call HART crazy .. but
This is both a “RANT” and a “RAVE”
I believe I was one of the lucky ones growing up .. I always had a cottage to go to .. at least up to my 16th birthday anyway .. and also had friends and relatives with cottages since. My parents first had a cottage at Caddy Lake, which is located just before West Hawk Lake and Falcon Lake near Manitoba and Ontario Border. We had a trailer in the Green Bay Resort area. Our next cottage was over at Jessica Lake, also in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, near White Lake and Brereton Lake.
We loved the water, and had boats, canoes, a dock, water skis, diving board, and a cliff about 20 feet high that we used to jump off into the 5 ft water below! It was great. We were all great swimmers and skiiers. When I say “WE” .. I mean my two brothers and myself. We loved to water ski and drive boats. And, my father sacrificed a lot in those days. Our cottage was about 2-1/2 hours away from our home, and he would only come on the weekends, Friday night, and leave late Sunday night. My mom and the three sons would stay out there all summer, at least.
In our cottage ownership days .. we had 5 boats.
1) We had a green canoe. When I was about 11 years old, I went on a 7-day camping and canoe trip with my older brother who was 17 throughout the whiteshell. There are rivers joining most of the lakes in the Whiteshell, and it was no different with Jessica Lake. First we portaged across to a remote lake beside Jessica Lake, then we paddled our canoe all the way to Big Whiteshell Lake and portaged over to Horseshoe Lake. We had a healthy diet of clams and frogs legs! It is a memory that I still keep up today.
2) We had an aluminum 16′ boat with a West Bend 8 HP motor .. for fishing. I can’t tell you how many times that motor has been repaired, fell off that boat, hit a rock, taken apart and put back together .. I think the Rennie Service Repairmen could repair that motor blindfolded it was there for service for many times. But, we had this at Caddy Lake and used that to travel the tunnels and riverways .. and we still had both this boat and motor (and the canoe) when we finally did sell the Jessica Lake Cottage.
3) We started with a regularly sized boat, with a 55 HP outboard motor .. and it was okay for the most part, but as we started to get older .. it was slowing us down.
4) We had a small sailboat, and occassionally went sailing around the lake. We only put the sailboat in the water when company of friends, or business associates / work friends of my dad came out with their sailboat and made it an event.
5) We upgraded to a speedboat, and a 205 HP outboard motor .. it was great! It had the ski bar inside the boat so when we were skiing, you can go all the way as far as you can along side the boat. We had this boat when my folks sold the cottage, and parked it in our 5-acre rural yard. I was so anxious waiting one final year to take it out for a spin .. but, a month before my 16th birthday .. my older brother took it out to some lake and didn’t bring it back. It ended up being taken in for repair at Rennie, Manitoba and barely made it out alive! After summer, we got it back and it just parked in our fields – unrepaired motor – and grew grass around it. Some guy drove by one day and offered my dad some cash for it, and the boat and trailer .. and he took it. I have not water skiied since that day in 1977. Still went swimming, and camping though 
But, while we had the boat and the cottage .. we loved to ski. We all could ski both with two skis, and then slalom with one ski. Myself, I was like my older brother who used to start off with two skis and then drop off one in the middle of the trip close to our base home dock, and then continue with the slaloming. And, I was good! I could create a great big spray and hardly ever fell. But, I was not as good as my older brother. It was funny in those olden days at Jessica Lake .. on the other side of the lake there was a slalom skiier about my older brother’s age and they would compete against each other .. showing off doing tricks .. see who can do the biggest spray .. stuff like that!
I don’t think ski-jets existed at that time, or at least was never a consideration for our father to get us one (our conversations would have probably ended with something like “you ungrateful bums – always wanting more”). We did like to change it up a bit though. We had this giant red surf board. It was made out of wood, and about 3 ft wide and 5 ft long. The tow rope attached to the boat attached to the surf board itself, and there was a handle also attached to the front of the surf board, in case we wanted to stand up. You had to be careful about this one, because if you weren’t careful and was trying to spray water, or weave in and out of the wake .. if you fell – it hurt and you got bruised if the board hit you. I might have gotten the odd bruise in my leg, as the life jacket or belt usually softened the blow
But, then in 1976 we moved out of the city into a rural part of town about 35 miles from the city. It wasn’t a farm or anything – we just commuted back and forth to work, school, etc. But it was a much bigger expense for my parents then, and they decided to keep the boat and sell the cottage. I don’t think they got much for it .. maybe about $30,000 ? or something like that. On my honeymoon in 2002 I drove by the old cottage and almost peed my pants – it was so beautiful .. with a dock, double boathouse, limestone and landscaping .. upper deck and gazebo around the house .. well, it must be worth at least $250,000 to $500,000 range now!
THAT WAS THEN, AND THIS IS NOW
My wife’s mother passed away sadly on May 26, 2006 and was part owner of a cottage on Lake Winnipeg. Now, for you NON-Manitobans reading this and wonder where Lake Winnipeg is .. look at a map. In North America, find those 5 great lakes. Look left and it’s the bigger lake in the center. Lake Winnipeg has many popular beaches and resorts around both sides, and my wife inherited a part ownership of a cottage on the EAST SIDE at Victoria Beach. On this side .. there are many resorts, but the most popular beaches would be Grand Beach and Victoria Beach. On the WEST SIDE of the lake, the most popular beaches might be Winnipeg Beach and Gimli. Of course, ask anybody who lives out there and has a cottage – they would say “RUBBISH!” because everywhere is popular out there.
If you want to get a really good perspective of where Victoria Beach is (a peninsula) .. I’ve got this great API embedded into a Google map on my other site .. HERE. Feel free to zoom in and out to see Lake Winnipeg and surrounding areas .. I live in Winnipeg city by the way.
If you want to see our cottage and pictures I’ve been taking over the summer .. they are over HERE on my business site.
Lake Winnipeg is (I think I read it somewhere) the 10th largest non-salted water/lake in the world. During normal years, the deepest part of the lake is on average 43 feet deep although there is rumors that there might be dredges in places up to 118 feet deep. It is quite shallow for its size, and is very sandy. In contrast, by Caddy Lake .. West Hawk Lake was hit with a meteor long ago and approximately 400 feet deep, with spots maybe 600 feet deep (unconfirmed guesses from memory). Lake Winnipeg is currently about 4 feet lower now that it was in June 2006. You can see that in the picture gallery!
WHAT SPARKED ME TO WRITE ABOUT BOATS AND TUBING AND COTTAGES?
As I mentioned above, we just had a boat on our lake. This year, at the new cottage .. you can’t but notice all the new aquatic entertainment there is. There are tons of ski-jets .. individual Wind Surfing boards, and for boats .. you see more of those giant tubes that float about 2 ft above water level that attach to boats these days than you see skiiers! Generally, the reason is probably because most people like to stay inside the little coves and inlets along the coast than risk crossing the lake .. and it’s shallow water and there are a lot of kids! Makes sense, eh?
Well, on the Lake Winnipeg WIKI link I posted earlier above .. to the left of Lake Winnipeg is Lake Manitoba. To the left of that is the city Brandon. Near Brandon is Minnedosa and there is a lake (called Minnedosa Lake) and during the last weekend .. someone died from a TUBING and BOATING accident. He was age 44 years old .. 1 year older than me. It got me thinking about boating, and tubing, and all my cottages during life. We did have one instance where my mother lost control of the boat .. but, someone else in the boat quickly got control back and it’s just a laughing memory nowadays. And, that was 30 years ago.
Today .. my parents are 70+ years old and will be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary this October 2006. I wouldn’t let them drive a boat and tow me around in a rubber tube. Well, maybe I would! We don’t have a boat now .. and all I’ve been doing this first year back with cottage location .. is floating on my back. I wear glasses and just about two weekends ago, there was a neighboring guy on a Wind Surfer wizzing back and forth in front of me, and missed me once by about 25 feet. I saw him coming, stood up and he just fall sideways.
I don’t know the circumstances of what happened out on Lake Minnedosa last weekend .. but our hearts are out for them. It must have been terrible for everybody involved, and especially those family members in the boat at the time. It only takes a second, and the unimaginable can happen .. *snap* .. just like that!
So, be careful out there, eh?
Here was the news item:
Brandon man dies in boating accident
A 44-year-old Brandon man has been killed in a boating accident. RCMP say it happened around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon on Lake Minnedosa. The victim was taken to Minnedosa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The name of the deceased is …. He was on a tube being pulled by the boat, which was carrying members of his family. He was accidentally struck by the boat, and died of his injuries.
RCMP say it doesn’t appear alcohol was involved, and are continuing to investigate.
CJOB’s Brett Megarry reporting.
SOURCE: CJOB
Yup. Sad.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
