--- Car Trip to Big Part of Kootenay and Then into Nelson ---
......................................--- Monday July 27, 2009 ---
Night's Anchorage: West of Kokanee Park Ramp by the Kokanee Park Beach.
( N. 49o 36.493' -- W. 117o 06.855' ) Sailed about 0 miles -- motored about 0 miles
---------------------------------------------------------------------
After breakfast we took the dingy ashore and drove down past Balfour a couple miles and walked ...........................
........
..................a short distance down to ......................
........
..........a beach on the big north/south part of Kootenay lake. The arrow points to where the west arm of the lake heads west off the main lake and follows along the base of the mountains in the picture toward Nelson to the west. After seeing how fast the wind could come up over the last couple days we decided that for us to sail on this part of the lake was getting in over our heads at this point (that would change). We had also been told and read that really big water could happen fast on the main part of Kootenay. With it approaching 100 miles long north/south we could imagine really large waves building. They were also predicting winds as high as 50 mph for the next couple days near thunderstorms.
........
........................(This is a view looking north from the beach)
We changed our goal to trying to sail down the west arm of Kootenay 14 miles to Nelson from our present anchorage before we had to return to the states.
........
......................((This is a view looking south from the beach)
........
After leaving the beach we returned to the ferry at Balfour that goes across the main lake to the east side. We were surprised to find out that the ferry was free. We had looked into going to Vancouver Island and there a ferry ride for something as long as our Sub/Mac combination was about $125.00. If we return we will probably come up the east side of the lake from Idaho and take the ferry over. That route is not only a little shorter to Nelson, but avoids the major pass we had to go over that heated the transmission on the long down grade on the west side.
After stopping and checking out the ferry we drove the 20 miles or so along the west arm and over the.......
........
..........massive high bridge that spans the arm and on into Nelson. We stopped at Walmart for a phone card and some other items and while there walked a cross the street to take this picture of a storm sweeping up the lake from the east towards Nelson. These local storms are quite intense as we had found out and would continue to find out.
After Walmart we proceeded into the quaint downtown section of Nelson and were able to easily find a parking spot this time without the trailer in tow. Nelson has lots of restaurants and near where we parked was a Chinese one that drew our interest. We asked a passerby about it and he said it was quite good, so we proceeded to go inside. They had a good all you can eat buffet with a $10.00 senior rate that was about $8.00 for us with the exchange rate. We were also able to get on the Internet via the wireless network at the hotel across the street and pay a bill and check our e-mails.
After lunch it was down to the B.C. Provincial Liquor Store for 2 6 packs of Canadian Kokonee beer that proved to be about right for our mild tastes when it comes to beer. Then it was back to the Marina near our anchorage for 2 blocks of ice and a bag of ice along with 2 more of their delicious ice cream cones.
We filled a 4 gallon Reliance water jug back in the park and drove down to the boat ramp and unloaded everything, well almost everything. I took the Sub (suburban) back up to the parking lot and then returned back to the ramp and walked a couple hundred yards up the beach and retrieved the Zodiac. I then asked Ruth if we had gotten everything out of the Sub. After receiving the anticipated "yes", I asked "where are the oars for the Zodiac?". We didn't want to leave them with the dingy and tempt someone as we had left it on the beach next to the swim area. Well it was back up to the parking area to retrieve the oars.
With the Zodiac loaded I pulled it in the water back down the beach until we were close to the Kera Jane. I've given up on rowing it due to the crazy oar locks it has and wanted to paddle it the shortest distance possible back to the Mac.
With it getting late and the double helping at lunch followed by the cones we decided on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with one of our new beers that was cooled to lake water temperatures for our dinner.
........
Following our exquisite dinner I read a little to Ruth and myself out of Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere, a book we both enjoy. I took a couple sunset pictures with a glass still lake in the foreground and.....................
........
............some wonderful .........................
........
.............clouds that should of been a warning of what was to come during the night, but at the time were simply enjoyed. With the late northern sun down we turned into the V-Berth at 10 p.m.
About 45 minutes later we awoke with the boat really rocking on anchor and what sounded like 30 mph winds. This was unusual as we hadn't been getting any night winds to this point. Things were banging around and I went out and lowered the boom with the topping lift some to keep it from swinging so much. The winds proved to be more like in the 12-15 mph range once I was on deck, but since it was blowing down the lake on us we had whitecapping waves coming in on us. There were lighting flashes was to the south of us, but too far away to hear the thunder associated with them.
Back in bed I assured Ruth the anchor would hold and we laid there rocking up and down for an hour or more before getting back to sleep. In the future we hope to have the aft berth free of junk so we could retreat there in a similar situation as the up and down movement is not as great there. We won't abandon our enlarged V-Berth though as we love it, especially with the hatch above it that gives us air and cuts down on condensation if it is cold.
So a day where we thought we had finally escaped some drama ended with some, but we were still happy to be here.
