A Very Small Amount of Water Transportation

If I had to gander a guess, I would say there are more forms of transportation in the water than on the land.  But I’m just guessing.

There are tugboats, canoes, kayaks, yachts, ships, motorboats, sail boats, house boats, ferry boats, water taxies, steam boats, rafts, jet skis, paddle boats, surf boards and submarines to name a few. 

Most of the water transportation that I’ve been on have been rides at amusement parks – rides that may very well work without the water, so I don’t guess they count – though the Water Skeeters at Lagoon and the Canoe Ride at Disneyland did require physical work unlike the tugboat kiddie ride or Tom Sawyers raft.

So, outside of the amusement park I have ridden a ferry – well a few of them rather.  But the ferry in British Columbia was quite different from the said ferry that takes passengers on a guided tour.  We (or dad, rather) actually drove our car onto the ferry in British Columbia and disembarked at another destination.

The thing I remember the most is being in a lock chamber – that is when water levels were raised or lowered to accommodate boat to fit with the water level on the other side.  That was interesting.

I have also been on a cruise ship.  It was when I was single and had money.  For the most part I was okay with it.  I recall only one night being sea sick.  I went with my mom and her mom on a princess liner cruise to Alaska.

Two of the side trips we took were going down Mendenhall River on a raft and enjoying the Misty Fjords in a float plane.  It was actually my birthday when we visited Misty Fjords. That was cool.  I don’t know many people who have been on a float plane during his or her lifetime.  Mom and I actually stepped out from the float plane after we had landed on the water, but grandma remained seated inside.

I’ve also been river rafting with the young men and young women down the Snake River. We had three rafts – one of mostly leaders, one of young men and one with young women.  Or perhaps there were only two rafts and one that had only one guide whose raft carried the food and supplies. We’d alternate after we would stop to camp.  On the last day one of our young women was shivering so hard that the boat would move without our having to paddle.

I had always thought that the sailboat looked like such a relaxing form of transportation.  It wasn’t! The hardest work I have ever encountered on water transportation was not due to a paddle, oar, or pedal.  I thought the water transportation demanding the most physical work was with the sail.  Perhaps the elements were off that day.  I don’t remember.  I have only gone sailing that one time and I remember being exhausted and not relaxed at all.

The young men and young woman had decided that they would like to spend a day on the lake – either water skiing or just riding in the boat.  We had almost the same amount of leaders as we did youth as those who drove the boats had brought their partners.  There ended up being two motor boats and a sail boat.  More than half the youth had gone with the motor boats and most of the young women were left with the sailboat – which held only three.  And since the only experienced sailor was Alan, he was always one of three, and thus the rest of us could go only two at a time – which made the experience filled with long waiting.

The girls felt gypped as the water activity ended before they were given the opportunity to ride in the motorized boats or water ski.  And so a make –up activity was allowed for those who hadn’t had the opportunity to ski and we took another week to venture out on the boat with just those young women who had missed out.

I don’t know how long we were out.  I think each of us had a turn to water ski or to be pulled in the tube.  I vaguely remember riding in the tube.  The boat moved only a little bit and then it stopped. I don’t know why we were stranded or how I got back into the boat. Either the driver miscalculated how much gas was in the boat or else a part came off or got wrecked or something.  We couldn’t move.

The highlight of the trip for the young women was not water skiing or being in the tube.  The highlight (for most of them) happened after we got stranded and a boat full of boy scouts offered to pull us into shore.  You would think that all of the boy scouts were heart throb celebrities from the reaction the girls had on their faces.  How exciting and memorable that make-up trip became for them.