Are There Sharks In This Lake?

So what happened on such a perfect day?  What is Vol Fan not recovered from?  Is Maggie permanently scarred?

Winner of Best Guess is Busy Bee Suz!  Her guess - Vol Fan lost his swim trunks and Maggie was the unintended spectator!  Hahaha!!!   Thankfully, nothing as traumatic as that!

Vol Fan and Maggie were riding the jet ski and were way out in the middle of the lake.  Apparently, they zigged when they should have zagged and ended up in the drink.  The jet ski landed upside down.  Not normally a terrible thing when riding a jet ski.  Except this time.

This time when they flipped it back over something went terribly wrong and the engine compartment filled with water.  They were sinking.  Like for real sinking!

I was at the picnic area with the rest of the gang - talking, laughing, snacking on chips, etc.  No one was paying one bit of attention to the jet ski riders.  Jocie and Alex had been sitting on the dock, watching them.  They saw them flip but Jocie is experienced on jet skis and didn't think anything about it.  So they laughed about them landing in the water.  And they continued to laugh and horse around. 

After several minutes (like 15), Jocie realized that Vol Fan and Maggie still hadn't started riding again.  Like I said Vol Fan and Maggie were really far out in the lake so it was difficult to tell what they were doing.  Jocie and Alex stood on the dock, straining to see what was going on.  They finally decided that Vol Fan and Maggie weren't just swimming and that probably they couldn't get the engine restarted after the spill.  So they came to the picnic area to get someone to go help them.

When they told us, we all stood, craning our necks, trying to see if they really needed help.  We were able to see the jet ski and two heads in the water.  We discussed that maybe they were just swimming.  Maybe they were having trouble getting the engine to start.  Finally we decided to just go check.  A good 25 minutes had passed since they had flipped.

I got on the other jet ski and took off across the lake.  As I approached, I realized that they were swimming pulling the jet ski so I thought they couldn't get it started.  It is persnickety about starting.  Then I saw that the jet ski was about 2/3 of the way under the water!!  So I pulled up and tied the jet ski to mine for a tow back to the dock.

After having to stop to retie the rope since I'm not the best of knot tiers and having to stop again to retie after we broke the rope by trying to go too fast while towing, we finally made it to the dock.  Along with Greg's help, Vol Fan was able to load it on the trailer.  He pulled the plugs and left it to drain.

After hamburger and a couple of beers, Vol Fan went to check to see if it had drained.  Vol Fan was convinced that it was toast but Cowboy was able to guide him through the process of getting the water out of the engine.  Thankfully, it started and soon it was back in the water carrying riders!

So how was Maggie scarred for life?  This is the first summer that Maggie has been in Tennessee.  She has lived near the ocean or in places where gators are the norm for all her young life.  She was convinced that she was about to be eaten!!  It took Vol Fan several minutes before he was able to get her calm enough so he could tell her that we don't have sharks.  And we don't have gators.  I'm not sure if she ever really believed him!

For some reason, she didn't want to ride with him again...