Forecast for Monday into Tuesday morning was good. Good breeze for the evening, clear skies through the night and only slight chance of rain in the morning - so I took it. I had started planning a couple weeks ago but just couldn't get out, but I knew what I had to do to pull off a short trip. I had already chosen an anchor and rode from my "stock" of anchors. I wasn't planning big eats. Grabbed several Powerades, a few protein bars and some trail mix. Oh, yea - I also bought a collapsible porta-pot and gel. Got to be prepared you know. I bought a tent last fall and already had a Thermarest pad and sleeping bag. Temps were due to drop down into the upper 50's overnight.
Got a little bit of a late start so altered my plans on a destination. Rigging and launch went well. Breeze was lighter than I expected but it picked up after a bit. Had a nice, short sail to a cove just two miles up the lake.
Somebody has money!
Here's the sun setting as I was at the entrance to the cove where I was going to anchor.
It looked to be shallow, so I raised my rudder and daggerboard to row the last half mile into the long narrow cove.
I sent a screen shot of my location to Robin.
It was about 8:00 by the time I anchored. That only gave me an hour or so of daylight left to get setup for the evening. I quickly ate a bar and went to setting up.
I emptied my lockers of the things I would need and raised the floor sections to create the sleeping platform.
As I was in the process of setting up the tent, one of the two tent poles went overboard!!!!! Oh, no! Since there was no rain in the overnight forecast, I didn't fret too much.
As the sun set, I settled into a reading mode. My daggerboard was lying on the floor in front of the thwart. I looked and figured that it would make a good sitting position if I laid my sleeping pad over it. It turned out to be quite comfortable. I used the seat as a backrest and stretched my feet out toward the forward bulkhead. One of my church members had given me a book written by an atheist (formerly so anyway) doctor about near death/out of the body experiences. Quite interesting! I read until 11:00.
The dew was falling quite heavily. I decided that I would throw the tent over my sleeping bag like a blanket. Worked great. Kept me fairly warm and dry. I didn't fall asleep for quite some time, but I did get some rest.
I got up to a dew-drenched, chilly, misty morning. Love those misty mornings!
I ate some trail mix and pitched my stuff forward of the main thwart to one side. I didn't bother to repack anything into the lockers.
There was very little breeze which was my expectation, so I rowed back to the ramp - maybe a 2 mile row.
Here's the view out of the cove back towards the dam. The sun is coming up behind me.
Here's a shot of the looking back at the cove as I rowed out with my mizzen shielding the sun.
Here's a sunken boat I passed in the cove.
Made the distance in a little under an hour. I didn't row hard, but like I said earlier, it takes a little "umpf" to row the CIY16. It's three times the size of my previous dinghy. I tried to take long strokes using my back as much as possible to save my arms. It does give the hands quite a workout though!
Here's the ramp as I aproached. The mist has all burned off. Clear skies.
At takeout, about 6 guys came over and admired my boat for quite some times. A wooden, lapstrake, lug yawl is not a common sight around these parts.
I was home mid-morning and finished the day with my lovely wife. Even took a ride in her convertible in the afternoon up to Lookout Mountain.
I'll be eager to do it all over again!
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