Back on the Water July 24, 2006
Back on the Water!
For the most part it was a very good day! Jay, Vaughn and Guy were in the boat again. Lee drove the car led by Becky in the truck pulling the trailer. We put in just below Holter Dam at 10:20 a.m.. There was a slight wind so the men put the sails up. Finally we get to see what the sails can do! They performed beautifully and really moved the boat along. It was a thrill to see and experience!
Becky and Lee would drive to a point where they could see the boat and then would pull off and wait for the men to pass and then moved up the road to the next spot as the road followed along the river most of the time. They did this for the first couple of hours. However, Lee was not feeling well and needed to rest. They radioed the men and told them that they were going to drive a ways up the road and would connect with them a little later.
The women drove about six miles up the road, thinking that would give them about 1 ½ hours before the men would catch up with them because the men were averaging 3-5 miles per hour in the boat. Lee was low on gas and needed the car running so she could keep cool. Becky parked the truck and trailer and took over driving the car so that Lee could rest. They drove to Cascade (approx. 20 miles). They filled the car with gas and purchased some duct tape, epoxy and screws for the men. Then they went to the Café and ate a salad. By this time Lee was feeling better and so they returned to where they had left the truck.
They tried to contact the men, but were not successful. They thought surely they had made it this far by now. To be sure, they decided to go back to where they had last seen them. No luck. They returned to the truck and Lee took over driving the car and followed Becky in the truck. Frequent attempts were made to contact the men on the radio as they drove. They pulled off the road 12 miles from where they left the men and continued to try. Finally success was achieved. Upon further conversation they realized that the men were about two miles further down the river than where they had pulled off. In fact they were only 6 miles from Cascade!
The women pulled back on the road and headed to Cascade to find a place for the men to pull out. The truck was low on gas, so they filled it and began the search. No luck. There was no visible access to the river. They decided to park the truck and trailer and continue to search with the car. They headed south, hoping to find something closer to where the men were because there was a thunderstorm moving in. Still no luck.
They did locate the men and they were having trouble with the boat. The wind was so strong that it was blowing the boat wherever it wanted to. In a shallow set of rapids it blew the boat sideways and broke the leeboard brace! They went about another mile and then the wind really picked up. There was no way to even turn the boat; they were being blown upstream, sideways, against the current. After experiencing this for about 100 yards, Vaughn and Guy made a quick decision and got in the water and began pulling the boat by hand along the shore. They were exhausted.
Lee and Becky dashed back to town and decided that they would ask someone where a boat ramp was. The storm was picking up steam and lightning was flashing. The Napa store was there just as they drove in so Becky ran in and asked where a boat ramp was. He said he had not lived there for very long and wasn’t sure. Then he remembered where one was. It was on the other side of town below the dump.
The women drove there. It was hard to even see it, very obscure. The road was very narrow and quite rough so Becky got out and walked. It would work! She walked back up to the car and they drove to get the truck. They returned, Becky backed the truck and trailer up so that all the men had to do was drive out. Then Lee and Becky attached the ramps and headed back to find the men because they couldn’t reach them on the radio. They began driving through Cascade and there were sirens going off and people scrambling everywhere. They had two fire trucks and several volunteer firemen whiz past them. Lightning had struck somewhere and started a fire.
They finally reached the men on the radio. They were under the Cascade Bridge for safety. They thought the sirens were because of a tornado in the area. It was windy! Not to mention the lightning flashing everywhere. But when we told them it was a fire, they felt they should go on and get out of the water as quickly as possible.
As the women drove across the bridge, there was Guy walking across it. They gave him instructions where to find the boat ramp. Then finished crossing the bridge and turned around and headed back. By then Vaughn was on the bridge as well. A quick conversation and the men headed back to the boat and the women drove to the boat ramp.
It wasn’t long before the men were there as well. They had covered approximately 34 miles of river today. Great accomplishment considering that they had to do a lot of paddling as the wind didn’t last very long in the morning and returned with a fury in the afternoon.
They tried to load the boat on the ramp from the water by pulling the trailer in the water instead of putting the wheels under the boat. That was a mistake. It made for a lot more work because the wet boat would not slide as well up the ramp, it was more difficult to get leverage and the ramp moved in the water. Learned another lesson.
It was after 8:00 before we were on the road headed to Great Falls. The men were all quite wet and needed to change before we went anywhere to eat. We checked in to the motel and they did a quick change while Lee looked in the phone book for a place to eat. She found a Chinese Restaurant (that is what sounded good) and called them to make sure they were open because it was now 9:20 p.m. They said they closed at 10:00, but would stay open for us and still serve us. Chuck’s Royal Palace treated us well and went out of their way to accommodate us this late. We were grateful and did enjoy the meal.
We got back to the room at about 11:30. Though earlier than it had been, we were exhausted and sleep came quickly.
As Jay said “A good day!”
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