If you had a summer off what lakes/coastal sailing areas would you go to and why?

[Shooter II]

Whew!
Thanks, Les
Don't want to go sailing in places that are described like that!!
Rains all the time.

Reminds of a postcard I once saw while in Portland with the following text.
"Governor McCall (then governor of Or) invites you to see Idaho, Washington and California this year."
While in BC, I remarked to someone how beautiful the NW is and they kept saying "Southwest", finally I asked why and they reminded me it was my NW but their SW.

I love the Chesapeake but some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever enjoyed was in the pacific NW.

 

[RichBone]

beer strike ? Who knows, next they'll probably want you to go to a special store to buy it.

Rich

 

[Scott B]

Yea... and you'll probably have to go to a Gov't run store to buy your booze..... oh, yea, that's Ontariariario.....

and that pic in swimming ??? didn't happen this year, don't think the water temps got barely above freezing and when it did the mosquitos as big as cats were out in full force....

 

[David in Sandusky]

We're doing it

Ok, 6 weeks instead of all summer.

But if you like to anchor in the wild, with good hikes ashore. it's hard to beat the North Channel!

 

[Sumner]

Scott great pictures and I didn't see other boats . The North Shore is still on our list and it just moved back up the "have to go to places list" a couple notches after seeing your pictures.

The San Juans are also on the list although we will have to admit that since we haven't had to deal with tides and currents the thought of them is still a little intimidating to us.

........... anchor with my stern to the shore,............!

Be careful of those stern lines to shore. We love it when....

....... we can do it, but after this.......

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/Macgregor Trips-2-Priest/08-09-14-priest-koot.html

....we are a lot more careful when we use them overnight. If the wind comes up on you and comes in on your beam you start getting a really big side force and something might have to give. Chances are the shore line won't, so that might mean you start dragging the anchor.

What type boat do you have?

What kind and how many anchors do you have? We found our 22 lb. Bruce to always hold in Idaho and Canada. We also have a Fortress and Danforth. Since we want to do Florida next fall we have a 25 lb. Manson Supreme on order. This stuff costs money, but it is your boat and life at the end of it. Use good anchor line for even the stern shore line, no cheap poly stuff. When you get into stuff like this............

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/MacgregorTrips-3-Powell09/09-10-9-Powell-09.html

........you will want to know you have the best you can have with you. Sorry to carp on this if you already have it covered.

You are going to have a great experience, I'm sure of that,

Sum

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

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[Scott B]

Some anchorages will be busy, but if you explore enough you will find some quieter.

Still in 30 ft. water and tied to shore.

 

[biorapper]

What type boat do you have?


........you will want to know you have the best you can have with you. Sorry to carp on this if you already have it covered.

94 mac 26s


Always good to hear of lessons learned by others in the hopes you don't have a "laboratory experience" in your learning curve! I have had an episode similiar to yours, though not as intense. We like to be close to shore when anchored for hop off the boat ease...this of course is just in lakes...but Ido think one can get too relaxed and complacent in a lake...though odds are you will make it to shore if something happens, the ground and rocks can obviously still destruct your boat. We always keep a closer check on the weather after we were sleeping anchored with stern about 2 feet from a sandy shore (another great plus most of you probably know is that this way any waves/wake gets split down the bow verses slapping the stern), anyhow a strong wind, prob close to 25 mph maybe a bit more came up in the night...about three foot waves started slammiing in with both waves and wind vectoring straight into the shore. Sucks having a lee shore 2 feet away! I faced the same dilema you did (though my stern was tethered to a large movable rock that gave way some on it's own...this wind thiough was stringht into my boat and the rearward shore)...wanting to pull in rode get off the shore (motor was broke) but also aware of losing holdage as I reduce the scope. All ended well; but it does get you to thinking about being as prepared as possible for unplanned events!

 

[cephius (Dave)]

Ahh, Friday Harbor. Great sailing and a short way to the rabbit races.

I can also second the Apostle Islands. Nothing like the Northern Lights at sunset.

 

[Sumner]

........... All ended well; but it does get you to thinking about being as prepared as possible for unplanned events!

If you weekend sail or even go out for a week you can often pick your weather. When you go out for as long your are going out you will get bad weather at some point. That is almost a guarantee. Just be ready and you won't have a problem.

I'm trying to get us set up so that we could sail in about any wind possible. Right now if we start getting winds over 20 mph we drop the sails and get on the motor and go find a place to anchor. The only problem with that is what if the motor fails you? We are going to a roller/reefing good head sail, but I would also like another forestay that I could attach quickly that I could run a true storm jib up on. I'm also going to work on the main sail reefing so that it is even easier and faster than it is now.

We are also getting an electric start Tohatsu so that no matter what happens Ruth can start it. On that thing that happened at Lake Powell it wasn't a good feeling thinking for a bit there that I was pinned under a rock and Ruth had no way to start the outboard and cut the lines and go for help. Thank goodness it didn't come to that. We also now have two good knives that will cut a line fast. For a trip like you are planning I can't emphasize the good anchors and shore lines too much. Sorry, I 'was' a teacher also .

Be sure and write up a trip report and post it,

Sum

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

 

[Don3098]

Les is full of beans!! The San Juan Islands are in a rain shadow, so it can be raining in Seattle and the Olympics, but clear in the islands. It only rained on us three times in nearly 2 months of cruising in Septembers of 08 and 09. True, the tides are awesome and fearsome in places, but all you need do is carefully consult your tide book and navigate the narrow passes and passages at slack. We time our passages so that the currents work for us. Watch out for the beer strikes, though. You will need a good GPS, paper charts, a good cruising guide, and some careful planning. Go for it!!

 

[David in Sandusky]

Another way of looking at it

We have sailed in 10 different cruising grounds over the past 10 years. Which ones do we want to return to?

The North Channel
The West Coast of Sweden
The Apostle Islands
The San Juans

These are all great places to sail and you can see some of our personal preferences in play. We have decided to focus on returning to favorites rather than exploring new places, but New Zealand is still calling pretty hard. And having sailing friends in Cairo will take us to the Aegean Isles (and the west coast of Sweden) in 2011.

 

[Sumner]

One final thought/comment. If I had 3 months and wanted to spend it all sailing I would not go to more than 4 lakes personally. We found that even 12 days on a lake that is at least 20-25 miles long is not enough to do it justice if you are there to explore and stay on different anchorages. We didn't want to leave Priest Lake for instance after 12 days, but did since we had to be at Bonneville about 15 days after that.

12 on Kootenay, just the west arm, was about right, but we could of easily spent another week there and that still left the 'big' part of Kootenay unexplored.

The same with Powell 18 days was not near enough. We were on the mission to try and sail from one end to the other, so we didn't explore any of the side canyons. We will go back over and over I'm sure to do that.

The moving from one place to another will take at least 2 days. One to take out and travel and another to finish traveling and put back in.

We get the most out of a place, by trying not to be on any time schedule while actually on the water. Don't say I'm going to be here today and this place tomorrow and so on.

We live in a really beautiful area.......

....this canyon is only 12 miles or so from the house and Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, and Natural Bridges are all within 80 miles of the house or less. I had a tourist store and talked to people constantly who drove thru this area and saw those places over 2-3 days and said that they had seen everything. Well they didn't see the canyon in the picture or dozens like that one that are withing 10 miles of the roads they are driving down.

I've lived here about 19 years now and still haven't gotten much further than 40 miles out from the house "really exploring" with the Jeep. The real beauty in most places is a little further than what the tour books will have you believe.

Pick a few places and really enjoy them. That is the advice from us old people,

Sum and Ruth

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

 

[walt]

If your coming through central Colorado, how about sailing the "real" South Park:

What its actually like (except for about 1/2 hour in 2008)

 

[RichBone]

Wow! Great shot of that water spout.

Rich

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Since we're still in a daysailor until I retire we don't cruise, but favoite places we'd like to spend the entire summer sailing at: Lake George or Lake Champlain; Charlotte Harbor and the Keys in Fla(yes, we know it's hot there and hurricane season as well but we've been there in July...) Places we'd like to go to new to us for the summer: Lake Powell looks beautiful; nearly every lake we've camped/hiked to in Canada when we were younger looked like a great place to sail; closer to home - Cheseapeake Bay.

 

[r.oril]

As I live in Antelope Valley, northern LA County, I'm thinking I want to go to Shaver Lake out of Fresno, Ca. We visited Huntington Lake as the snow was melting last year. Lucky for us, we have several good lakes within a few hours from home. First, I have to get a tandem trailer setup for my Mac 26D. Just not happy with a single axle.

Local lakes: Pyramid, Castaic, Silverwood, Big Bear, ArrowHead (yeah right!), Pine Flats.

 

[Freedom77]

Didn't see where you live. Sailing down the California Coast is great. From about Ventura to San Diego you can do one day hops. Ventura to Paradise Cove to Marina Del Rey to Catalina to San Pedro to Dana Point to San Diego. All down wind. Problem. How do you get your car and trailer to San Diego. Amtrak all the way back. Haul trailer south. Fair Winds...

 

[Tom Hoffman]

Since I am mostly land locked except for the Mississippi, I have been dreaming about doing this in pieces, a month or two at a time.

http://www.greatloop.org/

Approximately 7400 miles over some of the best inland water in the country. I have joined the association and get daily email from their Forums posts regarding the positions of cruising members etc.

Tom...

 

[Mario G]

We have been sailing around the central Atlantic coast on a every other long weekend schedule. If I had a few months I would head north up the Chesapeake.

 

[rejenk3]

One thing you may want to check on after you have your in itinerary. Some lakes (Tahoe for example) ban carbureted 2-strokes.