Just another delightful day at Christina Lake.
This day was one of the first occasions to use my new camera that replaced the Digital SLR. The new one is a S1 IS Canon. There was lots of stuff to take pictures of as it turned out. It was a long and eventful day.
The day on the lake started with zero wind, and zero indication of any to come. I had that feeling that morning even before we packed up and left for the lake. Daphne and decided it might be a good time (if there wasn't any wind) to motor slowly around the lake to the north end where we had managed to get back to all summer. Once at the launch ramp someone mentioned that the Kokanee were spawning up the Creek at the north end, so we now had a good reason to head off that way. Sure enough, not a breath of moving air....much to the joy of the canoe paddlers in the area.
No sign of moving air
There always seems to be lots to see that you
didn't notice before. This one property kind of jumped out at us. It was such
an amazing setting in the more wild and remote part of the lake. This is a
boat access only area. The roads end five miles away. What a prize.
Just after this place we motored up to the Trapper Creek area, but found a small secluded bay just north of the camping area....we pulled in there, had look around and stretched a bit. I was playing with this camera trying to sort stuff out.
Beer Break.....
Still no wind yet....and
by this time it was about 3 pm and time for a beer. Off we went from Trapper
and to the north end Creek. I am not sure, but I think it is called Sadner
Creek.
The lake was so low that we were able to walk the last 200 feet to shore in
about 12" of water over sand. I had forgotten about this part of the
lake. We used to bring our lads down here for swimming and picnics when they
were wee urchins. We will have to get back there next summer when it is nice
a warm for some more swimming and lounging.
We had to wade through 12" of water at the mouth of the creek to be able
to get to a path to take us up stream. The transition from luke warm lake
water to the is creek water was a major shock. The creek is glacier fed and
amazingly cold. In a matter of seconds my feet and legs were pounding with
the cold. I could not imagine spending any time fully immersed in water that
cold.
There were two young girls playing when we got to the spawning area. We scrambled along the edge of the bank of the stream had a good long look. Always nice to see fish managing to make it to this stage of their lives. I am quite sure it is not easy being a fish.
Though I didn't ask her,
she looked to be chasing down a frog.
I like the image,
'wild jungle girl hunting Crocs'.
Kokanee are a small species of land
locked salmon I am told.
So off we went again. A few minutes motoring south and a small breeze dropped down over the mountain from a SSE direction and we were able to sail wing and wing for about 30 minutes....then poof, gone again. Such is lake sailing.
About another 40 minutes later of poking our way south along the western shores another slightly more serious breeze showed up.....a breeze that looked like it might be qualified to be named wind. A wildly wicked wee westerner it was. Right over the hills and down into a nice wide part of the lake. I may not have mentioned this before, but our lake has a max width of about 1 mile and a length of 12 miles. It generally runs a little west of due north/south. So when you get a west or east blowing breeze, it is a fine thing. This means you can sail off the wind from one end of the lake to the other when normally you sail hard on the wind one way, then because the wind direction commonly changes 180 degrees, you get to beat all the way back again. ~:0) Fortunately, the double windward days are not frequent.
So we are sailing fast and hard in about a 10 knoter. It looks to be settling
in so I keep everything up for now. Often on this lake, when a 'new' wind
comes down it comes in hard and dampers down to a slightly tamer version within
20 minutes or so. We had gotten up into the lee of the land and came around
to dead down wind, wing and wing and headed across the lake to where I knew
my buddy Jim was staying at Tony and Louise's cabin. The Harpoon was sitting
at the dock and I just knew he would be out now that a bit of a wind showed
up. As we got nearer it was plain to see both Tony and Jim were getting the
boat rigged and ready as quick as they could....seeing what fun we were having.
By the time we reached their dock they had just pushed off and we rounded
up to follow as close behind them as we could.
Jim hanging on whilst Tony is finishing rigging............................................................and
theirrrrrrr OFF! ....complete with competition fenders.
Check out the evil smile.
"Now where's that little gaffer a-hidin?" Jim is a new Zealander...gotta
watch those guys careful.
As anyone who sails knows, even when you are not 'racing' and you are not
even on a race boat, you still want to pass or keep up to any sail boats in
your vicinity. So, the race was on.
This was a rare event for us. There is not often other sail boats out when
we are. This was a fun chance to sail side by side with a boat with exactly
the same water line and on deck length as ours. But that is about as close
as the comparison gets. Really apples and bananas is this case. The Harpoon
weighs about 450 lbs less than Annie M, has 30% more sail, a slippery race
design and two very experienced sailors aboard. One of which has sailed at
a competitive level for 30 years, and the other other owning several sailboats
over many uyears.
We, on the other hand, carried a complete tool kit with many spares, a life
time supply of various line, two folding deck chairs, a full size cooler filled
with beer water lunch and snacks, two anchors, chain and rode, spare clothes,
rain gear, emergency gear including a fire extinguisher, binoculars, swim
fins, a fifty pound outboard motor with two one gallon containers of fuel.....oh
and a machete.
Ah but we are going to see if we can keep up to them anyway.
Here
we fall in behind to try and see if we can hang on to them..........................I
have them in our sights....got that pointy thing pointed right at them. Where's
that damn cannon when you need it?
They both keep looking back as though they actually thought I might catch
them up. Later on Tony said how he just loved the way our boat looked.
Nice little puff here....though
the wind has fallen off to about 7-8 knots by now but held steady for a good
long time.
On a beam reach on down to dead downhill, we were almost matched (surprise). But to windward he started to make some ground on us....slowly, but they did leave us behind.
Had a clever idea that moving my rail meat...re,
I mean crew, forward might trim the boat for a bit more speed.......it didn't
work. Plus Rail Meat wasn't too comfortable.
You can see just exactly how far ahead the lads were after about 40 minutes
of sailing....not sooooo bad. It was blowing hard enough at times during this
tack to need both of us on the rail so as not to have to luff the main. We
were going as fast to wind as Annie ever goes. About 4.6 knots. Also notice
that I was on the same heading to windward as the Harpoon. She was not sailing
any closer to the wind than us and there was no sign of leeway from us at
all. (Love that dagger board!)
I have to use the
excuse that I was driving, trimming sail (often on the rail) and taking pictures
with a new ans unfamiliar camera all at the same time. Not the most efficient
process, but we look for excuses where we can. By the time Tony tacked and
headed down hill, he was a fair distance ahead. (see above) We waited and
rolled in beside them as they came by us. We were doing not to bad with us
wing and wing and them running the stock jib and main winged out. But then
they dragged out the chute. FOUL!! I shouted at them. They just walked away
from us then. Oh well.
Man, did we have a great time.....as you can see.
Hey....what's that?....a Spinnaker!........... Bugger.
Nice trim......and off they go......
........into the distance....
...into the setting sun. Well, it's not like
I am not use to it.
They
went home and we went to the launch ramp. While we were tearing down they
showed up in a car and invited us over for refreshments and supper. We had
a wonderful evening. Lots of fun.
Maybe the best part was Tony asking me if I would be interested in doing a
restoration job on his Harpoon. The boat is now beside my shop. Due for new
sails, new running rigging, some standing rigging and some joiner work. I
very nice distraction from building guitars.
....do
you think maybe he was really was concerned that we might catch him........?
Next year there will be even less chance of that.
Cheers, TT