Trip Day 2

September 24th, woke early due to the also early bed time the night before.  Got up around 4:00 am. Started the propane heater right away as it was quite cool! Made coffee and had some cookies while I did my morning Bible study reading in Proverbs and Ezekiel right now.  Had some prayer time followed by reading in one of my current books, this one by June Volk, titled “The God Who Answers by Fire”. Excellent read!  Recommend it to all. It is about a Messianic Jewish family who moved to just south of Cass Lake and were in and out of Bemidji at times, names and places will be familiar to family from Bemidji. I think Mom used to go their for services at Camp Dominion with Mrs. Schell, which is where the Volk's lived at the time.

Made breakfast around 8 am, just cereal and toast. Then got ready to move on. Backed away without incident. Followed my electronic charts and motored at slow speed since I was not in a hurry, around 5 knots.  Headed east to Brule Narrows (see map) and then SW to the Marion Bay East houseboat site.  Arrived about 1230 on a nice sandy beach. Got wet on landing since the boat couldn’t get close enough to shore. Had my water shoes on though, so I rolled up my pants and jumped in even though my socks got wet! 

Day 2 - Brouillette Is. to Marion Bay East
(Track in Blue)

After tying up I had a quick snack of jerky, cashews, and water. For desert I had some red wine and chocolate covered almonds. Sun started to come out so it got warm. I jumped into the water to cool off, but it was just too cool to stay long!  Felt good though. I changed into dry clothes and put out a line to dry my wet clothes on.

Nice sandy beach. You can see the distance from the shore and the reason I got wet feet. Had to use the gangway plank to stay dry. I used my rubber boots from then on when approaching a boat site. 

This is a good shot of the tie up to shore arrangement.

Shore side fire ring in background

Got my CD player and BT speaker and listened to music for awhile and just relaxed. I could have fallen asleep, it was so quiet and peaceful. Finally, I went in to get dinner ready just after 3 pm.  Today it was grilled salmon and my own bacon-garlic-mashed potatoes and an excellent white wine my sister introduced me to called “La Crema”, very good with the fish.  Switched to red wine and chocolates for desert.

 

A snapping turtle surfaced near the boat, I suppose he wanted to come up onto the warm beach sand, but I was in his way so he swam off. 

Later, I took everything up to the top deck to enjoy the evening and it started to rain once again!  I quick packaged everything up and went to the forward covered deck, but it began to rain so hard and blow under the roof I had to go inside.  The result is that I wrote these entries.  It get’s dark early and I’m not sure I will be able to enjoy the evening up top tonight, I fear everything is too wet!

The rain came down!

Forgot to mention I had to radio in to base because the hot water heater was not working. But after numerous radio conversations and me running around following their directions we finally got it working. The pilot was out and it is an electronic ignition so it has to start by itself. I turned it off and then on, after 30 seconds, it relighted. 

It is now 6:22 pm and I may end up going to bed early. I listened to more of my audio book and it began to pour down rain again. Just very sleepy weather so I went to bed about 9 pm. Went sound to sleep until about 1 am when the skiff began making a noise hitting the side of the boat in the increased winds and waves. I had to get dressed and put on my head lamp to go out and see what could be done.  I decided to back off the boat painter enough to let it slide nearly to the beach.  The starboard mooring line tied to a tree would keep it away from the boat I hoped?  I went back to sleep and slept soundly as more rain arrived and the slight motion of the boat rocked me in a deep sleep.