I grew up with Lake Erie in our backyard. We had a 8ft (guessing) rowboat that my dad used for fishing. We had an apple tree at the edge of the cliff leading down to the water and it was probably a 20ft drop easy, maybe 30ft. We used to chain the rowboat to the apple tree, and we still lost several rowboats to the waves when storms rolled in.
Wow! same for me pretty much...I remember as a kid when the trees lost their leaves, it seemed like the lake was right there...I grew up in a town called Newport...How bout you?
We had a creek running through our property that fed the lake and we would head out as kids every spring depending on the severity of the rains and follow it out to the lake..I had learned to respect the waters from that upbringing. I cannot tell you how many countless times we got inner tubes from the local farmer in the spring from their leftover tractor tires and use them in the lake...Use to float out and watch the oil rgs coming in from Canada I suppose.