Trip Day 3

September 25th, didn’t wake until daylight! Around 7 am. Light rain falling. Got up to go through my usual routine of firing up the heater, making coffee, and snacking on cookies while I drank my coffee, read and studied.  Before making breakfast around10 am. 

I went out to bail the boat out and pull it up on shore a bit more.  It was full of about 50 gallons of water!  Transom almost under water!  After pulling it ashore, I tightened all the mooring lines to keep the boat secure since there is a bit of a NW breeze pushing on it’s side.

Narrow walkway, both sides of the boat, Starboard mooring line tied to tree. You can see how vulnerable the skiff is pulled up on shore with that low transom!  Waves just broke over it and filled the stern.

This location had a post to tie to. I used some clove hitches, finished with a half hitch in this case.

For breakfast made my cinnamon crunch French toast, bacon, syrup, and OJ. Finished the dishes and spent a lot of time cleaning a dirty fry pan that the previous boaters left dirty for me!  Got it pretty shiny after much scrubbing with a 3M pad.

Did some more reading in Volk’s book. Sitting and reading in a slightly rocking boat is very, very relaxing, tends to put you to sleep!  It will be hard to be motivated to move today. Checked the weather, cloudy and cool and more rain off and on for the next day, or so. 

12:15 pm now and I’m leaning toward staying put. Listening to the theme album for the “Gladiator”.  Trying to dry out my water shoes and some towels by hanging near the heater. Shoes are not drying very well. Used the little hand sweeper to clean up the floor a little. Hard to fault staying put in this nice little cove in my portable "cabin" on the lake!

Took out the mix for coffee cake and will make that later before dinner, right now perhaps a nap is in order. First I’ll check the charts to see what is next, likely Anderson Bay and some hiking there but I’m inclined to wait to go there tomorrow.

Took the nap for about an hour and decided not to make coffee cake, I’ll wait for tomorrow morning, it is too close to dinner now. Started to prepare steak and the other stuff for dinner. About 3 pm I put the mashed potatoes into the oven to warm and got the roll ready to put in. Started the grill.  Had grilled ribeye steak, bacon-garlic mashed potatoes, warm roll, and red wine. Chocolates and more red wine for desert.

Marion Bay kayak route
1.5 nm distance - average speed 1.6 kts. (max speed 3.4 kts - when it started to rain!)

Took the kayak off the front deck and got it ready ashore to go for a short trip. Got my arm wet trying to keep from dumping myself in the drink! Had a nice trip but it got cut short when a light shower came across the lake so I headed quickly for shore.  (Note above map and the straight line back to the boat!)  I had intended to kayak around the island and bay to the south.

Looking back from kayak

Looking NW from boat site

View from kayak across some rocks at entrance to boat site.  Always a hazard!

Shower passed so I attempted to go up on the top deck to set around the fire and listen to music and enjoy the evening, but another shower threatened so I retreated to the cabin once again and finished my first audio book.  

Typical weather I faced most days

Looked like rain was not going to persist so I went back up on deck again with all my speakers, binoculars, camera (just in case) and ended up staying until dark. It was cooling off considerably so I finally went in.  

Note the two black stereo BT speakers which look like lanterns. Worked great with my sister Bonnie's 540+ songs downloaded to my Samsung tablet from Drop Box. Previously uploaded from the CD she gave me.

Did not fire up the heater in the evening to keep the cabin cool for the night's sleep. Began a new audio book on CD's, “Protect and Defend” by Vince Flynn. I’ve read it before but thought I would do it again on this trip. Turned it off and went to sleep about 9 pm.