Bear Trace Redo 4/23-24/24

Nine years ago, almost to the day, I did my trip up Chickamauga Lake, anchored in a cove bordering Bear Trace Golf Course and spent the night, in the process almost killing myself (literally) with a near capsize in the middle of the night. That was the last time I slept aboard Little Bit. I have just completed a redo under very similar conditions on Disciple Ship; this time with much less drama!

Some of you will remember that story as I reported it here and had the story published in Small Craft Advisor. Seems I also sent it to Duckworks Mag but I can't seem to find it. Well, that trip led me to begin dreaming of a solution to being able to sleep aboard safely. Several suggestions were made by the good mates here on the forum, but the logical solution seemed to be a bigger boat. For a while, John Welford's Walkabout was the leading contender; but, in the course of time, Clint Chase designed the Calendar Islands Yawl which ultimately became my choice. I've now safely camped aboard Disciple Ship three times and felt very comfortable.

We've had a lot of good sailing wind in the last several weeks with reasonably warm temps. The first part of this week offered those conditions, so I cleared my calendar and went for it for a Tuesday/Wednesday venture. I don't usually sail on Wednesday, since we have church in the evening; but I made an exception this time. I would have sailed Monday/Tuesday but we had a church softball game Monday night. Conditions were identical with the near full moon coming up an hour before sunset which is preferable for my enjoyment. But I took option two.

When you don't do this often, gear gets scattered and it takes a while to prep and load up. I was shooting for an early afternoon departure, and it was 1:30 when I pulled out of the driveway.

Getting to the ramp, setting up, transferring gear to the boat took another hour; but I was finally ready to launch.

The winds were fairly steady at about 12 mph, but there were gusts up to 25 mph. (note: the horizontal lines in the Weather Underground chart are hard to see, but they're in 5 mph increments)

I rearranged my mainsheet for this trip. It was sheeted to the end of the boom. That created issues with the sheet getting hung up on things, me having to dodge it etc. So I moved it to mid-boom. Worked great. Clint said he's going to change that on his plans. (My quick rig is a bit clumsy. I'll have to look for a fiddle block to simplify the new arrangement.)

I carried 100 lbs of ballast and reefed to be safe. I strapped everything into the boat just in case. I was on a broad reach or run the whole afternoon. 

The eleven mile sail went well, but I did have one near mishap. I was far from shore when I suddenly came upon a shallow bar and my daggerboard began to drag the bottom. I knew I could get hung up and capsize. As quickly as I could I let go of the mainsheet, lurched forward and took the daggerboard out. The boat was already turning beam to and dangerously heeling but I managed to straighten her out and stay upright. Water was sloshing up through the trunk which was more of a nuisance than anything but I stuck the plug in and was ok from there on out.

There was a turn in the river part way up which put me in the wind shadow. I had to row for just a very short time and got back into the wind. Once I got up near my destination, I dropped sail and rowed to the cove where I wanted to spend the night. It was around a corner which meant part of that short row was dead into a 12 mph wind. I wouldn't want to have to do that for a long time.

Like the trip of nine years earlier, I sailed up the lake to a spot opposite the nuclear power plant and next to Bear Trace Golf Course. I picked a cove that had an orientation that would give me cover from the wind as well as a view of the moonrise. Was perfect.

I settled in and had a nice supper of chili-mac warmed on my almost new Optimus backpacking stove. That thing puts out the heat!

I set up my tent and enjoyed the evening. It's a little tricky setting up the tent when you can't leave the confines of your vessel. One thing I did to facilitate setup was to drill a hole in the tip of the tent poles so that I could insert a pin to prevent them from coming loose of the strap which is the tendency if you don't keep them taut. Helped a lot. The evening was most enjoyable. I took along a small, collapsible beach chair which fit nicely forward of the trunk. I leaned back, propped my feet up on the thwart and read a nice book while enjoying the cool evening. Even saw a cute deer on the shore.

A little before 9:00 the moon came up.

That's when I retreated to my tent. I moved the chair into the tent and carefully tested the boat's stability with my sitting up on the chair. My platform is thwart high so I was tentative about the high center of gravity. It felt very stable so I sat for another two hours in peace. Finally blew up my Big Agnes mattress, laid out my sleeping bag and called it a night.

When morning came, I ate a bowl of oatmeal, drank a cup of hot chocolate, packed up and headed back.

The winds were forecased to be light and out of the SW gradually turning W. If it did, I was hoping I could sail some. Didn't happen. Wind was on the nose and 0-5 mph. I decided to row.

I rowed for 2 hours at about 2 mph. That left me 7-1/2 miles to the ramp. The CIY is a sail/oar boat but leans more towards sailing than rowing. It has a 5' beam which is a bit much for a row boat of this size. My boat weighs about 250 lbs. With 100 lbs of ballast, a 200 lb sailor and a little gear - I'm pushing a good bit through the water. On my 2015 trip on Little Bit I rowed almost the entire way back - 11+ miles. But Little Bit weighed less than 100 lbs and I carried no ballast. Big difference.

Knowing all this, I told my wife before I left that I might need her to pick up my tow vehicle and meet me. At 4 miles I was beside a state park with a boat ramp. With church in the evening I decided it prudent to bail out. I called her, she picked up the tow vehicle and met me.

It was the right decision. I was able to get home and chill a bit before church.

Aftermath: surprisingly I feel pretty good. One exception - my butt is really sore! Don't have quite as much padding back there as I used to. Might need to bring something next time to sit on while rowing. LOL

Looking forward to more adventures.

Addendum: I posted about the trip on FB. Several comments said it looked relaxing. I added the following comment to the post.

"Relaxing? Several comments mentioned relaxing. That’s an interesting word. Is sailing a small, open, unballasted boat relaxing? It depends on how you define relaxing. Robin, for one, can’t see it. Sailing involves work. Since this was an overnight trip, it took a while to load up - about 2+ hours getting everything together. There’s the drive to the ramp and setup, another hour+. Then sailing in gusty wind requires constant attention. One wrong move and you can be taking an unplanned swim. Then what? Once you reach your destination and anchor, then you can begin “relaxing”. But you still have to set up your tent without leaving your tiny boat. A little tricky. Now you can really kick back and relax. I took a small beach chair: worked perfectly. Feet up, cool breeze, moonrise, the whole nine yards. Then morning comes: got to stow all gear etc and get home. Unfortunately, little wind and what wind there was was right on the nose. Time to row. Two and a half hours steady rowing. Arms tired, butt sore. Finally get home and have to put everything away: a couple more hours. Relaxing? IDK. Will I do it again? You bet!"