Wander project pool to pool to Bay

One of the things that I know makes me ponder is the pool. When the twins and my daughter were little, they spent a lot of time in the pool. As in, we would have to drag them out of the pool. Now, none of them go near the pool. Now in part, it is because then, we had a pool in the backyard. Now the pool is a neighborhood pool. That is a difference, but they, the kids are also a lot older. Plus it is a ½ mile to get to the pool now, where it used to e 20 feet. Over time things change, and our adjustment to that is always interesting. We don’t swim in the Chesapeake Bay. We don’t often wander to the neighborhood pool. But we drive and walk by the pool all the time.

We don’t swim in the Bay because well according to my co-captain it is “dirty.” I know there are things in the Bay water, we had to replace two propellers on the boat this winter after last year. Last year there was so much rain north of us, that the dams were opened to relieve pressure on the dam itself. Dams are designed to hold a certain amount of water back, It isn’t, by the way just water with a flood control dam. It is also the debris the river carries tot eh human-made a lake. That includes trees, branches and other floating debris (read trash). The logs, slowly sitting in the water become waterlogged. As the sluice gates of the dam are opened, the return to floating down the river.

The logs that start their journey floating on the surface of creeks that are flooded, and flooded rivers, sit in the human-made flood control lake and slowly sink. Some sink to the bottom, decaying and become the muck on the bottom of the lake (or the bay). Some are submerged just below the surface of the water. We saw the mass of lumber on our sonar several times, 2-4 feet below the boat. Had it been 5-10 feet below the boat we wouldn’t have had an issue. We hit something underwater (submerged log) that took out two propellers. The joy of debris in the water. Not as bad as the island of plastic in the Pacific ocean. Honestly only not as bad because it is wood that will eventually decay.

Either way, we don’t swim in the Bay.