Frostbite 2005 by Nat Church (click here)

Frostbite 2005

Lake Eustis, Florida

Frostbite 2005 was yet another event second to none!

 It started Friday evening at our rented home on Lake Eustis.  Initially we didn’t plan on hosting our annual 'After the Holiday Party' this year since we weren’t in our new house.  Well, tell that to the 21 guests we had that evening for penne pasta and garden salad.  Quite a few arrived early and it was time to start the party! 

Early Friday afternoon, Cliff Ennis arrived and a couple of us went to Big Johns on Lake Harris to get things going, Kathy would join Cliff on Saturday.  Later in the afternoon Mike and Terry stopped by on their way to the hotel.  Claire was busy cooking and Terry joined right in much to Mike’s amazement, since Terry doesn’t cook (he begged us to document it!).  Yes that is a picture of Terry flambéing the sauce!  Marty made the next batch of sauce (once a fireman.....).  Everyone was excited and talking about the beautiful 80 degree weather we had coming for the weekend. We couldn’t wait ourselves knowing 16 skiffs were about to boil the water all weekend.

Never is there a dull moment when skiffers get together and the stories often start early. Jean Jordan made a fantastic 4 layer chocolate cake for desert but the cake never made it. While packing their truck with all the weekend gear, Phil put the cake on the “wheel” of the truck. He loaded the rest of their gear and he forgot about the cake… thinking Jean put the cake in a safe place…  Yep! You guessed it, Phil took off, heard glass break, looked at Jean and just kept driving (over the cake…) Guess we’ll never know how beautiful it was.

Other guests started arriving at 6PM and quickly it was like a family reunion. The hugs started and everyone was happy to be together again to enjoy doing what we do best… eat and go for skiff rides! The ladies talked about whatever they talk about, and we talked skiffs, skiffs, and more skiff stuff.  Luckily us men don’t have to deal with the penis factor which keeps our outings fun.

The evening went by quickly and soon it was time to say bye – only briefly though.  We had a jammed packed day of activities planned for the next day so we sent everyone to their pits around 10 pm; we cleaned up and got ready for the morning.

At some time on Friday, Dave Yeager called exclaiming his ex-in laws heard about the skiff event on the radio. They have been announcing it since Wednesday.  In addition to the County and local towns’ recreation departments, many others keep a close eye on our website and announce where we’ll be playing. Good to know this if we need a favor some day.

Saturday morning the staging area was buzzing with activity.  Many boats were showing up and the usual chatter and warm greetings were abundant.  Just when we thought every one was present, someone stopped to ask the usual question…. “Where’s Dougie”?  Unfortunately for us, Doug Apy had a previous engagement that he just couldn’t get out of.  He ensures us that he will be at the next one!

It’s now official, Cliff needs a checklist and Paul was too happy to oblige.  You see, Cliff forgot to untie the bow strap from the trailer as his boat was lowered into the water.  Paul Nowak was driving Cliff’s truck up the ramp, and Cliff was standing on the pedal of Sun Dog in full reverse   …hhmm boat not going anywhere, what’s up with this?  One of the spectators on the sidelines just couldn’t resist shouting to him that his trailer strap was still attached!  So, the official Cliff Ennis Checklist was developed: 

√    Boat

√    Cooler

√    Drinks

√    Snacks

√    Money

√    Plugs

√    Lifejackets

√    Kathy

√    Trailer strap

(please feel free to print this out and give to Cliff whenever you see him launching a boat…it might come in handy!)

We now have an established launch judging committee consisting of little Timmy, Jean, and Terry.  This committee decided to stay out of the way and in doing so began to rate each of the launches.  Skip was one of the first to go in and his grandson, Timmy gave him a score of 20 – on a scale of 1 to 10.  After Cliff’s little escapade, Timmy gave him the highest score of 2 – gee I wonder why. The following morning, Skip following in Cliff’s footsteps forgot to until the bow strap, and his grandson gave the highest score of a 2 again.  Think we have a pattern developing here.

Finally, we’re on the water!  Someone take the lead, someone follow or just get out of the way!  We buzzed around Lake Eustis, getting action shots with helmets and jackets for the Marathon publication, warming up engines, and fine tuning things.  It didn’t take long and we were off – the water like glass as the fishermen stared with open jaws as all 14 of us buzzed by, and birds getting out of the way!   Can you say SWEET!  In all fairness, Skip Gillam left his skiff home because it’s running and sold. Skip drove a Coronado and he immediately became the photo and tow boat if needed. It was good to see Cathy Shuler and her Wizz Bang down from the Detroit area enjoying the sun. Cathy is handling her skiff very well and I look forward to running close with her while in Detroit.

So we continued around Lake Eustis, and then went through the Dead River Canal… passing by one of our usual eating places.  On to Lake Harris to buzz around the island with the final destination Big John’s for a drink and pit stop.  After putting on a show for the folks at Big John’s we headed in to find a place to dock.  Tom and Fran Wark were the first ones in and quickly tied up.  The rest of us realized there wasn’t enough space to put us all – so we headed back out.  Tom and Fran stayed and had a bite to eat…. Guess they were hungry.  (Unofficially, we decided we would spend more time riding then in restaurants this time.)  Back out to Lake Harris we were forced to cruise some more.  I must say, it was one of the best days we ever had; the weather was beautiful, the water was calm, we were getting some great photos, and enjoying our boats…again.  So far only one boat had to get towed back to the ramp….Dave Yeager’s Swamp Rat.

We entered Dead River Canal and thought we would stop at Dead River Vic’s for lunch – once again there wasn’t enough space for us all to tie up.  Along the way, some people had to refuel their boats and pick up passengers, so they took a little detour. 

We planned on going through the Dora Canal next but Bill Oakley of Wo-Jo started complaining that he was hungry and said, “We’re not eating today?  We always eat out!”  OK Bill, we’ll feed you let’s try the Mexican restaurant or Sinbad’s….you guessed right – not enough dock space, bummer.  OK, one last resort – the Crazy Gator in Eustis.  We all fired up the engines and headed full speed across Lake Eustis once again only to find the docks filled with pontoon boats.  We decided to make this work – we’ll tie up anywhere we can, on the inside, on the outside, or rafted up.  Finally, Bill gets to eat!  We all enjoyed lunch then back out on the water for another round of a photo shoot.  We spent about an hour taking more pictures, and then headed back to the ramp.  This was a good decision as a few boats ran out of fuel just as they hit the ramp.  What a great day!

Now it was time to scrub up pretty and put our party clothes on!  We’re going to Crazy Gator for a fun filled evening of telling stories, making up lies and being with a great group of people.  Oh did I mention – it was Skip’s birthday so Esther made arrangements to get a birthday cake and we all chimed in wishing him well!  Happy birthday Skip!  Kathy also made her most delicious cookies again and guess who ate most of them…Tom.  The day was winding down and some folks were heading home, but a few were hanging out for one more day of fun in the sun. 

Sunday was planned before the sun went down on Saturday.  Hit the ramps at 9:00 am, go through the Dora Canal, play on Lake Dora and have brunch at Dead River Vic’s.  After we went through the Dora Canal we played with the boat wakes taking pictures of skiffs flying.  Some pretty good action shots going on here.  Remember Phil and Jean Jordan, they were skiffless this weekend but they did bring their flat bottom boat, I’m Back.  Phil saw all the fun the skiffs were having jumping the waves that he decided he HAD TO TRY THAT HIMSELF!  Well, some things are better left alone, although he did score a 10, poor Jean’s insides rattled like crazy; I think she might have to get an operation to put things back where they belong!  Enough fun for now, let’s eat.  After going back through the Canal, we were going to meet Skip at the Crazy Gator (yep, he forgot his camera there the night before….maybe he needs a checklist too!) but decided to head over to Vic’s to get dock space.  Somewhere along the way we misplace Phil and Jean and come to find out that Phil, out of the kindness of his heart (yeah right) let Jean drive I’m Back.  While they were making the driver change, he lost sight of us and joined us about ½ hour later at the restaurant. Jean is legally blind and pointed out she just couldn’t find us! We were happy she finally had a chance to experience the thrill of driving.

The food was good; the company was better another fine close to a perfect Skiffing weekend!  After that, we headed back to the ramp to put our toys away for the weekend, until the next event…

I understand the ladies will take over the driving duties at one of our outings while at Mount Dora, I can’t wait.

Here’s to the fine group of a skiff family that has developed over the years:

What I remember about all the boats...

See you at Mount Dora!

A special message from Skip:

Nat Church is in the process of sending us her version of Frostbite 2005 - will publish shortly.