were a really nice family of about 8 people, offered us watermelon and waters as we floated behind them to get gas. My parents ended up paying them for their trouble and we were so relieved to gas up and finally head to our dock! It was an adventure for sure and the Lord was so faithful to provide those friendly boaters that came to our rescue! Lesson learned, Always make sure you have enough gas to make it back! :) I love my family! I finally leave tomorrow morning to be with my wonderful hubby after a very long month and a half of being apart! Beyond excited!! Next time I blog, I'll be with Daniel! Hope you all are doing wonderful!