..........................--- Sailing to and In the "Big Lake" ---
.............................................--- Monday August 3, 2009 ---
Night's Anchorage: Back between Marina and Boat ramp.
( N. 49o 36.598' -- W. 117o 06.778' ) Sailed about 11 miles -- motored about 9 miles
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Our anchorage last night was great with no problems and a good night's sleep. After breakfast we sailed off our anchorage pretty easily. When the anchor was up the jib went right to the top of the forestay while the main had been up and luffing in the wind. The jib pulled the bow towards shore, but Ruth kept her cool and let it come all the way around and then set sail on a reach out of the shallow water. The bow swung within 20 feet of shore and the rudder kicked up, but it really went very well and we were happy and dropped the centerboard from its up in the well anchorage position.
We came out of the reach and into a tack and after a couple tacks into the east wind we were over to the narrows where the cable ferry was operating. We had decided to maybe go out into the "Big Lake" on this our last full day on the lake. We timed the ferry again and went by it on the outboard. Just a short ways past the ferry and past the short narrows there we began tacking to the east and towards the next much longer narrows that goes from there on to the "big lake". This section of the lake was a couple miles long and went by pretty fast and along the way we ..........
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..........passed another sailboat on the lake also pulling a dingy behind it. When I saw it with the dingy on the long line I remembered some of the problems we had had towing like that. We were glad those days were behind us, since we now are pulling the dingy with the swim ladder that also functions as our tow bar. Soon we were at the next narrows where we had turned around two days previous. We lowered the sails and started up the Honda and proceeded into the long narrows that are about 3 miles long and take you to the "big lake" and near the end of them is the landing for the ferry that crosses the "big lake". Along the way we passed another.....
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... one of the channel markers that are usually topped with a platform for bird nests. This narrows besides being just a couple hundred yards wide in most places can be pretty shallow with waters less than 20 feet deep in places and as shallow as 10 feet in one place were we must not of been in the channel that isn't as well marked in this section. Towards the end of these narrow you pass the small town of Balfour and ..............
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...... the ferry landing there for the two large ferries that operate across the big lake. The larger one of the two had just turned into the east end of the narrows as we passed its slip where it loads/unloads the cars/trucks onboard. It had to come in close to the southern shore where we were and past a channel marker there and then make a hard turn to its starboard before making it to its landing.
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We caught it right at the sharp turn with us hugging the south bank all the time watching the depth finder and noticing it was going under 20 feet. The ferry pasted us nearby off our port side and we headed out into the "big lake" while it turned and ................
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........ made its way into its landing.
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Once out on the "big lake" the depth went to over 400 feet in less than an eight of a mile from shore. At first our plan was going to be 'let's motor out 1/4 mile and then motor right back to safety right away'. Well there were about 4 sailboats out on the lake at a distance of less than a mile from us to a couple miles away and the wind was probably only 5-8 mph and there were no large waves. I told Ruth "it is only wind just like the wind we have been sailing in for the whole trip so can we go for it?". She thought for just a second and said "yes let's do it".
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So with her support the jib and main went up and were were sailing on Kootenay Lake proper. Pretty exciting for us, but after only 15 minutes or so of this the wind died down to zero and we were reduced to just floating around.
We fired the motor up to get clear of the channel the ferry would be taking soon to the distant shore and also the path the ferry that was just a speck in the distance at this point coming from the far shore would be taking on its trip to Balfour.
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After moving with the outboard about 1/3 of a mile out of the way we went back to drifting and fixed a simple lunch. We also spent some time looking up the lake to the north (above) and .....
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...... to the southeast where there were two sailboats not too far off also drifting side by side. It would of been nicer if all of the smoke wasn't in the air, but still well worth the trip down to this part of the lake.
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During this drifting there were huge rolling waves from the........
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........... two ferries as they.........
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..... passed each other nearby and other non-identified sources that weren't a threat, but just a pain in the ass. Shortly after the ferry from the far side of the lake passed us and headed into the narrows towards Balfour we decided to give up and follow it far astern as it moved towards its slip to unload it cargo of vehicles and passengers.
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We left the nearby sailboats still rafted together and made the passage back through the long narrows section without incident passing the .....
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....... smaller ferry and just past it a ..............
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........ MacGregor 26X that was pulling into a marina there and that we would see later. Once past the narrows the sails went back up in a very light wind out of the east. We reached and ran on the light winds to the next narrows where the cable ferry operates. Using the outboard one last time we ran past the cable ferry easily now and again went on the sails.
We had about 3 more miles to go to reach our now well used anchorage between the park boat ramp and the marina. Our light winds that had allowed us to reach this point dropped to almost non-existent winds. There was one other poor soul trying to tack east in our direction into the light to no-wind conditions and we could see other sailboats that had given up and were under power. We really wanted to sail onto our last anchorage on the lake as in the morning it was time to put Kera Jane back on the trailer for the the trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Just about the time we passed the guy tacking east the winds blew their last puff and were gone. He was dead in the water, but we still seemed to be drifting slowly west. We were still probably over a mile from the marina and near some ...............
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..... very nice and probably very expensive homes along the north shore.
We drifted west with me playing with the jib and main to see if I could detect anything that could be construed to be winds and Ruth ran the tiller which of course didn't respond in any immediate manner. Once very close to shore I thought we were going to have to give up and start the outboard to move us further out in the lake, but Ruth found that if she didn't give up on the rudder it still had some effect and she got us back off shore by a couple hundred yards over probably 20-25 minutes of drifting.
After an hour or so the marina was finally slowly coming up on our starboard side and the ramp was ahead off to the port side of the bow. About this time the 26X......
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.... we had seen further down the lake came by us and the woman in the cockpit pointed to our Mac and then their Mac and gave us the thumbs up signal as they went by us under power. What a nice way to end our time on this great lake.
We were still determined to get on anchorage without the outboard and it probably took us 15 minutes to drift the last 100 yards past the marina to near where we wanted to anchor. We only had one chance to do this and Ruth kept working on the rudder and moved us into position so we were about equal distance from the marina's fuel dock and the ramp at the park. They are probably about 300 feet apart and we wanted to spit that distance for the swing we could have on the anchor. We moved slower than ever now into 9 feet of water and after another 15 minutes or so to move just 100 feet we dropped anchor exactly were we would have if we would of come in under power or actually sailing vs. drifting.
I'll bet it was one of the slowest anchorage's ever to take place on the lake, but for us it was far more exciting than if we would have cover the distance that it had taken us to drift in the last 2 hours in 10 minutes on the outboard. We put in almost 20 GPS miles today with about 9 on the outboard traversing the narrows and the rest under sail or drifting.
On anchor we took the Zodiac over to the marina fuel dock and tied it up there and walked the trail from the marina to the parking area in the park by the boat ramp. We got the Sub and drove it back to the marina to charge its batteries and to get our last ice cream cones there as a reward for what we had done that day.
Back in the parking area we hooked the trailer to the Sub for the morning departure. Then the walk back to the dingy at the marina and the short paddle back to the Kera Jane. On board we were a little down knowing this was coming to an end, but we had the great pleasure of 12 days on Priest Lake back in Idaho and now 12 days on this great lake in B.C. Canada. There will be many more lakes in our future aboard the Kera Jane. If you ever get a chance to visit one or both of these lakes don't pass it up as I'm sure they will leave you with great memories also.
To wrap up this trip the next morning we loaded the boat back onto the trailer at the ramp with no real problems and pulled it up to the parking area where we took our time getting the mast down, dingy outboard in the Suburban and all the other little things that had to be done before leaving and of course did all of that with the doors on the Suburban open with the interior lights on. That resulted in a dead battery. One of the gals that works for the park happened by and we jump started it and were on our way. We also bought a new battery after that. We made it to Lewiston, Idaho that night where we got lost in the dark for about 45 minutes before finally finding a Walmart to park and sleep in the boat at. The next morning after getting two new tires for the trailer as the others were wearing on the insides from the trailer being overloaded we headed south. Idaho and Eastern Washington from the Canadian border south to Boise is an absolutely beautiful drive. Twisty roads hauling a boat, but well worth it. We spent the next night at another Walmart east of Boise and made it into Wendover, Utah/Nevada (on the state line) the next day and out on the salt around 1 p.m. to an afternoon of 50-60 mph winds for the whole afternoon. The wind was the worst I've ever seen there and you could only see a couple hundred yards due to the blowing salt in the air. There were a lot of fires in Utah that day and night that grew into huge ones being fed by the high winds everywhere in the region.
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We left the boat out on the salt until we were ready to return home and finally got a motel room for the days that we were there. I'll bet 500 people at least took pictures of it sitting on the salt over the next 7 days that we were there, but we forgot to get a good one. Above you can see the stern of it next to our pits. We came within 1 mph of our record at 250 mph with Hooley's Studebaker, but couldn't better it and gave up and returned 430 miles home the next Wednesday. We had been gone over a month, but what a great month it had been.
