Houseship #6

I woke up early this morning. Got up, made coffee, and watched the sunrise. This is an incredibly beautiful place. We were still at the dock and the sunrise/scenery was unbelievable. We had planned a classic bacon and eggs breakfast for our first morning on the water but since we never left the dock we made a collective decision to switch to the second day抯 plan of a light breakfast and save the killer breakfast for our first real morning on the water. We got everyone fed, washed, brushed, and dressed, and were ready to leave the dock. The wind was still blowing but significantly less than yesterday. Vickie and I took the speedboat and stood off in the harbor awaiting departure of S76. Captain Jimmie backed our houseship smartly out of the slip and pivoted toward the harbor exit. Vickie and I slipped out through the exit to take pictures of the maiden departure. Captain Jimmie handled the wind and unfamiliarity with the boat and made it safely through the exit buoys. We headed up into the wind and soon secured the powerboat for tow behind the houseship. After that we turned downstream keeping the appropriate buoys on the appropriate side of the houseship. Forward progress was at approximately 7.5 mph and we motored down the lake toward the point where we had to disconnect the tow of the speedboat to traverse "The Narrows". The Narrows is a passage through the rocks with 100-foot cliffs on either side. Vickie and I drove the powerboat followed by Captain Jimmie and S76. When we reached mile marker #9 on the other side of "The Narrows" it was time to reconnect the tow. We proceed up the lake observing the incredible scenery heading for an anchorage in Warm Creek. I commented to friends "This is like the Grand Canyon only full of water" and that抯 what it抯 like. If you built a damn and filled the Grand Canyon full of water this is what it would be. We proceed up Warm Creek and found a likely looking place to land. About this time the guys from the marina s howed up with a replacement speedboat. On our original boat I had noticed an ominous looking puddle of oil under the steering wheel that reappeared every time I wiped it up. In the middle of them arriving, we beached the houseship quite smartly. It being our first time The Captain wasn抰 sure exactly how fast we should approach the shore. We know now we were going a little faster than we should have been. I believe the guys from the marina had a good story to tell their friends when they went back. But then they have probably seen it all in the boat rental business. A little while later Jerry said, "Does this kitchen seem smaller?" Turns out that a full size household refrigerator, slap full of food ice and drinks, combined with having wheels and a fast beaching, equals forward motion. In essence the boat stopped before the refrigerator did by about 5 feet. We proceeded to bury the 4 huge anchors in the sand as we had been taught in the training video. Quite a bit of manual labor w as involved for Jimmie and Jerry. We had to dig four holes in the sand 3 feet wide and about a foot deep. This is necessary to keep the ship from being blown off the beach by the wind in the middle of the night. Idea is you don抰 wake up floating in the middle of the channel as a navigation hazard. After we had securely anchored, we extended our bow ramp, and hung out on the beach. Jerry and I decided to try out the water slide the boat is equipped with. (well actually Jerry first) The water temp was about 2 degrees above stopping your heart when you splashed down. However, after you were in for a while, it was not all that bad (to me). I got Vickie to get me the bar of Ivory soap and I had a lake water bath. Later I slow cooked a ham on the grill, made some scalloped potatoes, and we had a fine dinner. The hikers in the group went on a nature hike while I cooked. After dinner we had a small fire on the beach and turned in early for a good night's sleep.

More later,

Wes