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PDR Voyage Distance Record |
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By David "Shorty" Routh - Phoenix, Arizona - USA |
6-24-06
record: 13.79 miles
The
weather report kept bouncing around all week, first
it was supposed to be blow torch hot with no wind,
then it had forcast 14 mph winds. Turned out to be
a partly cloudy day, the wind mostly faltered around
5 mph but got up to 12 mph with a few gusts for about
an hour in the afternoon.
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In
this picture I am standing on the top
of the hill near the South ramp at Pleasant
Harbor, looking North into the lake.
(click
images to enlarge) |
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| Here
I am at the dock ready to launch, you can
see some rocks in the water below the boat,
that is about 8' down, the water in the
lake is very clear. |
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This
map is grossly unproportionate of the
way the lake is shaped, it is shorter
and fatter than drawn, but this basically
outlines my route.
Before
I launched, on my chart I marked a number
of spots "LP.." so that I could sail up
to them, then quickly mark down where
I had been and head on to the next spot.
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My
general strategy was to sail across the wind where
ever it was coming from, then after making the next
waypoint I would sail to the next place across the
wind. I started off at LP1 which is the Pleasant Harbor
Marina, sailed straight out which is near the dam
and just upon getting outside of the no wake markers,
the wind died and I sat there. A family in a power
boat pulling an inflatable came right out behind me,
they then started to make circles around me, about
5 laps and then they headed back into the dock. Never
saw them after that, guess the high gas prices are
cutting into their budget and that is all they could
afford.
Made it to LP17 which is a big 10 lane launch ramp,
tons of traffic in and out of there.
Then over to LP16 which is a small island. The breeze
was consistent, light but still there and as I crossed
over the other side of the island, I spotted a small
sail. So I headed in that direction. He was just shoving
off, and then noticed he had a small outboard, he
cranked it up and headed off in the other direction,
noticing me but not waving. Oh well. I turned to head
back out into the lake, and the wind completely died.
Bobbing around, I had a couple of cushions and fashoned
them so I could lay down in the cockpit. Resting my
head on the stern transom, the tiller over my shoulder,
sailing in the easy chair. This technique REALLY attracted
the PWC's, had numerous ones zoom on by to see if
I was dead or not.
To keep from burning up, I had a golf umbrella with
me, and continually poured water over my body to stay
damp. It worked well, I felt a comfortable temperature
all day. I dumped 3 of 2 liter bottles on myself,
and drank 5 of 24oz bottles of water by the end of
the day.
Took me forever to sail the measly distance from LP16
to LP15, back and forth in the non-existant wind,
bobbing away. I think the bobbing motion and sail
flapping was what really drove me.
After I made it to LP15, the wind picked up (to about
7mph ?) and was blowing so that I could use my spinnaker.
I found that the spinnaker was only good off the wind,
what seems like about 100 degrees or further. That
leg was my best time, the wind was just enough to
start making small amounts of wavelets to overcome
the poweboat reflection waves and make them all go
in the same direction. I rode down those wavelets
and made great time.
| Mother
nature was calling, there was so much powerboat
and PWC traffic coming up close to me that
I felt a bit shy about using a relief bottle,
so it is a good thing that I arrived at
LP5, the floating resrooms. |
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Not
very glamorous, just a floating dock with fiberglass
porta potti's on them. After making my call, I noticed
some masking tape on the side of the hull under where
the leeboard usually covers. Hmmm.... whops! I had
moved the leeboard forward a few months back, and
forgot to epoxy the hole closed! I opened up the starboard
air tank and sure enough, it had about a gallon of
water in it. To repair the hole, I took the paper
label off one of my drinking bottles and stuffed it
in there. Worked fine, and I didn't get any more water
in there.
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The
wind picked up even more to 12 mph, the
little wavelets were all comming in the
same direction, this was going to be the
fun leg!! I set off from the potti dock
across the wind to Scorpion Bay, which
is LP15a.
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The wind was great the whole way, I was able to get
up on the air tank and lean out a bit, having a great
time. Pushed her hard the entire way, but only made
a measly 1.69 mph average. The bow transom keeps thumping
on the waves which each time, sort of knocks about
half of my speed off. I tried a bunch of different
positions, but couldn't solve the problem when going
into the wind.
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the day I saw a couple of sailboats, this
one was a Venture 222, spotted a Catalina
22 and another 20+ footer of some type.
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I
knew the cove I wanted to end up at which was just
South of LP5, so the last couple of legs were in that
area. After that first leg from LP5 to LP15a, the
rest of the time the wind really died off.
For entertainment, I just happened to be in the middle
of the main traffic lane and had endless numbers of
powerboats zooming by. One great thing about power
boaters is that if they have a good looking deck bunny,
they put them right up on the bow so as they go by,
you can have a good look. On one boat, there were
4 of them up in the bow. As the boat would slam over
the waves, 3 of them all had their bikini parts bounce
in syncronicity, but the 4th one who was much larger
featured, didn't bounce hardly at all. Hmm.... figure
those must be the fake ones.
There was a set of 3 ocean racing catamrans with the
air channeling hulls, they would roar by, the only
part of the boat touching the water was the jet intake
and exhaust. They could make a full lap of the lake
in about 5 minutes. I think it takes a little longer
than that for me to paddle my kayak across my pool.
As I sat there, the mast would wobble back and forth
as I would ride the boat wakes, then crrk.. crk..
CRACK ! Oh no!!! My mast sleeve broke free from the
bottom of the hull where it was thru-bolted. Luckily
it didn't start to leak, everything was attached to
a bottom plate which was bolted on the bottom, and
it had broken free from the plate. Couldn't stand
up anymore, had to take it out and lay it across lengthwise,
all 16'. Aw man, that was depressing. I had planned
to spend the night on the lake, even sewed a tent
that snapped over the hull. The tent wouldn't work
with the mast laying like that, thought about tossing
it on shore nearby where I anchor and then rowing
back in the morning, but was tired and frustrated,
had just enough daylight to make it back to the ramp
by rowing, so I opted the toss in the towel for the
day.
I shot some video, uploaded it to google [click
here]
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Where |
Time |
Min Per Leg |
Distance |
Speed |
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LP1 - marina |
9:58am |
0 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
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LP17 - state public ramp |
10:56am |
58 |
1.98 |
2.05 |
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LP16 - small island |
11:23am |
27 |
0.75 |
1.67 |
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LP15 - wind warning point |
1:16pm |
113 |
0.40 |
0.21 |
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LP5 - float restroom |
1:59pm |
43 |
2.06 |
2.87 |
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LP15a - scorpion bay |
3:00pm |
61 |
1.72 |
1.69 |
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LP5 - float restroom |
4:20pm |
80 |
1.72 |
1.29 |
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LP15a - scorpion bay |
5:09pm |
49 |
1.72 |
2.11 |
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broke mast part way back |
5:51pm |
42 |
0.70 |
1.00 |
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LP1 - rowed back to dock |
7:08pm |
77 |
2.74 |
2.14 |
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Totals |
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9 hr 10 min |
13.79 |
1.67 avg |
Other articles by David "Shorty" Routh:
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