Patience

We woke to blue skies and gentle winds which begged the question, should we be moving? It seemed that we could have made some miles yesterday and maybe some more today. Were we being too cautious with our weather decisions? After the morning routines we decided to take the 3 mile round trip walk out to the end of the breakwater to see what we could see.

Bird sculptures on the boardwalk to the lake...

And real birds...

There was a nice breeze blowing but no real wind. Yet the water looked a little lumpy and, at the end of the breakwater, breaking waves were throwing spray up onto the walkway. After watching for a few minutes we could pick out a rolling swell of about two feet on a two second period. Nothing to write home about be it would have been a bumpy ride.

Later in the day a few more boats came in. The crew's report was that it was “pretty lumpy.” So far as we know no one is planning on moving for the next few days at least. The current weather has winds 15-25 for the next two days, 10-20 the next day, and 10-15 on day four. Day five has 5-10 but it is anyone's guess as to how long it will take the lake to settle after nearly 100 hours of those kinds of winds.

Fellow Looper boat Aurora

One of the running debates has been if staying on the wall is a good idea or if moving to a marina was the wise call. In may ways this is the worst wall we have been on. The face wall is uneven with pillars and gaps, making fender placement dicy. It has a lip at the top to catch rub rails and fenders should the boat roll with any kind of enthusiasm, which would likely lead to more than a little damage. There are odd hooks welded in place and some kind of well rusted connections that go no where jutting out to gouge fiberglass and fenders. Word has it that it can get pretty bumpy if the winds blow the rollers between the break waters and into the river, which they are forecasted to do to start, later veering around to a much better heading that should calm the waters at the wall.

There is no water, power, or security. Last night walking back to the boat, I passed within 100 feet or so of what sure looked like a drug deal going down. The cost for the privilege? Thirty dollars a night. It feels like a bit of a rip-off. 

The marina has all of the amenities the wall is missing but at roughly one hundred dollars a night. We are going to be here at least five nights. Half a boat buck here, half a boat buck there, and pretty soon you are talking about a noticeable hit to the old bank account. Three of us elected to stay on the wall. Everyone else headed for one of the several marinas nearby.

The three wall crews spent a good part of the afternoon getting the boats secured. We moved them as far up the wall and as far from the inlet breakwaters as we could.  Then pretty much every fender and fender board aboard was deployed. Lines were doubled up with chafe guards secured. First Light is tied starboard side to with eight lines. The other two boats were similarly secured. The hope is we all went overboard with our preparations.

Do we have any more fenders?

It wasn't all work today. With the boats secured, the three wall crews as well as several more on boats in the marina met for “docktails”. We also watched a big red tug move a dredging barge and pipe load around the bend in the river and into the inlet. They were clearly headed out to the lake, weather apparently no concern. A tiny little RC barge was keeping an eye on the proceedings.

Now we just wait to see how bad it will get.

The structure at the end of the pier. It's shaped like the bow of a ship to break up the waves.

Clouds starting to roll in