Been a busy Summer with few day's sailing... Wife Pam had to have back surgery, Mom in town for a while,,, and I am "training" to do a "Tough Mudder" event in Seattle end of next month. Haven't even touched the project boat.
So... last thursday I was gonna do a 25 mile bike ride... but it was windy and I decided to go sailing instead, solo, cuz Pam can't do anything in a pitching rolling sailboat... and as I got close to the marina a buddy called and was talking good winds and "waves" on the lake! I was excited.
Sailed out and ya it was good 15 mph winds taking me away. Called my buddy on the radio, an turns out he was way up the lake with some yacht club folks spending the night at various places over 4-5 days, with dinner reservations in Sandpoint Id at 1830 that evening...I was at a point of turning and heading home,,, or... so I called Pam and asked if she wanted to meeet for dinner in Sandpoint, I would sail as far as possible and motor to get there in time. She hadn't any plans, of course, and said why not!
So I turned up the lake and in a nice down wind sail with only a couple tacks over the next 10-15 miles. But wasn't gettin there fast enough, so I threw up my spinnaker in an asymetrical setup, which it isnt, and was hitting steady 6-7 mph stretches... Now this part of the lake opens up and ya, the winds and waves picked up, but now I'm 7-8mph+
After the second near knockdown, and looking at where the winds are coming from, all I could see was whitecaps and decent rollers,,, and after the 3rd near knockdown decided to drop the spinnaker... which is not something I would recommend solo in 20-25 mph winds gusting to 35 and nice 4 ft rollers every 40 ft or so...
I sailed the next 5 miles or so at 6 mph with just the main, and then saw I was gonna be late with still 10 miles or so to go... so I motor sailed for a while and the winds did a 180 after rounding a point, and eventually just motored the last way into the marina where Pam met me, and we made dinner only 30 mins late. My GPS showed 36 miles for the trip and I was beat and bruised!!
Met some really nice folks and had a nice Italian meal. They asked my plans,,, well,, I had to be at work 0800 the next 3 days, so was gonna leave the boat at the marina, ride home with Pam, come back on Monday and get the boat for the return trip. That was my plan all along and it sounded good,,, until they asked if I had reservations at the marina!! Well,,, no, I didn't... kinda a spur a the moment thing... There answer was easy! Just call in sick! Stay the night with them and go home on friday. Arrghh!
It sounded good to me,,, but I have to find coverage for sick calls at work and hate when folks call in and ya know it's a lame excuse... so...
It was almost a full moon anyway,,, the winds of course had died with sunset,,, so I decided to just motor back
Pam took me back to the marina, we got the gas tank filled up, got a 20 oz mocha, and took off for the return trip at 2130! I pulled into my slip at 0130, crawled into the v-birth by 0200 and slept hard untill 0500... got up and drove home to Spokane, did all my chores, showered and shaved, hit Starbucks for more cofee, and was at work by 0745... dang I was early!I didn't see another boat on the water after a couple miles motoring the night before,,, thats almost 30 miles motoring at 7 mph under clear skies, watching lightning flashes east over Montana but 20-30 miles away, near full moon, and nobody else on the lake!! But geeze I got tired... I bundled up to keep warm,, layed out and set a course using the shrouds, mountains and GPS... sticking my head up occasionaly to check for boats, my heading, then lay back down and almost catnap just feeling the boat taking me home....
My buddy , by the way, left his radio on just in case I needed assistance, and called to check on me just as I was pulling into work.
And sorry, I didn't take one pict the whole trip, but I could post my GPS track.
