For a brief instant I thought I had mistakenly cued up one of my own vids....but quickly realized your view would be pretty similar to mine. ~:0) Pend Oreille Lake even looks similar to Okanagan Lake.....and it sounds like the winds are right in there as well.
So....last week eh? (that's Canucklian) Must be the same system that slammed us last week. Record high winds....at least since they started recording these things. 109 km...or better known as just under 60 knots! The highest gusts only lasted for a few minutes at a time....but more than long enough to wreak some serious havoc. Sustained winds of 40 plus. I was in a meeting at the time and didn't see a lick of it. Dang. Later in the day I saw several sailboats and motorboats up on the beach having busted or dragged their permanent moorings. One power boat was sunk at its mooring. 100's of trees busted or tore out at the roots....busted limbs etc. All the standard stormage type stuff. My boat was at anchor outside the marina the day before. I pulled it and left it rigged on the trailer as usual...not knowing that later that day any kind of storm would be by. Lucky move. As it was it took hours of sweeping and washing to get all the tree residue (some kind of sticky sugary stuff) and all the dust and dirt off and out of the boat. Around here, any day forecasted with thunderstorms can become very entertaining, very quickly. But this one was one grand daddy of a thunder storm. It brought a huge low with it that had snow warnings on all the passes! In July! Crazy stuff. It was nice and cool for a day or two after. The weekend before I was caught in what was one of the hardest T storms I have dealt with yet. Fortunately I have become wise to this crazy lake at this point had just put the last tie in the main when it hit. The power of 30 plus knots of real wind is a thing to behold. Even with every scrap tied down...just keeping the head of my 17 to wind is a two handed chore. I would normally run with something like this but had fought all day to windward to make this particular spot (a few nights out) and I was not going to loose it all in 30 minutes of surfing. Not to mention the wind came in across the narrow part of the lake, I was working off a lee shore and needed some space. Once I had the boat settled and making a few inches to good I thought to turn around and check on the wrinkle dingy at the end of 40 feet of painter. I turned around just in time to see Jr. on the crest of a wave, get hooked by a gust of wind...lifted up and right over on it's side. A few degrees more and she would have flipped completely and filled with water. Though the boat has built in floatation and would not have sunk....it would have been too heavy to continue to tow under the conditions. I might have had to cut her loose and go find it later. It was great that I had a good sailor buddy on board for that trip and he took up the painter and basically babysat Jr. on 6" of lead and two hands. Even at that it was close a few times. Days like that just make me chuckle to think of the 'what motor to get' discussions we have here. I could not imagine using an electric anything in a pickle like that. Just to keep head to wind and fetch I had to two hand the deal. Rudder and throttle as well as having to turn the motor periodically to bring it back around. Seems like every day has first class wind this year. It might go so far as to say.....I am bored with sailing hard day. I now long for some peaceful 5 knot picnic sails. Seems like every day of sailing results in new bruises, cuts and sore muscles. It's a work out. My main seems permanently reefed...... I must have sailed for 2 hours @ around five knots boat speed ( to windward) under shortened sail last time out. Measured wind speed was 12-14 steady with sustained gusts 16-18kn. And most days have been much like this. Not at all normal. Wicked fun stuff. Larry, your new tender sounds like a unit a buddy of mine just bought.....about 16'? Soft floor? When I noticed the dark lump on your foredeck I assumed it was ground tackle stowage. ~:0) Have fun. Tim M17 #369 PUFF Kelowna/Okanagan Lake BC Canada -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Larry E Yake Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 10:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: M_Boats: Trip report Randy Graves and I did a 5 day / 100 nm cruise on Pend Oreille Lake last week. Had some great sailing, a little motoring, and one day of winds too strong to venture out on the lake. Gusts up to 65 mph! We spent that day holed up in Garfield Bay. (Named after the cat, I assume.) Saw two sailors straggle in after getting caught out in the storm. One suffered a major knockdown sailing under jib only, and the other had his furling system fail, allowing his genoa to unfurl and flog itself to death. Then he suffered the embarrassment of getting pinned by the wind against a covered slip when he tried to enter the marina, until we helped winch him off. Also heard of a small sailboat turning turtle up on the north end of the lake. I took some sailing videos the evening before when the winds were starting to get strong. They're a little rough, but I posted them on YouTube (first time) in case anyone wants to see them. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to get the links to them. I'm betting someone on this list will have the know-how. Anyway, you can do a video search under Sailing Pend Oreille Lake and that should take you right to them. (4 total) Larry P.S. That 100nm puts me well over 1000nm during cruises on CornDog. I could be halfway to Hawaii! ____________________________________________________________ Lose up to 20 lbs in one month with a new diet. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3mPb9KOnmTJ0iJxIF3aGUs5IUl mc4beQhWZkXJRtdviowTYt/ _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.4.11/1553 - Release Date: 7/15/2008 5:48 AM _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
