Trip 2, Day 1, Leg 1
Trip Day-Thursday, September 23rd
0800-Departed home to staging point in Forest Lake, MN.
0830-Arrived Forest Lake, prepared boat for departure, stowed car in shed.
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| Forest Lake Staging - Ready For Departure (Click to Enlarge) |
0915-Departed Forest Lake for Rainy Lake launch point, 295 miles.
1115-Stopped in Cloquet, MN for lunch.
1510-Arrived Voyageurs National Park, Rainy Lake Visitor Center launch ramp.
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| VNP-Rainy Lake (West)-Area of Operations (Click to Enlarge) |
1655-Finally departed the ramp after several launch impediments! Fortunately, none were observed by innocent bystanders! First I hung up the stern line on the trailer frame and the bow line on the anchor. I cleared those, but then hung up the lines on the stern guide post managing to bend it before I could see what was going on! Along with bending the post, I nearly ripped the bow anchor off the boat too! In each case I was able to see signs of a problem before more serious damage occurred. Launching this boat alone is a real challenge! Every ramp is different and require jumping out of the truck numerous times to check what is happening. Impossible to see it all from inside the cab!
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| Navionics Chart-Day 1, Leg 1 Track (Click to Enlarge) |
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| Google Earth Track-Trip 2, Day 1, Leg 1 (Click to Enlarge) |
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| Avenza Map-Visitor Center Launch to R45 (Click to Enlarge) |
1800-I arrived at Skipper Rock Island boat site and promptly managed to strike a rock with the prop. I was there before in 2017 and the water was not near as low. I did not anticipate a problem at this site, but light was low upon my arrival and I could not see depth very well on my approach. I also did not tilt the motor up as much as I should have. Not serious enough to change props, but it will require repair over winter! The costs of boating!
1900-Had a quick dinner of chicken wild rice soup, hot roll, salad, and a beer.
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| Galley (Click to Enlarge) |
2000-Sat out on the stern deck and tried out my new table fire and enjoyed the peaceful evening. Some Baileys with chocolates for dessert soothed my frayed nerves from all the launch and landing problems.
2030-The moon rose so I took some pics. Very beautiful.
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| Moon Rising (Click to Enlarge) |
2100-Hit the sack after the long day, I was bushed!
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| Warm & Cozy Bed - Down Pillow, Flannel Sheets, & Comforter. (Click to Enlarge) |
2230-Soon after I dozed off, I woke up to some crunching noise, and turned the lights on. A large field mouse stared at me! He ran a short way then turned and came back at me! Then he decided that was not such a good idea and turned around and disappeared.
Now what am I going to do? I took all my mouse traps off the boat, since the boat is now in inside storage I didn't feel the need! I must have picked up the mouse at Forest Lake, since the boat sat in the yard for a couple days while I was staging for this trip. He looked so fat and healthy I called him "Chubby." More on Chubby later, he was to be my nemesis!
Since I was up, I switched power for the fridge from my back up solar generator (384Wh) to the primary (1700Wh) since the back up was getting low. On this trip I used the backup solar battery while on the road, so I could start the trip with 100% on the primary. I figured I could recharge the backup at some point with its own 40w panel.
I could hardly sleep the rest of the night after the mouse encounter! There was some relax time on the stern deck after dinner but overall, today's launch, boat site landing, and revelation I would be sharing space with "Chubby" for this trip, has been nerve racking!
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