What happens at the end of the dock, stays at the end of the dock...

The dock on our beach up in MN that is quite long (roughly 200 feet according to the Google Map distances). We have all the boats stashed in hoists at the end of it to get them as far out into the "deep" as possible, making it easy to get them in and out. The yellow line below shows the dock and the hoists clustered at the end of the dock.


However, the water at the end of the doc is not deep. It is shallow. You can see in the fancy Google shot that the water drop off, in dark blue on the right, quickly moves away from shore right at our property highlighted in red. (Note that the white dot out by the drop off in the red box is our floating raft that is frequented by children and seagulls alike.) The drop off, as we call it, is where the depth transitions to about 6-8 feet and the seaweed starts to grow. This is where it is safe to dive in and for boats to take off fast when you yell "hit it!"

For the boating enthusiast, this is a pain in the a$$. People can't get onto the boat until it's pulled off the hoist and putted around to the side of the dock with 1/2 the motor sticking up out of the water while it digs in the sand, or we just walk it over with the motor off. Repeat to bring the boat back in. This is especially painful getting Nana/Grand Nana on/off the pontoon on any given night. Sometimes the water is so shallow that we literally have 4 people lift each edge of the hoist and drag it out into deeper water. Then, when someone wants to ride on the boat, they need to walk through the water to the boat on the hoist some 100 feet out in the water. They may/not be able to drive back to the dock to pick up people who want to take a ride.

For the swimming enthusiast, however, having shallow water at the end of the dock is awesome. It allows kids of all ages play and jump around in the water without worry or concern.

At an early age, we were able to loose the kids from their life preservers at the end of the doc b/c, if they could stand up, then they could "swim". This freedom helped them build comfort in the water quickly and gave them the confindence to do more. They swim under the doc and play commando or super spies. They can run off the doc and jump in (feet first of course). It's been a source of great joy for the kids, and the parents who are "forced" to watch their kids using their creative minds and having great fun.

Remember Brady's singing? That was right there at the steps down into the water at the end of the dock, too.

Anything and everything can happen at the end of the dock. And back in my day, it did... but that's another story that we won't be blogging about. ;-)