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

[Todd Zumach]

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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