The 26-foot cabin cruiser that has been Amy Warrick's weekend retreat for 10 years now sits in the driveway of her Lawrenceville home.

A big brown tarp shields it from the weather and vandals.

Phil Skinner/AJC (ENLARGE)

Sunrise Cove Marina on Lake Lanier is trying to lure customers back, but severals dock still sit high and dry.

Phil Skinner/AJC STAFF (ENLARGE)

Leslie Ivy rescues one of her dogs after it fell off the boat at Sunrise Cove Marina. She and her husband, Henry, have kept their 42-foot boat there since 2003 and often come up from their Buckhead home to spend weekends at the lake.

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The drought and rising gas prices have some Lake Lanier regulars, like Warrick, scrapping tradition and parking their boats or pulling them to more abundant waters in Tennessee and Florida.

Other die-hard boaters say that, just like the lake they love cruising, they're coming back.

Levels at Lake Lanier have risen about six feet from its record low of 1050.79 on Dec. 26. Recent rains have helped, but exposed and barren stretches of shoreline remain.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is predicting that the lake could be up another foot to 1057.5 by May 2 — but Lanier would still be 13.5 feet below full summer pool.

But the recovery is raising some hopes.

At Lanier's Sunrise Cove Marina, manager Janice Wagner said she's already seeing some weekend regulars returning and the parking lot filling up.

"We are smiling and thinking positively," Wagner said.

Two of those regulars, Buckhead residents Leslie and Henry Ivey, were up to spend a recent weekend on their 42-foot Gibson and on course for a fun time with their fellow boaters.

"It [low water level] hasn't really affected us at all," Leslie Ivey said. "The only thing: We haven't been able to take the boat out." She said the couple still finds plenty to do — fishing, cooking out and socializing with their dock mates.

Gas prices, which are above $4 a gallon at some area marinas, are of little concern at Sunrise Cove, where most of the regulars have sailboats, Wagner said.

But she said she doubts that even those who have gas-powered boats will be stopped by the gas prices. "They're going to be so pumped about the water coming up that they won't care about the price of gas," she said. "They're ready to play."

With the current gas prices, Alpharetta resident Roy Auerbach isn't happy about burning 25 gallons an hour to fuel his 2003 27-foot Sea Ray 270SD. But he's looking forward to an "uncongested" summer on Lake Lanier.

Low water brings hazards

"I do have many friends who have moved their boats to Florida to avoid the low water levels we will be living with for the next few years," Auerbach said.

The dock where he keeps his boat at Port Royal Marina had to be repositioned over the fall to make sure it's still safe. Auerbach will be taking safety precautions of his own — installing a GPS mapping system on his boat to detect hazardous areas, he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers is warning against boating after dark and against speeding in unfamiliar waters at any time of day, spokesman Michael Lapina said.

"With the low water, there could be stumps or other low-water obstructions," he said.

Lapina said Corps officials aren't certain what type of crowds to anticipate this summer at Lake Lanier.

"I'm sure some folks will be discouraged because of the lower levels and what they've seen in the media," he said. "But I'm sure there will be other folks who plan to come out."

The 39,000-acre lake is down 7,000 acres of water. But, Lapina said, "32,000 acres is still a lot of water to boat on."

The lake, which was down to two public ramps when conditions were at their worst, now has 12 open ramps, Lapina said. Five of those were extended out into the lake by Corps staff and community partners when the lake was at its lowest levels, he said.

Brand-new dock disappointing

Software consultant Will Mullis travels extensively for work and bought a home on Lake Lanier, purposely to have his favorite boating retreat as close as his back door. But he's not finding it comforting this year.

"I don't have a prayer of using my brand new dock installed last summer, nor my boat or PWC [personal watercraft]," he said. "It's pretty exasperating since my money is all tied up in this house, and it was my only source of recreation."

Another couple who live on the lake, Tim and Theresa Gaffney, were taking no chances when they bought their Nordic Tug 32 trawler last year. They took it straight to the Tennessee River, just north of Chattanooga.

"It would have been a disaster and a major, expensive disappointment to have trucked it here — only to have not been able to use it," Theresa Gaffney said. "It is a two hour trip to Tennessee to see the boat. But it is a pretty drive, and we don't mind it at all."

Amy Warrick said the combination of low water and high gas has spoiled it for her.

"Boating is supposed to be a getaway from the stresses of life," she said. "When one worries about being able to navigate the lake safely, how much more the lake is going to drop this summer or taking out an equity line of credit to pay for gas, what fun is that?"