I am bringing my boat with 4 couples, Wet Dogg is bringing his boat with 4 couples. Should be a ton of fun. We did it last year at the last minute and it was a riot, but this year we are going earlier and trying to pre-plan a little bit.

Does anyone know when the wall in the channel closes to boats? Usually boats moor there all day but for the fireworks they keep boats off the wall and that becomes the channel for boats cutting through the mess of thousand of boats anchored on the other side.

We were thinking at some point we might want to jump out into downtown GH for bathrooms and food, but I just don't know if that's even going to be a possibility.

We will probably spend the afternoon at Hanky Pank Cove and then run to the big lake for a while before rafting in the channel.

I just answered my own question:

Coast Guard Notice

Jeff,
it is bad when you talk to your self, BUT...

REALLY BAD when you start answering your self

woo0sterken

Shame on me...but it's soooo much easier to ask you guys than actually look for the answer in most cases. Hehehe

Wet Dogg and I are both experiencing delays due to guests and might get out to GH later than expected. Not cool!!

We went out into the channel last night, and man - they were already partying big-time.

Everything went great. Got to Petty's Bayou around 1:30pm (took us an hour to get there from 96 due to traffic), rafted-up in Hanky Pank until about 6pm and then headed to the channel for the fireworks show. Wet Dogg met us at Hanky Pank around 5pm and we spent the rest of the evening next to him and his crew. Part of the fun for me is the bumper boat traffic in the dark after the show ends. We got out of the channel pretty quickly though and were the 6th and 7th boats back to the ramp so our wait time was pretty minimal. I had to tell one guy to back off because he thought he could pass all the other boats waiting which prompted him to say a couple stupid remarks but he did back off. We were back in Grand Rapids before 2am so all in all everything went great.

I thought the fireworks were the best so far...

Did you end up rafting in the channel or did you stay at Hanky Pank?

We rafted in the channel downtown, almost directly across from Snug Harbor. We were the last boats in our line on the seawall side, which was very annoying because at 8pm the Coast Guard came over and said "no more boats in your line!" and for the next 2 hours we had to turn away 100 boats asking to tie up and surely thinking I was being an a-hole for saying sorry, can't do it.

Al - I bet you guys had a great seat too. Looked like the debris was falling in your direction? Saw some hot embers falling your way I thought.

Didn't see anything coming our way, but once in years past, my bimini top was full of ashes the next day.

Also this year the clientele at the marina is quite different, and much more friendly. We had a pretty good time cooking on the grille, making Margaritas, and alltogether having a bit of fun.

For the last few years, it has been more subdued. Not that I am a party animal or anything like that, but it just seems more friendly this year.

Yes we had a great time. Our first time to Hanky Pank and we had a blast. Firework were awesome and they were pretty much going off right over our head.

Jeff - that guy tried to cut me off as well...I did not hear any comments out of his mouth but if I knew we said something to you I would not have been as nice.

One thing Jeff and I talked about is next year we need to bring a video camera. It is amazing what you see people do with their boats. How they try and anchor, raft up wit someone, drive the boat, etc. There are some BAD, BAD, BAD boat operators out there. There was also the guy that was towing his two kids I would say 5 - 8 years old on a tube in VERY heavy traffic. I was nervous for them. One of the kids fell off and there were so many boats around him he could not turn right or left to go back and protect his tubber...he just came off plane. Not sure what he did next as we passed them.

On the way to downtown from Hanky Pank the lake is not that wide. We had a small pocket cruiser I would say 50 yards in front of us. A guy on a waverunner decides to start jumping his wake. Well he did not look and had no idea I was there. He jumped a wake and then cut hard left. I missed running him over by about 10'...I was terrified and that was after I had to cut hard left to miss him. I am not criticizing waverunners...we used to own some. But a lot of those operators are idiots.

But all in all it was an amazing day/night with amazing weather. Boat ran and trailered great. We were back in our driveway by 1 am. We will definitely be back next year.

We took our dinghy out a couple of times over the weekend. The mother ship always stays in the slip during CG Festival, as do most of the other folks in the marina. We do have a decent view of the goings on anyway, and don't want to get out there and bang the boat up.

The dock consensus was that there were not as many boats in the channel this year as in years past - maybe 25% down this year. I don't know if it was a combination of rough water (as some boats come in from Muskegon and Port Sheldon), fuel prices, or both.

But we like to take the dinghy out to see the sights. It would have probably been sheer luck to find you.

Our new slip neighbor is a unique individual. They have both extremes as they have a GFBL and sailboat.

They have been teasing me enough that I think I found a name for them "Blow Fast". Anyway, he and I went out Friday nite over to the wall, listened to some Reggae music the band was playing at the grandstand area, and just looking at all of the sights. He is really a goof ball though, but a fun kind of crazy.

Both of our wives were at the dock when we went out.

Saturday, the wife and I went out a couple of times. We usually go out the marina, over to the wall area, and down the channel to the power plant - cross over, and come back. We have seen some pretty strange stuff, as you can testify to.

If we know for sure you guys will be anchoring out in the channel next year, we'll be sure to look you up. The dinghy can be a really efficient beverage hauler.

Beverages are good...but this is the one time of year I take one for the team. I had 4 beers over about 8 hours. I think Wet Dogg did the same.

Lush.......

I don't think I have ever seen WD drink 4 beers in one day.

You mean drink that few? I agree, he usually has that many by noon.

WD - My wife's niece and her boyfriend have 2 jetskis and live in G.H. I would almost bet money that he may have been the Jack@$$ on the jetski. We saw them yesterday and he was talking about all the wakes he was jumping and the "fun" they had Saturday night in G.H.

Last year in Muskegon he came over with his jetski and jumped my wake once. I stopped, he pulled up next to me and said "Do you have a problem with your boat?" I told him "no" but "you'll have a problem with me if you try that once more." He didn't bother me the rest of the day and for that matter he doesn't talk to me at all because he knows I don't like him much. (If there is a wedding in their future, we will not be there.)