[Rhodes22-list] I'm just sort of wondering

[Ben Schultz]

Great story.  Thanks for posting it.

Just think how much you guys are going to enjoy overnighting in nice 
weather!


Todd Zumach wrote:
> I don't have much experience in overnighters, but I can relay this brief
> version of our first Apostle Islands adventure from a few weeks ago:
>
> On Friday afternoon we set off to Bayfield, WI for the 1 3/4 hour drive.
> Huge dark clouds covered the northern skies as we hit the road (only a 
> 30 %
> chance of thunderstorms?).  I stopped at the half way point to put the 
> vinyl
> covers over the front ports (they fill with water and leak a little) 
> just in
> case.  We hit the first rain just south of Ashland and got into some 
> of the
> heaviest rain I have ever driven in.  In Washburn, my ever optimistic 
> wife
> said perhaps it will blow over in the next 15 minutes.  I, on the other
> hand, am the realist in the family and said no way.  About 10 minutes 
> later,
> the road was dry!  I love my wife!  But I digress.  We got to Bayfield 
> and I
> started setting up the boat at the marina.  Of course it started to 
> rain.  I
> got the boat in the water and told my wife to drive the truck and 
> trailer to
> Pike's Bay Marina about two miles south of Bayfield.  She has never 
> driven
> with a trailer, and got stuck on a dead end street, but that is another
> story.  By the time I got into the marina, the skies had cleared and I
> looked off to the south and saw the massive thunderstorms passing over 
> the
> Ashland area.  I had a brief loss of composure and thought perhaps we 
> will
> miss any more rain.
>
> We don't have a Boom Room, but we have a Pop Top Enclosure (PTE).
> Apparently the previous owner traded the Boom Room in for the PTE but he
> never actually used it.  I set it up and saw with dismay that none of the
> snaps lined up with the snap studs on the cabin roof!  Duct tape came 
> to the
> rescue and I secured the PTE to the cabin.  Did I mention it was 
> hotter than
> a pistol?  We set up the port berth (another adventure, with the bed
> collapsing on me twice) and turned on the little 12v fan I had installed
> just before the trip.  It was over 90 degrees in the cabin and I got 
> yelled
> at when my sticky shoulder touched my wife's sticky shoulder.  The first
> thunderstorm rolled through at about 1 a.m.  I got up and closed the 
> plastic
> flaps over the screens. It got hotter inside.   I have added to my "To 
> Do"
> list to add more velcro to the those flaps because we got wind blown rain
> misting down on us.  We enjoyed (?) the massive lightening show 
> through the
> PTE windows, they are very big!  The second storm rolled in about 2 a.m.
> with similar results.  The third storm at 4:15 a.m. was different.  The
> first two had come over land and we were protected in our slip (a 24" dia
> white pine did come down about 100 feet from our slip).  The last 
> storm came
> in from the north and we got bounced around a little bit (a 28 foot cabin
> cruiser/fishing boat was moored off one of the islands and had his bow 
> cleat
> ripped out of his deck and smashed through his front window, his stern
> anchor was torn completely off the boat leaving a 5 x 8 hole in his hull)
> but we were comfortable (the temperature had finally dropped) and we 
> slept
> in till about 8:30 a.m.
>
> Breakfast was in the cockpit with the table set in place, a great 
> feature.
> The Admiral forgot the milk, so we had handfulls of dry Honey Nut 
> Cheerios.
> It was kind of romantic.  We set sail at about 10:00 a.m. and found 3 
> to 4
> foot seas and small white caps.  The clouds were low and wind was from 
> the
> north at about 10 mph.  This was the first time I was sailing on the big
> lake on my own boat and I had a great time.  After a couple of hours, my
> wife went below to make peanut butter sandwiches.  A major lesson was
> learned; always make the sandwiches while still in port!  She got a 
> little
> sea sick down in the cabin and coming up on top sides to eat her sandwich
> didn't help.  I agreed to turn us around and headed back to the port.  I
> learned another lesson, if it is rough on a 22 foot sailboat beating 
> into 3
> to 4 foot waves, it is a roller coaster ride when you have following seas
> :)  We got back safely, went to town to the Art Fair and had dinner at a
> trendy local restaurant and then went out for a quick sail before 
> catching a
> live music show.  We heard thunder once in a while and got a little 
> rain on
> our way back to the marina.
>
> Our second night was a dream compared to the first. The cabin was cool 
> and
> we slept well all night.  We awoke to heavy clouds and light rain and no
> wind.  Well no sailing for us :(  We headed up to Bayfield to check out a
> couple of marinas north of the town.  I noted the heavy black clouds that
> were literally skimming the tree tops and then the wind, rain and hail 
> hit.
> After 20 minutes it was all over.  As we got back into Bayfield, I had to
> stop my truck to pull a huge spruce tree off the highway (several people
> stopped their cars and helped out, it was great).  Bayfield was 
> hammered by
> the storm.  The Art Fair was literally blown into Lake Superior, trees 
> were
> down everywhere and roofs were torn off houses and the church in 
> town.  One
> of the boats in the city marina was tossed out of the water!  We drove 
> the
> two miles back to our marina to check on our boat.
>
> Everything was great at Pike's Bay Marina.  The storm had passed just 
> to the
> north.  We decided to call it quits and I motored back up to Bayfield 
> to get
> my boat out of the water.  There is something very nautical about 
> motoring
> your boat in the driving rain with lightening  flashing and thunder 
> pounding
> over the water.  We got the boat out of the water and Julie assumed her
> place in the (dry) truck.  It took me a little over an hour taking the 
> boat
> apart, and I have to admit I did stop for a few minutes when the 
> lightening
> was getting close and I was loosening the turnbuckles to drop the mast.
>
> It turns out that the storm system dumped up to 10 inches of rain in some
> areas and there there was an unconfirmed tornado a few miles from our
> house.  As we drove the last miles home, with the sunshine gleaming
> brightly, I asked my wife if she would ever consider over nighting on the
> boat again.  To my great pleasure, she said "Yes, it couldn't possibly be
> any worse".  Did I mention I love my wife?
>
> Capn Z
> Phillips, WI
> s/v Zephyrus
>
> On 8/28/06, cjlowe <cjlowe at bright.net> wrote:
>>
>> How many on  the list overnight on their boats? How many nights in the
>> slip-on the mooring-or at anchor?
>> I've spent 15 nights on Country Rhodes this year, 8 at a transient 
>> slip in
>> Sandusky Bay , one night anchored out by Cedar Point in the bay,and the
>> other six anchored out in my home lake at Charles Mill State Park. I 
>> only
>> got rained on once this year,not to bad where I was at ,but 80 mi. 
>> east of
>> me they got 10" and major flooding that night. I just love sleeping 
>> on the
>> boat,unlimited sundowners and no drive home!
>>
>> Jerry Lowe
>> S/V Country Rhodes
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