.--- A Great Day Sailing East to the Last Narrows ---
.............................................--- Saturday August 1, 2009 ---
Night's Anchorage: Same anchorage as first night west of Marina on North Shore.
( N. 49o 36.727' -- W. 117o 05.869' ) Sailed about 13 miles -- motored about 1/4 miles
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We were up earlier around 7 a.m. to a......................
........
........... mirror like lake. I took the Zodiac to the boat ramp and walked up to the Sub and moved it back besides our trailer as that space was taken when we returned the day before. Monday would be British Columbia (B.C.) day and from the number of people on the lake yesterday they start celebrating it early like we do the 4th of July. Just in the short time I was gone the wind started to pick up and there were very small waves, but not bad at all.
We had a quick breakfast and talked about options for the day and decided to try sailing to the last narrows on the arm about 6 miles away. A couple miles past them was the big 100 mile north/south main part of Kootenay Lake where we had no real interest of going at this point in our lives, but maybe that would prove to not be true. We did consider possibly anchoring by the narrows if we found a good place and then if it was calm in the morning motoring the last couple miles through the long narrows and just poke our noses out into the "big lake", as the locals called it, and then back again just so we could say we had been there.
The wind was still out of the east so we set off tacking to the east on the main and jib.
........
We soon passed the pretty girl we saw on the lake the day before and right after that....
........
....... her little sister. We loved both of these boats a lot. While we were sailing we noticed that we didn't have one of the battens in the main. We had no idea how long we had been sailing with out it. I took.....
........
...... the lid off one of our storage containers and cut three strips out of it and duct taped them together and put that mess in the main where the batten should of been. It seemed to help, but when we got home we would have to get a "real" batten.
It was about 3 miles to the next short narrows where there is a .....
........
....... large cable ferry capable of hauling a lot of cars and even large trucks. From this point east there are homes on both sides of the lake and the people who live on the south side have to use this ferry to get home. It is also free and runs every few minutes one way or the other. We made it to the ferry pretty quickly with the nose of the Kera Jane tacking very close to the wind. We considered trying to sail past the ferry in the narrows, but figured this might be a real opportunity to really embarrass ourselves in front of a lot of people.
The ferry seemed to be making a crossing every 10 minutes or so and since it pulls itself across via a cable that is in the water you need to time your passage when it is unloading and boarding and the cable is down in the water far enough that you don't snag it with the center board. We tacked towards the ferry and also started the outboard and tried to time our passage. We neared the ferry as it crossed the narrow channel and as it went by to the north Ruth dropped the Honda into forward and motored down the channel behind it. The ferry started to unload and we weren't as fast as I would liked to be and a large truck that I though was the last vehicle drove off and up the ramp. I thought this might become interesting when we saw a pickup at the rear of the ferry with its hood up. Evidently it was stalled and they couldn't load until it was unloaded. After a minute or so the hood went down and it drove off and they started to load. These was the minute we needed and as they finished loading we cleared the stern of the ferry which would soon be its bow and didn't snag the cable.
........
About a quarter mile away with the ferry in our rearview mirror we passed the channel marker that marks the exit of the narrows and started tacking east again.
Our little map showed a large shallow area on the south side and we could see the green water that marked the sandbar tongue that flowed out from the south shore. With that in mind our first tack was to the north. After a fairly long tack over to the north shore Ruth brought the boat about and we headed southeast thinking we were past the shallows as we were a good 1/3 mile from the shore back at the narrows where we had seen the tongue of shallow water. Suddenly Ruth who was at the tiller said "the rudder popped", meaning that the releasing cam cleat that holds the downhaul line for the rudder had released. We quickly looked at the depth gauge and it said 5 feet. She brought the Mack back around to the northeast and I reset the downhaul for the rudder for her and we sailed off the shelf into deeper waters. The centerboard also probably hit, but neither of us remember hearing it come up. The S with a swing centerboard has been a good deal for us. We also really like the auto release cleat for the rudder uphaul that we got from Duckworks.
........
With no further problems we tacked towards the last and final narrows before the "big lake". We ran over towards the south side of the narrows (arrow) to look for a place to anchor. On the way we passed.....
........
............houses on the south side serviced by the ferry and on......
........
.........the north side with the main highway up behind them.
........
We were really enjoying the day and the nice wind and had our immediate destination directly ahead of the bow in the above picture.
........
We anchored where the left arrow is with a huge dry dock that could be submerged off to the southwest of us (right arrow). Sitting there we began to roll back and forth as a couple speed boats nearby made circles in the lake hauling their kids on those blowup rides they tow and we were also sent rocking by boats entering the narrows headed to the "big lake". After a half hour or so of that and knowing most all of these boats would be returning before dark we decide on a snack of cheese, crackers and fruit and to then head back down the lake past the ferry and cook our steaks we had bought on the grill later that night. Along with this decision went the plans to motor out into the "big lake" in the morning, that that was ok as the next time we return we might actually be ready to sail and anchor overnight in the "big lake".
Heading west was an easy deal of running with the light wind at about 2 1/2 knots. It didn't take long to reach the ferry and it proved no challenge to us this time we whisked right past it though we did run the outboard for a couple minutes to assure that there would be no problems.
Past the ferry we decided to head to the cove that was a couple miles down and on the north side, which has also been our first night's anchorage on Kootenay when the big lightening storm hit and we abandoned the boat for shore for a while. Along the way we realized that we could now actually sail to about any destination we wanted to in a reasonable amount of time. A far cry from our first outing a couple months prior on McPhee Reservoir in Colorado where we spent all day trying to go about 1/2 of a mile. This is neat and we both love it. We were also heeling at times 10-15 degrees during the day and Ruth was now pretty comfortable with that. The sailing ended today with about 13+ GPS miles covered which counted the tacks in about 5 hours.
........
Back on anchorage in the semi cove we unwound and baked potatoes and cooked the steaks on the grill which resulted in a great meal to end a great day on the lake sailing. We had the kind gentleman's house, who offered us shelter our first night here, in sight (right arrow) and a great evening.
Just a note that might help someone. To keep the boom from swinging around in the night the boom is held up with the topping lift and we use the main sheet with its block and tackle (bottom right arrow) to pull it towards the stanchion bottom that holds the starboard life line. Sometimes we will also clip it to the backstay at the same time on the factory clip there.
........
As I was writing this far to the east there was again lightening in the sky, but the sky to the west (picture above) was less threatening and provided another beautiful sunset. Just after sunset the the moon was lighting up a cloud above the mountain to the south and tried to poke its head above the ridge-line at the top of the mountain, but was failing to do so.
Two more full days here and then it is time to head south. It will now be hard to leave. If it wasn't for wanting to do a few more modifications to the Mac before taking our Belgium friends out sailing on Lake Powell the first of September I'm sure we would find another lake to sail somewhere right after Speed Week at Bonneville.
........
I took this picture on this same day and liked it for some reason and just wanted to throw it in. You probably can figure it out, but if not it is the boom with the main strapped to it and the main sheet (red) holding the boom to the life line support and the mast and spreaders above the boom.
