No Wake Zone

We took the kidlets out on the boat yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day and the lake was packed with people. One of Shawn's co-workers recently gave him an inter tube that seats two. It is bright red with the stars and stripes covering the front and twin eagles in the back. It is HUGE! The kids have so much fun riding together. They chat with each other the whole time. I love watching them grin from ear to ear as they ride side by side.

Since the tube only seats two, that leaves one child on the boat as the lookout. Their job is to watch their siblings and report all hand signals to the driver.

Thumbs up= Speed Up.
Thumbs Down= Slow down.
Hand slicing throat= Stop.
Arms, Legs pointing in different directions= Man overboard!


We had just put the boat in the water and were getting everything setup. Right around the dock there is a no wake zone marked by some buoys so that the waves coming off all those boats don't overwhelm the people trying to get their boats in and out of the water. The law is you aren't allowed to go fast enough to cause a wake or wave from your boat. On busy weekends the water cops are out to make sure everyone obeys the zone. We put GooseyGirl and Birdman in the tube and started towing them gently out of the no wake zone.

There was a boat of adults watching all of this right next to us. They were smiling at our little spectacle of kiddos in matching life vests sitting in a massive bright red inter tube adorned with patriotic motifs. They waved at the kids and seemed tickled to watch our giddy children. RocketMan was in the boat ready to interpret any incoming hand signals. He's on the job and darn serious about it too.

Suddenly, the first signal came in from BirdMan. It was the "Thumbs Up".

RocketMan quickly assesses the meaning and knows that BirdMan is requesting the boat to go faster. RocketMan turns around to see how far we are from the buoys that designate the no wake zone. We still have a good distance to cover before Shawn can get going fast. RocketMan knows he must relay this information.

RocketMan cups his hands around his mouth so that he can be sure his shouts will carry all the way back to BirdMan, "We have to wait until we're passed the BOOBIES".

"Umm, sweetie, the word is BUOYS", I said.

"Oh", RocketMan replied as he goes back to his lookout post, completely unaware of the boat beside us that is now busting out with laughter.

I think we made their day.