Category Archive

Nora and I put in for 4 days and 3 nights of canoe camping on Lake McDonald.  Being in a National Park made things tricky.  I had to get a 3 day backcountry permit saying I would stay in a very specific campsite up off the lakeshore.  I did my best to explain that I would be staying in the canoe, completely, for all four days.  Guaranteed they had never heard of a guy requesting to be on the lake, in a canoe, for that long of a period.  The national park guys were kind, and we basically agreed I’d be floating somewhere close to the campsite, which I didn’t.  Also, they let me watch this awesome video on avoiding being killed by a bear.  Evidently your not suppose to stare into the eyes of a bear.  I asked the park guy why, he explained “you’ll turn to stone”.  I headed for the launch ramp and a few nice fellows taking their ladies on a power boat cruise put my canoe in the lake.  I carried all my stuff down to the docks, climbed in the canoe, then a sweet old man offered to take my wheelchair up to the van.  I shoved off the docks, rowed for a bit, then caught a nice breeze.  It had taken me all day to be afloat, immediately I began looking for a place to anchor.   Fortunately I found the the top of a drowned tree offering a place to tie up.  It was the beginning of October in the Montana Mountains and I was grateful to be sleeping on the soon to be sunny side of the lake, that would come after the full moon night in the thirties.  I never sleep the first night out.  Although, I did have this awesome dream of the bear from the pamphlet barreling down the mountainside before submerging my canoe and roasting me over an open campfire.  But come morning, there had been no bear and no campfire.  Just freezing cold weather and a canoe tangling itself up with a log.  Day two on the lake was good.  We rowed along the north shore that had accidentally been burned by firefighters trying to stop a campsite fire.  Poor forest. Could you imagine being a hundred year old, fifty foot tall tree, and the little noisy fleshy things that live below you decide they are going to protect you from harm.  Anyways,  we awoke and rowed along this mysteriously beautiful burnt down shoreline.  I was complaining to myself about the lack of wind when instantly the lake went from dead calm to blowing.  It blew at least thirty, or I was in a tiny boat and it blew about twenty.  Either way it was strong.   Surprise to me was how well the boat handled the conditions.  At the end of the blow the biggest wind waves were three feet tall and yet the boat was dry.  I sailed across wind and wave.  The canoe ama would take the wave first, allowing for a nice comfortable roll over the wave tops.  Sailing downwind was awesome, the boat flew and even had moments of surf.  The wind became scary strong, and I found a nice little cove with a few empty moorings, abandoned for the winter.  Evidently mountain lake people have different customs than coastline dwellers.  Before taking one of the balls for some necessary protection I decided to ask a kind looking lady on the shoreline, just to be polite.  As a shock to me, she said NO. This lit me up and off I took screaming across the lake, tiny canoe in a mountain sized gale.  I now appreciate her forcing me to go out in those conditions.  I gained a ton of confidence in the boat and really had a blast jumping across the waves from one side of the lake to the other.  Just before reaching the other side of the lake a power boat came skipping down on me.  It’s never fun to see a boat approaching so fast, especially not when your hanging on to the oars/tiller for life.   Some guy was driving the boat and was kind enough to pull up on my leeward side so some lady could pop up and yell at me.  It was the lady that had denied me mooring, she wanted to make sure I was surviving the blow.  There was plenty I wanted to say at the moment, but instead I looked at her with bewilderment and continued on my way.   Ended up finding a good spot to drop hook for the night, where the rich folks in the giant cabins over the beach didn’t  care about me and the dog sleeping in a little metal canoe on their lake.  I fell asleep early and woke up even earlier.  There was a full moon rising, probably about midnight.  I decided to tear down the tarps, sleeping bags and start rowing back towards the van.  I had 11 miles to go and figured the flat calm of night would be good for rowing.  I pulled up to the shoreline for Nora’s shore leave, and could smell the lakeside resort preparing bacon and eggs for Sunday morning brunch, I would later eat some oatmeal.   Having an entire lake all to myself during a full moon night will forever impress me.  I rowed and rowed while the moon crossed over from one oar to the other, setting just before the rising sun.  By the time the sun had risen I had sight of the buildings around where I launched and decided to jump back over to the sunny side of the lake to tie up for one more night.  My best nights sleep come with a stern line tied to shore.  I didn’t catch any fish, but did a sunset, moonrise and then sunrise.  This was my last night on the lake.  Next morning I calmly rowed back to the launch ramp with absolutely no concerns about how I would get the canoe back on top of the van or anything else for that matter.  Experience out on the water makes life on land seem comfortable.

Spent the first week in South Lake Tahoe camping with the family, plenty of bike rides, paddling, and coffee stops…

Decommissioned beast, purchased surplus by lake tahoe contractor, it’s for sale if you need one….

Was good to have the first week paddling around with the family, gave me a safe opportunity to test the new canoe and all it’s additions and make a few modifications, here’s looking at Emerald Cove during a family paddle..

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Sad goodbye to the fam and set off on my own for 4 days in a canoe on lake tahoe…

View from my first nights anchorage, view was incredible, didn’t sleep at all, later I would learn to find a log on on land for a stern line, i spent the entire night taking 1 foot rollers directly on the beam, makes sleeping in a canoe tough….

View from second nights anchorage….

None of my neighbors stuck it out for the night…

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Nora happy to have some shade…

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Looking towards shore at second nights anchorage..

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Tourist headed into Emerald Cove..

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Made it into Emerald Cove for my third and final night, getting in was tough, strong wind blowing straight out of the mile deep cove, basically learned to flip the sail backwards and row/sail back and forth up into the cove, was weird struggling for hours on end to get my little boat beating into the wind while families on giant pleasure boats powered by with kids skiiing across their wakes….

Sunrise on my second morning out…

You can see my stern line in this shot, took a while to get the loop in the rope around the log on shore while sitting in the canoe using the paddle end, somebody came by while I was sitting in the canoe in the water rocking against the shoreline reaching out trying to hook a log with rope on the end of my paddle, he offered to put the rope on the log for me while staring at me strangely from just a few feet away, i told him “no thanks, i have to do this myself”, he gave me an even stranger look, i didn’t feel like explaining that I was stuck in the canoe and if i couldn’t get the rope on the log by myself that night I probably wouldn’t be able to get it off in the morning,  I think Nora saved me from a curious bear this night,  a few hours before sunrise I awoke to her growling at something on shore, short time later I heard large logs being cracked open up in the woods, my guess is a hungry bear was hoping to eat the goodies in my canoe….

I was working on setting up my stern line for the third night, nora stood on a submerged rock in about 5 feet of water wondering when I would be ready to throw something for her…

Leaving Emerald Cove early in the morning for our first ever calm water paddle, recorded myself at about 3.5 knots rowing….

Checking out my shadow in probably about 40 feet of water….

Making coffee with lake tahoe water, the giant lake stayed super calm all morning, it was awesome…

Here’s Emerald Cove from the road on my way out, if you look straight to the left of the island you can see the little peninsula  anchored behind on my last night….

I’m on the road.  Left a few weeks ago, and should finish sometime in Nov.  I plan to take video and pictures. Posting the pictures while on the road and saving the video for when I’m done.  Be sure to check the site over the next few months for updates like this one.

Beginning of my trip involved taking a friend up to Idaho.  Pretty much just a lot of driving.  Getting out of California was unbearably hot, Donner Pass was a welcome relief, Reno was a lot cleaner than I remember, penny slots are good for free beer, and buffets aren’t as much fun as I remember.  Eventually we made it to Idaho.  Here’s a few shots.

Plenty of brush fires had just rolled through Nevada, leaving black dust to turn in the dirt devils…

The last of the barren Nevada landscape before the green rich valley surrounding Boise, ID….

Now on my way back to california, trying to find a dirt road up into one of these hills for a nights sleep…

Spotted some antelope running through farm land while I bounced up a dirt road towards the mountains, things are always super skittish around this time of year, no fun getting shot at every Fall..

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After hitting one too many rocks with the undercarriage I decided to make this spot camp..

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Thunderstorm rolled through to the north.  Watched the whole thing and didn’t feel a drop of rain.  The wind was insane.  I was more worried about the canoe on top of the car while I was sitting here then when I was on the highway…

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The mountains I was trying to get up into before the rocks had a go at my van…

Your right, sunset…

Little reminder to always be safe on the road, you can see his trailer in the background….

Speaking of being safe, I should clean my windshield….

Will be updating again in a few days.  Canoe will be in the water.  Thanks!

sunset

Headed home to Oregon for a week of much needed R&R.   It’s going to be cold.  Lately I’ve been missing my time on the road, when I could change my weather in a days drive.  For now I’m stuck in Morro Bay.  Fortunately, it’s a good place for me.  The surrounding landscapes, influenced by California’s crazy coastal weather, is a photograph in need of capture.  The boat is parked on a mooring ball about 50 yards from the dunes, or a few hundred depending on the tides.  The easy skiff ride to the sand has Nora asking if we can stay forever.  Morro Bay is a boat friendly harbor.  The people here make being new and broken down in town a comfortable and easy experience.  Everyone I’ve met here as offered assistance in getting Selene back in shape, it’s a true boating community.  It’s been an up and down battle over the past few weeks, trying to figure out how I barely covered 100 nautical miles before being down for major repairs.  Wondering if I’m capable of sailing as far as I want.  Debating wether the struggle of keeping a sailboat sailing is really worth the joy.  Realizing it’s not even joy I get from sailing, but some sick satisfaction.  Getting ready to sell the boat, build a camper trailer and hit the road again.  Then when I hit that point of giving up, it comes to me that as soon as I give up the boat I’ll start dreaming of another.  Please don’t tell Selene I had these thoughts, she’s far too good a boat to have such a doubtful sailor onboard.  Thankfully she’s such an elegantly tough little boat and I’ve come full circle.  I found a mast last week and I’m in the process of moving it to the harbor hard.  Hoping to be stepping a Catalina 27 STD Rig this coming spring.  It’s a 33′ stick, shorter and stouter than the one I left on the bottom of the pacific.  All in all it’s turning out to be a God send.  Thanks to everyone for the support, especially Morro Bay!

To say I was “at sea” feels to be a bit of a stretch, accepting the fact that I was only 6 miles SW of the Morro Bay Rock.  I  had met a fellow south bound cruiser during my few days tie in Morro.  We were both headed for the Channel Islands. My plan was to stop in Avila, his was to go straight for San Miguel.  We talked, I realized my plan to stop in Avila was only going to wear me down before making the big jump around Point Conception.  So it was agreed that we would leave at 10 am in the morning and make about a 25 hour run to San Miguel Island.  Departure was a nice morning.  My main sail went up like I pictured it would inside the Morro Bay harbor.  I kept the engine on, putted outside the channel and raised the jib.  Selene was catching a small amount of wind and pointed SW, headed to clear the point by Diablo Canyon by about 2 miles.  I was anxious for more wind, it’s never fun averaging 2 knots at the beginning of a 100 mile sail.  The wind died out completely so I brought my new best friend Tohatsu to life.  Selene and I were bumping along towards a nice thick fog bank that hung around the point.  Eventually we were inside the fog.  Still no wind, but some nice sized wind waves.  Steep little waves, a bit mixed, maybe averaging 4 or 5 feet.  A light finicky wind was building, not interested in helping me and Selene make any progress.  So I continued to rely on Tohatsu who was having a hard time keeping his bottom half wet.   Just as I was starting to get fairly discouraged with my start the wind came to life, quickly.  I had an idea it was out there with all the wind waves around, but had lost hope it would fill in so nicely.  Both sails up and we were flying, maybe 15-20 knots of wind.  The wind was mildly gusty so I let out both sails a bit and had Selene at a nice comfortable heel.  The boat was making 6 knots easily and I was a happy sailor.  There happened to be this one nice little wind wave that found the starboard beam of Selene.  The wave was steeper on the backside than it was on the front.  I was on a starboard tack.  At the top of this very now important wave, Selene stood straight up.  Maybe it was my steering, maybe it was the slight luff from the wind, or maybe Selene just had an old tired rig.  She plopped down the backside of the wave and appeared to catch a gust at the same time.  LOUD HORRIBLE SNAPPING NOISE. I’m on the low side. BOOM JUMPING OVER MY HEAD. Instantly my entire rig straight upside down off the portside rail.  It took a few life long seconds to realize, and even more so to believe what had just happened.  I processed, made sure there where no quick moves I could perform to secure the rig better and reached for the vhf.   After giving the Coast Guard my situation and location on went the life jacket.  I grabbed my portable radio and headed back into the cockpit.  With a dockline I was able to secure the boom just outside the cockpit combing and then head below to pull up the floor board.  DRY BILGE, I feel my first moment of relief.  Heading back outside it appears the rig is resting nicely on the now windward portside.  The sails acting as drogue keeping the metal off the hull.  After hearing my full situation the Coast Guard sends out their life boat.  While waiting for help to arrive I secured a line to the backstay and tried to get something started with the winch.  Looking back now it was a bad idea, I was only fighting the forestay.  The Coast Guard boat showed up and I felt like a 29 year Old Man.  I think everyone on the boat was younger than me,  but they worked together as an awesome team.  They also had great senses of humor, something I needed to share with them during this moment.  Their group communication was incredible and within minutes two of them were on the bow.  I did my best to say “welcome aboard” and let the them assess the situation.  The wind waves were just rough enough that it was urgent we did something about the giant metal stick getting ready to bang against my hull.  First came a brute force effort at lifting the mast, no way.   At some point we tried the sails downhauls, nothing.  Then we cut the forestay and tried bringing in the backstay, nope.  The waves were not getting any nicer.  Both myself and the coast guard were ready to get out of harms way.  Maybe if I had spent a few bucks on a new rig and sails I’d have been more reluctant to let it go, or shit, maybe I wouldn’t be having to let her go.  Either way the bolt cutters were passed around,  I double checked with the Coast Guard Captain making sure it was legal to sink my rig and down she went.  As my sails and sticks sank to the bottom I looked up at the Captain who had been circling my little boat from high on his giant and with half a smile said “No ceremony or nothing?”.  He smiled and I was relieved to still have my hull in tact.  I’m sure plenty a better seaman than myself could have rescued the rig, but for me and Selene it wasn’t meant to be.  I went to try and wake up my buddy Tohatsu who had been sleeping for a while, but unfortunately he had been napping under the waves and wasn’t able to awake.  So, the big boat threw the little boat a line and off we went.  As we were being towed in, me and my two new Coast Guard crew member, the mood was light.  We joked, made proper introductions and all felt relief to be on a boat headed for calmer waters.   Surfing in the Morro Bay Harbor Channel under tow is exciting to say the least.  One of the coast guard members had done some sailing and seemed to enjoy taking the tiller when I needed a break.  The other decided to take over during the channel surfing, having seen what a sailboat can do coming in under tow.  On the way in Tohatsu had a chance to dry off and wake up.  I made it over to the slip under my own power, which felt great.   The Coast Guard guys with guns were waiting for us on the docks.  Politely asked to board and gave Selene the green light on vessel safety.  I’m happy to be back in Morro Bay with Selene, my dog, and my safety.  The Coast Guard is a truly wonderful example of a great government service.   If you or anyone you know has a sailboat mast lying around be sure to let me know.

the problem