A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure.
Ok, no shipwreck.....but a small adventure.
Our first sail of the season.
The weather was wonderful for a couple of weeks up until about four days ago. It has been crap ever since (including as I write this).
But, a window of opportunity inserted itself with a favorable forecast. We were prepared to take a day off if the chance presented itself. Cloudy with sunny periods, 20% chance of rain and predicted wind. Turns out it was partly right...I don't rememeber seeing any sun.
Complete
and ready to go with new deck colour.
We
found that the white deck was painful on the eyes. The new buff colour is about
perfect.
Got the boat in the water and discovered a leak. It had started very small at the end of last season. It was in and around the aft end of the centerboard case, so I assumed it was the case to hull joint weeping a bit. I tightened up on the bolts in preparing the boat for the start of this season, turns out I had a great vantage point when launching this time and was able to determine there was a minor breach in the hull. Nothing serious, about a cup full an hour I would say. Just enough to get everything in the boat wet. (Once I got the boat out, it was easy enough to find the problem). So we went out anyway and tried to sponge up as much as we could as we thought of it. Turns out it rained enough and had other sources of water that it did not matter that much.
Autobailer
It was windy as we got to the launch ramp, and by the time I fooled around with
my leak is was even windier. So we sailed from the ramp with jib alone. I wanted
to play with the moveable dagger board to see how high we could point without
a main up. Turns out...not too far. It seems dependant on the wind strength.
I could get almost as high as a close reach, but a beam reach was easy. Nice
to know.
The wind seemed to steadily increase the entire time. That is not usual on this
lake. So we ended up not raising the main. I did decide at one point, when in
the lee of an outcropping, to go with a double reefed main, but Daphne pointed
my attention to the middle of the lake and I am glad she did....it was blowing
harder than I have ever seen out there. A very solid wall of wind it looked
like to me....so we left the jib up and headed across and into that part of
the lake. We kind of broad reached our way north up the lake with this south
wind. Not something I like to do normally as it makes for a tough slog home
to windward or to motor into it....as well as other reasons. But with Daphne
along and it being increasingly cold and raining and blowing like hell, I figured
keep it easy and un-extreme and coast downhill for while.
Looking South just after launching
It was wild out in the middle of the lake...fun. We were doing hull speed at
times with only the little jib up and could not have carried even a double reefed
main in some of the gusts. Well, yes, I guess it would have been OK....but not
easy. Daphne would not have liked any more sail up. At that point is when I
finally decided to add that third set of reef points. I was going to do it before
I bent the main sail on last weekend(a bit of a production), but I pussied out.
Now I wish I had done it then, and will now have to remove the sail again to
do the work.
The waves were fairly big for that lake. Big enough that the tops were at times
level with our shoulders. Daphne commented that it was a rather nice deal that
the waves always seemed to roll under the boat and not into it. Good thing I
say. It takes a while before you kind of trust that that will always happen
with a boat.
So we putzed along back and forth like that for a couple of hours with no real let up in the wind force. We then decided to find some calm protected area or beach to have a fire and something to eat. We looked and looked, and with this wind direction, we found nothing until we got right to the end of the lake.
What a great spot for this gorgeous cabin.
The rocks, moss and wild flowers just past the cabin on the north west end of the lake.
"Yikes, this is interesting.......".
This
was the leading edge of the colder weather. Looking south. It got to us in about
20 minutes. Along with some wind.
I never seem to get any images when it is really blowing. I guess that is
partly because it is so much fun just to look at it all, and partly because
it usually gets more busy when it gets windy.
Almost at the very North end we spotted a tiny little clearing where there was enough sand between rocks and bush to beach the boat...and where the waves were somewhat diminished.
By the time we found this
wee spot, I could not sail into the landing with jib alone (one really good
reason to always have balanced sail up), so I would have to motor in. But needed
to get the headsail down first. Several things all seem to happen at the same
time (funny huh?) I started the motor, brought the bow up in to the wind, major
sail flapage I can tell you, just then it begins to rain in ernest, blow like
hell and the waves were piling up huge in the shallowing north end of the lake.
(the proverbial Lee Shore) I gave the tiller to Daph and asked her to point
it straight into the wind so I could go forward and take down the sail so we
could motor in to the little landing. Man, what a ride. Daphne did a perfect
job in keeping the boat head to wind, with me on the foredeck, the motor out
of the water half the time screaming, and the bow alternately pointing skyward
and being submerged in wave troughs. Good fun. At one point whilst on my knees
trying to get the jib tied down to the deck, I remember being buried...the whole
front of the boat...up to my pockets in water. When I got it all done and back
to the cockpit Daphne's eyes were huge. She told me later she was pretty scared
right about then. I had not signed on to scare my girl, it just sort of worked
out that way.
Just getting turned around in those waves was kind of fun. There was a couple
of inches of water in the cockpit. All the hatches and wash boards were in place
so we didn't take on any serious water anywhere else in the boat. We were both
totally soaked through. In hindsight: I should have just motored into the landing
with the jib flying...but I had not really noticed the change in sea and wind
until I came back out from the semi protected area and headed right into it.
Oh well, nobody said I was clever.
Much better, she says.
Turns out we had landed at a pretty nice spot. We could see that in the summer it would have a nice beach and fire pit area, but being Spring and high water, it was all currently under water. I soon discovered the woods behind the foreshore brush was partially cleared and quite nice. Lots of dead fall to make a fire. Lots of gas in the boat to start it. We had a beer and something to eat (PB and J) and tried to dry our butts. Good thing I brought some extra clothes.
Daphne tends to chill easily, so we got her into lots of fleece and a couple of pairs of pants..and some fleece gloves. She was pretty toasty after a while. It was quite noticeable how the temperature dropped. We had been having high seventies for the last couple of weeks, and it had been pretty warm that morning, but by the time we got back to the van (it has a thermometer) it was 9 degree C (48 F). I guess the wind was marking a change in the weather. Go figure.
We motored homeward after
the wind died down. During the trip the waves died as well and the lake became
like a mill pond. Flat and glassy. Remarkable. One extreme to the other, this
lake. Welcome to Mountain sailing.
It rained on and off all the way back. During this time of motoring we saw some
wonderful birds. Many exotic looking ducks and mating pairs that you just don't
normally see on this lake during the busy season. They were quite shy. Most
likely migrating northward, just like the great squadrons of Canada Geese we
saw. Both in the sky and a gaggle of them rafted up on the water as well. One
gaggle was so thick and dark, from a distance it looked like a big log floating
on the lake.
An Aside: Speaking of logs; we came across a dead head on our sail down the lake. We were moving along quite smartly at the time, so I didn't have a close look. We got to within 15 feet of this monster. Just the very tip of an obviously huge and very waterlogged tree or log was showing on the surface. The motion of what we could see indicated some substance and mass just waiting to ambush some power boater or water skier. About two years ago, a buddy of mine (Ken Relkoff), a serious life time water skier, hit a deadhead like that at the apex of a high speed turn and shattered his leg. I don't think he has skied since...and he missed almost a year of work. It was a bad deal...the specialist actually said he came close to loosing his lower leg, it was broken so badly. I took a bunch of images of Ken and his friend skiing earlier that same year. The pics were shot in the very same 'neighbourhood' as where Daphne and I saw the dead head. You can see them here.
We motored up the East side of the lake because there are always very wonderful things to see (and to smell). We came up to a spot where you can hike in by trail called Trapper Creek. I have been there many times, I have hiked in and spent the night and also sailed in many times as well. It was odd to realize Daphne had not been there before. She said she hadn't been there since the kids were small and we took them up the North end of the Lake in our little runabout to picnic and skirf board in the summer....about 15 years ago! So I landed the boat there and we walked around. It was really quite nice because everything is so moist this time of year...and because it had rained for several days previously. By July it is not nearly so green and lush.
View Southwest from Trapper Creek.
The creek was running well, with a tiny waterfall. Lots of wild flowers and such. There are about three little tenting sites there, but you have to be easy with bears, as with all places around here. Just north a couple of kilometers from where we 'shipwrecked', is Grizzly country. Daphne was impressed when I mentioned that.....seemed to want to stand close to me all the time. ~:0)
A wierd fungus at the base of this stump.
The camp area is about ten feet above the lake.
Having a drink of nice mountain water.
You will notice rain drops on my camera lens for many of these shots.
About to head home.
Motoring south to the launch ramp. It is about 3 miles away at this point.
A Newfie laughing at a good, dirty joke....dig the hat.
Silly looking bloke.
Oh, and just minutes away
from the launch ramp I saw a huge beaver surface and swim along with the boat
for about three seconds...then dive again. Just long enough for me to point
and say, "Beaver!"...and not enough time for Daphne to get a look.
I have been really lucky in my travels around our region to see quite a few
Beaver. They are quite hard to view because they are very,very wary. I don't
think Daphne has ever seen one...and she missed this guy...and he was only about
six feet away from her right hand. Bummer. I had never seen one this close.
I recon he was as big as a medium sized dog....but a dog with really short legs
and one huge flat tail....and funny looking teeth.
The total round trip was about 12 miles as the Raven flys...and about 15 miles
over the bottom.
A fun day in Paradise North.