Stupid Trees, Good Crew

So I'm out at Hartwell over the weekend having a good time. It's 2PM Sunday so I had to go a bit further north than typical to score some good water. We turned a corner or two in some tight channels and wound up in a pretty big area of glass. It was my turn up so I dropped in and we started up. I'm cutting out for a jump when all of a sudden my boat stops.

The crew said something but I couldn't hear them. When I saw them break out the oars, I assumed the engine died. I pulled off my board to swim back to the boat and when I did I realized I was standing on a tree limb! There was a frickin forest worth of unmarked submerged trees right under the boat. What's really odd is that there are docks all around this veritable forest. I guess the trees a problem now because the lake is so low but it's not that low. I've seen it a lot worse. My crew was smartly using the oars to keep the hull from hitting any more limbs. I slowly pulled the boat out of danger using the tow rope.

Luckily, the hull only suffered a few surface scratches but the prop lost a good chunk out of it. It wasn't bad enough that we couldn't get back to the ramp but it was bad enough that I'm sending the prop off to get repaired.

I'm really proud of my boat crew for knowing what to do and stopping the engine immedeately after contact. The situation could've been a lot worse than it ended up being. I'd also like to give a big middle finger to whoever is in charge of marking submerged trees. If they can't be bothered to place a marker, then they could at least mark the maps. It's not like those trees are new or anything. Then again, I'm just glad I'm not having to read up on fiberglass repair right now.

Dante,
I had the same thing happen to me kindof. We had just launched the boat and goiing throught the 5 mph channel when all of a sudden a rock was right smack in front of us. Needless to say I hit reverse but by then it was too late. I cant imagine how many other people hit that same rock that day. I told the forest service guy about it and he said well get someone out there next week to mark it. Yeah the lake was a bit low but still they mark other rocks, why in heck not this one. I nearly came unglued because of what he said. Luckily my buddied interviened and we just loaded up and went home. Needless to say I have never launched from that ramp again.

Why didnt you mark the trees?

Hey Dante what part of Hartwell were you guy's at?

I keep my boat @ Hartwell, and we go out as often as possible, I would like to know the area you were at so I could avoid it in the future.

It is good to boat with people that possess common sense!

"I'd also like to give a big middle finger to whoever is in charge of marking submerged trees."

What?

Kyle,
I did want to mark the trees but we didn't have anything handy that would've done the job properly. Anything we had that floated would've generated more curiosity than anything. I sure didn't want people going over to check out or clean up whatever they saw floating in the middle of the tree mine field.

Mike,
I wasn't mapping as good as I should have, but I'm almost certain it's by the Mullins Ford boat ramp. That's the only boat ramp I see in the area with the right geography. There's an island on the northern end of that cove. Go directly south of that island and the trees will be about 100' to 150' off the southern shore. Next time I'm out, I'll give you an exact location. I'll be marking it on my map since I like the area but would prefer to not hit any trees while I'm out.