Trip 2, Day 3, Leg 3
Trip Day - Saturday, September 25th
0545-54F/48F. Heat is on while I get dressed. Had a glass of OJ and made coffee for morning study time.
0625-Sat down with my coffee and cookies. Temp inside is up to a comfortable 67F, but now 47F outside!
After reading my Bible and checking notes and cross references for the chapter I was reading, I finished up with prayer time. Then I read my book "The Light and the Glory". This is my second reading of this book and one I highly recommend, if you are interested in the early Christian history of this nation and how the Lord worked through people of that time. However, it is not for people who don't believe God works through nations and people.
0805-Completed my morning study, prayer, and reading. Time for breakfast! 68F/51F.
0845-Pulled the lines and departed the boat site. Winds were relatively calm in the protection of the site but as I approached the open lake, and the long NW fetch, winds picked up to 15 knots, or so. Seas were rough and I was taking a lot of spray over the bow as I headed out to clear the reefs at the entrance to Lost Bay.
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| Area of Operations Day 3, Leg 3 (Click to Enlarge) |
It was gray, cloudy, and waves were building to 2.5 to 3.0 feet as I turned to a ENE heading, mostly downwind. I began to occasionally surf in some of the breaking waves and was very uncomfortable with conditions! I will try to avoid this in the future!
Waves were threatening to break over the stern as I went along further, and winds continued to build. Not a good situation! I tried to increase speed a bit in an attempt to stay ahead of the breaks, but that was only partially successful since the boat was just too slow.
A fishing boat passed me and was struggling in the waves, but at least he could stay ahead of the breaks. I headed for the narrow pass to Brule Narrows and the cover of some islands, but it was still miles away. I finally made it with a huge sigh of relief!
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| Nav Chart - Leg 3 (Click to Enlarge) |
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| GE Chart - Leg 3 (Click to Enlarge) |
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| Avenza Chart - Leg 3 (Click to Enlarge) |
The wind does not look like it will diminish so I begin to reconsider my choice of destination in NW Saginaw Bay. Though the land would provide some cover to the NW I have had enough of this ugly weather and I'm cold! I checked the chart for options but the first site (R29) did not appeal. So I continued on.
I confused a fishing boat ahead of me in the channel when, as I continued down the channel and was about to turn toward them to head SE, I abruptly turned the opposite direction to go WNW into Soldier Point West, which I visited back in 2017. It is not a pretty site at all, but is close to good kayaking waters, if the weather ever improves? Change of plans!
1030-Tied up at the site. Cabin is 61F, outside is 57F. Still cloudy with plenty of wind. I need to get inside and warm up my hands and body before doing much else. The wind chill is significant.
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| Soldier Point West Boat Site - Looking ESE Toward Brule Narrows South Entrance (Click to Enlarge) |
1230-As stated before, this boat site is one of the ugliest on the whole lake! But if conditions calm down there are good places to kayak to the west and northwest.
In its favor, it has reasonably good exposure to the sun, if it ever comes out! My solar is already down to 42%, which is not good at this early point in the trip! There is also little in the way of firewood at this site.
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| Back Up Solar Generator Recharging (Click to Enlarge) |
1247-I did some video of the site, but my sound muff, necessary in this wind, was not functioning correctly, particularly with the Osmo Mobile using my phone. It seemed to have a poor cord connection, but I finally got it to work on the Osmo Action camera. I had to check the video on the laptop to ensure the sound was working on either device. I can't find a critical component needed for the muff, so the Mobile is a failure, but the Osmo Action worked okay.
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| There Were Occasional Breaks In Cloud Cover In Afternoon (Click to Enlarge) |
Had lunch of crackers, cheese, apples, sesame bites, and white wine. 71F/63F
1453-70F/66F. Napped for quite awhile after reading out of the novel I'm currently reading by David Guterson, "Snow Falling on Cedars". I started reading it on my last trip to VNP but put it down on my return home and just now picked it up again. It clouded up once more!
1525-72F/64F. Did the dishes late again! Almost 100% cloud cover and wind is up. Kayaking will not be happening today! Just not a nice day in many respects.
1617-Finished dinner of chili, hot roll, salad, and a beer.
1643-I set up the bow fire ring since I might use it tonight if this breeze stops? Cloud cover and breeze make it unpleasant to do much of anything outside.
2022-Changed my mind and cut up some firewood I found, mostly scraps, and not a good selection to choose from. Worked up a sweat cutting and splitting. The wind finally dropped off and then the mosquitos came out in force, so I had to start the fire early to keep them at bay with the smoke.
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| Evening Fire - Site Is Rated 1 On Scale of 10 (Click to Enlarge) |
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| Still Cloudy Into Evening (Click to Enlarge) |
Stayed until well after dark when I saw running lights from a boat approaching up the channel? What came to mind was rangers (or Border Patrol?) since they would be the only ones running around out here at night...or so I thought!
I didn't think there were any fire restrictions, but to be safe I scrambled to the boat to get a pail of water to put out the fire and quickly scrambled back aboard the boat, only to see a houseboat slowly move past me and obviously eyeing the site I was on. There were no other boat sites!
My thoughts were along the lines of what idiot is out here running around in these rocks in the dark of night? The boat soon pulled in less than a 100 yards away from me and tied up for the night. They did not move away to a reasonable distance as they should have! Talk about being rude! I was very angry, not only was this guy a fool for being out at night in these waters, but a double fool for parking right on top of another boat, because he made the mistake of assuming the site would be available when he arrived in the dark of night! Totally stupid!
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| Though Dark At The Time, The Trespassing Boat Landed Near The Large Pine Along Shore, Way Too Close Considering The Options (Click to Enlarge) |
I met a similar set of rude boaters on the first trip I made this year and now I find them again! Or, rather they found me!
I had some Baileys to calm down. But what are they going to do at this hour at an unimproved site? The only other boat site (R29) is about a mile away, all others are even more. Since they were running at night I assumed they were coming out from base and had already passed the other boat site. Perhaps it was occupied as well? All I can say is they better be out of here by first light.
2013-It gets more weird! A small power boat comes in and approaches the house boat and appears to pickup garbage? What on earth! He soon backs away and has both bow running lights on, but no stern light, or else he turned off all his lights as he departed? Perhaps the whole thing was a cross border drug run? The border is spitting distance away! It was certainly very suspicious activity!
How can a houseboat have that much garbage? Obviously he didn't just come out from the base, but must have been returning, but then why not wait? What was the hurry? These rental boats have a huge 50 gallon garbage can, and with prudence, there is no way you should over fill one on any one trip on this lake. They must have called the base and had them come out in the night...totally weird! Too many puzzling questions for me and it totally ruined an evening of solitude in the wilderness! I'm heading to bed.
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