Tag: hurricane bay
A break in the smoke, a sail and a splash
My uncle Ken Holland was a crab fisherman in the Bering Sea from the early 1960s through the 1980s. He always told me that in fishing, you “plan for the worst and hope for the best.” That’s this sailing season in a nutshell. We got lucky and got a mooring buoy in June, got a few sails in, and then the Dixie Fire and then the Caldor Fire hit, blanketing the lake and nearly our whole state of Nevada in thick smoke. At our home in Reno, we saw air quality indexes over 300, and closer to the fires, we saw numbers in the 400s, 500s and even 700 for a brief period. Today, after nearly a month of not sailing, I saw a break in the smoke with some westerly winds hitting around 4 p.m., so I rocketed up to the lake and found our beautiful Splendido covered in ash—inside as well as out.
I primed the Perkins, fired her up, and headed out to the nearly empty lake. Out past the wind shadow of the west shore, I picked up some nice breezes that went as high as 21 knots and blasted northward at 6.2 knots til the gusts softened. I tacked near Sunnyside and blasted back down toward McKinney Bay, catching the Blackwood Canyon winds and putting Splendido through her paces. I was hoping the strong breeze would blow away all of the ash, but alas, our beautiful girl still needs a good vacuum and a scrub, which I’ll be happy to do another day.
As the sun set in the west at about 7:20 p.m., I got her back on the hook and buttoned her up as the pink glow settled over Tahoe. I’ve been filming a bit on my GoPro, so I decided to take a plunge with the camera. The photo above is a frame from that very refreshing splash over the side. I’m keen to milk every last bit of sailing out of what remains of our summer here at 6,223 ft. above sea level, and praying for cooler temperatures and lots of rain to quench all the fires.
Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB
New Man On The Water
I’m a bit behind here on my postings, but I wanted to take a moment to recognize a member of the next generation of sailors here in Northern Nevada … Max Coonrad. Max is the 16-year-old son of the executive chef for The Cheese Board American Bistro and Catering Company in Reno, which long-time readers will know as my wife’s Reno catering company. At any rate, I found out through the grapevine that Max went to stay with his grandmother in Woodside, California earlier this summer, and while he was down there, he took the 101, 103 and 104 ASA sailing courses and passed with flying colors. I love to see it when young people grab onto something and find a passion for it, so it was a great pleasure to have Max out on Splendido for a full afternoon of sailing and plying Tahoe’s blue waters.
When we first set out, we made a “milk run” up to Tahoe City Marina for a pump-out, which isn’t the most fun thing to do for a young sailor, but Debbie likes a clean-smelling boat, and I like to keep Debbie happy. The crew at TCM are so gracious and helpful — we were done in a jiffy, and after raiding the kitty for a handful of dollars to tip out the guys, we slowly motored out of the marina and headed south to — you guessed it — Sugar Pine State Park. Winds were light but steady, so I let Max do all the driving he wanted.
And, I gotta say, it was nice to relax and take in the view, which takes on a different flavor when you’re not having to pay particular attention to gusts or other boating traffic. A guy can even put his feet up and relax a bit.
After about four hours on the water, I could tell Max was a little tuckered from a game of paintball he’d participated in earlier in the day, so I took the helm and we headed northwest to our mooring near Eagle Rock.
I was really impressed with Max’s boat handling ability, familiarity with all the equipment on board, and sense of wind and weather. He’s a really bright kid with an equally bright future, and I know that having sailing as a part of his journey will only make it a richer and more enjoyable experience.
Fair winds and smooth sailing, Max!
Loading In & Fitting Out
Last Saturday (June 8th), Debbie was out of town so I rose early and took care of all my “honey-dos” so I could get up to the lake and load Splendido with the cushions, housewares, sheets, blankets, and fleece stuff to keep everybody comfortable out on the water. I borrowed Debbie’s “princess van” from The Cheese Board and loaded up all the stuff that was in our garage (after rinsing and drying everything…amazing how dusty everything got sitting in the garage for over a year). One thing I’m really grateful for is the neat set-up we were able to find renting a private buoy near Hurricane Bay. The folks we rented from have access to a private pier with a passcode that is a straight shot from where you can park. It was actually an easier load-in than when we were at the marina before.
The day was not without incident. When I rowed the Walker Bay dinghy out to Splendido, I almost swamped it. What a damn tippy thing that dinghy is! I was holding onto the swim ladder on the sailboat and made a move to step from the dinghy to the sailboat, and under went the gunwale and filled the dinghy about four inches deep in the startling brief amount of time it took me to sit back down. (That’s one reason why I wear a life preserver even when rowing out.) After a few deep breaths, I was able to safely step on to Splendido and get her ready to take over to the pier.
The whole “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” quote from Wind in the Willows is wonderfully true. Even though it took four or five hours to load in and stow all the stuff, the time flew by. Some of the local residents stopped by for a bracing plunge off the pier (the water temp was 64 degrees) and we’d end up chatting about life at Tahoe and how beautiful it is. I took three plunges myself over the course of the day…I’m a bit of a polar bear anyway, and the water was a great way to cool off.
After getting everything aboard (though not stowed…a lot of the stowing of the household items is a bit of a mystery to me; I don’t know where Debbie puts it or seems to make it disappear until needed (there’s not that much storage on a Catalina 270, frankly)), I motored back over to the buoy and put her on the hook. I turned on the cabin lights and the anchor light, then rowed in to go find something to eat after a long day. I ended up going to Westside Pizza (nice folks there), downed a personal pizza and some big glasses of water, then headed back. It was a bit eerie rowing out in the dark, but I managed without incident and then decided to try sleeping up front in the V-berth. I’d like to say I fell asleep instantly (I was that tired) but it took a while to get used to the boat bumping up against the buoy (boom!) or hearing the dinghy touch up against the hull at the other end (a more muffled boom).
When I woke up, I was a bit appalled at the mess of stuff that still needed to be stowed, but my craving for hot coffee (the one thing I forgot to plan ahead for) inspired me to fire her up and head about a mile north to Sunnyside in search of java. The lake was like a millpond, and the early-morning beauty as I motored along at 3.8 knots was thrilling. I tied up at Sunnyside, but there was no coffee to be had, so they directed me to stroll across the street to the Fire Sign café, where I had three cups and a bagel with cream cheese. The nice receptionist gal at Sunnyside said I could come up anytime for an end-tie on their public dock and step in for lunch. I’m planning on it!
Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB
Sailing Lake Tahoe on a good old boat 