Sunday Funday - Vic Ferrari at Waverly

See the over 150 photos -Photo Gallery - SUNDAY FUNDAY out on the pontoon boat bar at Waverly Beach to see Vic Ferrari Band. A little cooler weather but still was a fantastic day out on Lake Winnebago. We brought out some friends and did our usual eat, drink, and enjoy the sun. There was a nice crowd of boats scattered around the beach area. I think everyone was thinking the same thing. Get out and enjoy as much summertime as possible. Around 3 o'clock Vic Ferrari came out and got the crowd going. We hung out till about 6 and headed for home on a smooth lake. It was a great day and night. Sad to think summer is coming to an end. See all the photos - Photo Gallery

Sunday Funday run-up Neenah Channel and Waverly

The view from the Neenah Channel by Shattuck Park

See the over 200 photos -Photo Gallery - Sunday Funday with some great weather. We packed up the pontoon and hit the water. The wind wasn't bad and the waves were about 1 to 2. We decided to go take a little run up the Neenah Channel. Never been up that way and figured it was a nice day to try it out. Coming off the lake you will see a single red marker about 150ft out from the Kimberly Point Park Light House. From that point, the channel is very well marked right into the city of Neenah. The first thing you will come across is the lighthouse. It is a very pretty old lighthouse that looks like it needs some new paint soon. As you run down the channel you go past a number of beautiful homes and go past Riverside Park. Just past the park is the bay where the sailboats all tie-up. Seemed like there was not that many in the bay for some reason. Still cool to see from the water. Across the river from this bay is the Whiting Boat House and Doty Park Boat Launch. A little farther up the river, you run past the Thedacare Hospital and the WG Bryan Bridge. The Dam is right past the bridge on the Northside. Just past the bridge is the Neenah Marina and Shattuck Park. There is a nice boat dock and sea wall here. Which is right on the East end of Downtown Neenah. There are a number of places you can go to for food and drink from here. We spun around and headed back up the channel and off to Waverly Beach. As usual, we pulled up close to the bar at Waverly. The band outside was Saddlebrook. We went up and got a few drinks and watched the band and ran into a few people we know. On the way back out my wife pulls up a bottle from the water. It was weird because it looks really old. It was marked as M Koester & Sons Bottling company of Appleton. Never heard of it before. I am guessing it has been in the lake for a long long time. We also got a big kick out of a pontoon next to us that had a train horn. When he left he lights it up and scared the crapola out of a bunch of people. It was really funny. He drove off and we couldn't see him but could hear the horn yet. Overall the music was great, Sun was great, the water was great. Another fun day on the water. See all the photos - Photo Gallery

Sunday Funday on the Taqener Klozov Formula

Taqener Klozov 353 Fastech Formula owned by the Wallaces

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Sunday Funday with the Taqener Klozov Formula, we got an invite to go boating with our good friends the Wallace's. We meet up at the Pioneer Marina in Oshkosh and headed out to Streich's Beach. Captain John was sporting his Speed on the Water T-shirt. I commented on his shirt and he told me I had to see his Speed on The Water blanket. Turns out we are fans of Speed on the Water. It was a fantastic day and the water was nice and smooth. The 353 Fastech Formula cruised across the lake at about 70 and was super smooth. We got out to Streich's and anchored up than eat some food and watched everyone rolling in. One cool boat we noticed come in was a 2108 Chaparral 287 SXX. Very nice-looking rig with a very interesting looking tower. I walked over and got a chance to talk to the owner. Super nice guy! I asked about the tower and found out it was an electric folding tower. It folds forward and sits just above the window. Pretty cool design. We decided the crowd was getting a little too big and fired up the Formula and headed toward Terrell Island. John and Gina knew a cool little spot on the South end of Lake Butte Des Mortes just past Terrell. So we headed over there and meet up with Sean. Sean lives in the area and brought out his 28' Kryptonite with a 400HP Mercury Racing Outboard. What a fun boat! He tied up for a while and we all shot the shit. Talking about things on the Lake and noticed a rather cool house. Sean had us jump in his boat and took us for a little run to go past the house. This boat is like a go-kart and takes off like a shot. He told us the boat was going a little slow due to us weighing him down. It was a damn blast. We came back and decided we should all run up to Winneconne for some food. It was a quick run-up to Winneconne and we stopped in at the public docks. Then walked over to Langs Landing (The Landing) to get a beer. We ran into a few boating friends we knew. We all hung out on the deck at Lang's watching the boats and talking. We made a stop at Fin N Feather for a quick one and ran into more friends. We finally headed back and ran with Ryan & Molly in there Baja. We ran into a closed train bridge but snuck under and took a few minutes out to shoot some fun photos with the ladies and the Speed on the Water blanket. It was pretty funny we had a boatload of people circling us hoping for a good show. No such luck for them. Another awesome day on the water with friends! I hope you enjoy the photos and the small video we have!
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John sporting his Speed on the Water Shirt

High Cliff and night cruise to Park Johns

High Cliff State Park Lime Kiln from Lake Winnebago

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Another fantastic day on the water. Friday afternoon our friends came over to go boating on the pontoon bar. We launched in Menasha at the Paris St boat launch and headed for Lake Winnebago. The lake was calm with a soft wind coming out of the Southeast with 6 inch waves. We decided since it was so nice we would cruise over to High Cliff and let my daughter and her friend get some swimming time in. The ride over was very nice and I have to admit it was fun coming back to this area. Its been well over 15 years since I have stopped at the High Cliff beach. As you come across the lake you can easily spot the Lime Kiln ruins projecting out of the tree line at the High Cliff State Park. As we came into the bay there were 6 boats scattered around the edge of the bay. Looked like everyone had brought the family and friends out to enjoy the day and get some water time in. We anchored just outside of the High Cliff State Park Beach. As usual, we had snacks and drinks ready to go. We let the girls do some swimming and playing on the inflatable donut and popsicle they brought. I pulled out the camera and grabbed some photos of the boats and people coming into the park to hit the beach. It really is a beautiful spot to stop. With a very nice sandy bottom beach and fantastic views. We got lucky as the algae bloom was not in the bay. It can get worse over here depending on the wind. After a few hours, we decided it was time to head back and get some dinner. The majority vote was to go back up the river and stop at Parker Johns. We slowly headed back along the lakeshore and checked out all the cool houses on the North Shore. The lake had picked up to about 2 - 3ft waves. We got to see how sea worth the old pontoon bar really was. We have discovered that it is a little nose heavy in these conditions and we needed to use the human trim tab methods to get it smoothed out. We only dropped the nose under the waves twice. Which got a few of our younger passengers a little nervous. We laughed and reminded them they are sitting on 2 big bobbers and unless we put a hole in a pontoon we are not going to sink. As we pulled into the Menasha Channel the waves settled down. We ran up to the Menasha Marina and parked on the West side of Marina. As we tied up I noticed they have about 12" cleats out here that you could tie off a tug boat with. A quick little walk up to Parker Johns and sat out on the deck overlooking the marina and filled our belly's. Back to the boat turned on the lights and headed back to the boat launch. Another fun little journey on the Lake Winnebago System. Defiantly a day we will all remember for years to come.
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Boating into Menasha and up the river to Appleton

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It was a windy weekend with some storms. But we made the most of it and got the pontoon out and did some river runs and had a fun Sunday at Waverly Beach. Friday night we decided to get the pontoon boat out and take a few friends. We were going to put in at Jefferson Park in Menasha. But when we got to the launch we realized the wind was a little stronger than we thought and the launch was full of some sort of weird foam. So we went back down to Paris St Launch in Menasha. This is a great little launch that is nice and deep right on the river. We got the old Mercury fired up and headed towards Lake Winnebago to see how rough it was. We made it out to the concrete channel marker on the lake and ran into about 2 - 3 ft. So we turned around and went back up the river. With a floating bar, we cracked open the cooler got out some snacks and enjoyed going back up the river towards downtown Menasha. It is a nice little run. About 1.8 miles for the Lake to the Downtown Menasha Marina. The Menasha Channel is marked very well. You just need to stay between the buoys and you won't have any issues. Break out of the buoys and you will hit rocks and be making a run to get your prop repaired. There are a number of beautiful homes to check out on your way up the channel. We ran up to the Menasha Marina and parked along the sea wall. We sat and enjoyed the sun for about 20 minutes and started talking about what to do for diner. We talked about running up to Parker Johns. But the flock of 500 seagulls came off the roof of the condos and became poop bombers. We did a quick untie and got out before we had a white poop colored boat. It was crazy! We started heading back towards the launch and were talking about where to get some food. As we drove down we talked about what was close to the water. I mentioned the Old Grog but figured we couldn't go through someone's yard to get there. As we came up the river we noticed there was a small seawall and the end of Appleton St. I have to admit we have been up the river a number of times and I have never noticed this. Anyway, we decided to pull up and see if we could tie-up. There was a nice gentleman that lives right next door. He told us it is about 4 -5 ft deep. So we pulled in and tied up and walked about 1/2 block to the Old Grog. They do not have any outdoor seating, unfortunately. So we masked up and went in to check it out. It is a fun bar & grill. It has huge exposed old beans and a cool bar back that looks to be very old. The staff was fun and took good care of us. The people that were in the bar were super friendly as well. We ordered some food. Pretzel sticks, chicken strips, chicken wrap, all were ok. I had the steak sandwich which I have had in the past. My bun was hard and the steak was overcooked and dry. I wouldn't get it again. I did see some fish fry plates come out that looked good. We headed back upriver and loaded the boat up and headed home. Saturday, we offered to take some other friends out on the boat. The weather didn't cooperate until late afternoon. We almost didn't go out. Last-minute we decided let's go jump on Little Lake Butte Des Morts and run up the river into Appleton. We loaded up the pontoon and headed to the 9th street launch. We turned on the tunes, popped the cooler open and got out some snacks and started our run down the Fox River, and enjoyed the views. Some fantastic homes along the river and we noticed one crazy green paddle boat. I was hoping to get to the locks but we got to the Memorial St bridge and there were no more marks on the water. So I backed off. With the crazy amount of current that runs into the damns in this area. I figured it was best to try this again another day. We turned around and headed back up past the Appleton Yacht Club. This is an awesome area but again you have to stay between the buoys. The river on the outside of the buoys is super shallow. We came back up to the little lake and hung out for a few hours enjoying the day. We pulled the boat and called it a day. Sunday morning our friends came back over and we headed back to the Paris St launch. We went over to Waverly Beach. It was a little rough with the wind coming out of the south. The kids had a blast with the waves and we enjoyed the band Iggy Rae Vicious playing up at the Waverly Beach bar. Overall we had a great weekend out on the Pontoon.
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