Gorgeous park! I highly recommend Corps of Engineers parks in general, and this one in particular. What lovely people. And did we ever appreciate the hot showers at this point in our trip. Yay! Some of the best treescape I've ever seen, with a least 9 different varieties of trees for every season, very resilient, gorgeous, shady.... but I digress.
Visitors upon visitors, until Glen's voice gave out. We realized at this point that we should never, NEVER take the boat out without our photo album and a bit of info / history about the boat. Handouts would be nice.... ;)
One CoE employee said he would put pictures on their Facebook page. I'll see if I can find the link.
Try this: https://www.facebook.com/iceharbordam
Monday, May 26, 2014
Ice Harbor Day...
Others may think of this as Memorial Day 2014, but for us, it will always be Ice Harbor Dam(n) day.
We left Kennewick in a wicked wind at 9am. A brief jaunt back down the Columbia to the entrance of the Snake and we motored into unknown territory. I'd warned Glen that, even just looking at the charts, entering Ice Harbor in the spate was going to be tricky. Made him PROMISE not to pass judgement on the Snake until AFTER we'd done this. Good thing I did that!
It was nasty, brutish and LONG! Within minutes of entering the Snake River, our speed dropped to below 4mph (ground speed). As we entered the narrow channel that leads you through the shallow rocky sections, the dredged-out depths made the current run even faster. We slowed and slowed, making most of those miles at 3 knots.
We got within view of the dam, and kept going and kept going and kept going. The closer we got, the slower it got. Like a calculus curve, never quite getting there. Well, we did, but WAY slow. After I'd called into the lockmaster that we'd be there in 30 minutes, our speed dropped to 1.6 mph. Glen had to crank the RPMs up to 1450, near red-lining it on our poor 60-year-old diesel. And it still took us nearly an hour just to reach the lock gates. We were both tense, and Glen's shoulders were locked up.
Good thing we hadn't figured on going any further than Fishhook park, because we couldn't have made it any farther. The boating above the dam was beautiful, and enough to make us want to continue, but we just needed to rest after that morning. And rest we did.
We left Kennewick in a wicked wind at 9am. A brief jaunt back down the Columbia to the entrance of the Snake and we motored into unknown territory. I'd warned Glen that, even just looking at the charts, entering Ice Harbor in the spate was going to be tricky. Made him PROMISE not to pass judgement on the Snake until AFTER we'd done this. Good thing I did that!
It was nasty, brutish and LONG! Within minutes of entering the Snake River, our speed dropped to below 4mph (ground speed). As we entered the narrow channel that leads you through the shallow rocky sections, the dredged-out depths made the current run even faster. We slowed and slowed, making most of those miles at 3 knots.
We got within view of the dam, and kept going and kept going and kept going. The closer we got, the slower it got. Like a calculus curve, never quite getting there. Well, we did, but WAY slow. After I'd called into the lockmaster that we'd be there in 30 minutes, our speed dropped to 1.6 mph. Glen had to crank the RPMs up to 1450, near red-lining it on our poor 60-year-old diesel. And it still took us nearly an hour just to reach the lock gates. We were both tense, and Glen's shoulders were locked up.
Good thing we hadn't figured on going any further than Fishhook park, because we couldn't have made it any farther. The boating above the dam was beautiful, and enough to make us want to continue, but we just needed to rest after that morning. And rest we did.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
River Trip Day Three (Part two)
So we stopped for lunch at the Walla Walla Yacht Club. It's private, but the friendly people there welcomed us to their guest dock, and we had great conversation. After all those years of driving by it and thinking, "why would anyone put a marina here?" -- well, NOW we understand. Thanks, guys!
We enjoyed seeing the many sailboats out in the now-perfect weather. The rest of today's trip was pretty idyllic.
We ended the day at Clover Island marina in Kennewick. Party Central on Memorial Day weekend, and we understand next weekend there will an even bigger boaters' party there. Those who know us, reading this, will understand that's not exactly our "scene", so we were grateful when things quieted down in the late evening.
We enjoyed seeing the many sailboats out in the now-perfect weather. The rest of today's trip was pretty idyllic.
We ended the day at Clover Island marina in Kennewick. Party Central on Memorial Day weekend, and we understand next weekend there will an even bigger boaters' party there. Those who know us, reading this, will understand that's not exactly our "scene", so we were grateful when things quieted down in the late evening.
River Trip Day Three (Part 1)
Before taking off from Umatilla this morning we had great conversations with Dennis of the CG Auxiliary and retired coastie Bob. Not to mention Dennis' wife and, of course, DeeDee the Dog, who wanted a ride. Great meeting you all!
First thing, we had to dash across the river from the south side to the north, through the intense outflow from the dam's spill gates, to reach the pool below the lock at McNary Dam. Rockin' and rollin'!! Woohoo!
While Glen was fighting the wheel to get us there safely, I was oohing and ahing at all the lovely pelicans. Lots and lots of pelicans. Whenever we manage to get our pictures uploaded, you'll see them.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
River Trip Day Two
One of the few days without a dam to transit.
Cruised from Arlington to Umatilla with a lunch at Crow Butte State Park. We've always loved the Arlington Marina. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to walk into town and spend more time.
Crow Butte we've seen before, from the highway side. It was Glen's first stop on his cross-country bike ride back in 2004. I drove the trailer to meet him and we enjoyed our stay. This time we got to see if from the dock side.
Lots of nice people asking about the boat at every stop. A shout-out to Alan (and friends) who were very helpful to us when we arrived in Umatilla.
Friday, May 23, 2014
River Trip Day One
Left The Dalles mid-morning and transited both The Dalles and John Day dams. Despite predictions of great weather, IT RAINED. Of course it had to rain! We were on our boat in the Columbia River. It's just fate!
A significant wind created a following-sea type of condition, even though we were headed upriver. We had waves pushing us from behind, and quite a bit of corkscrewing action that made steering an exercise in exercise.
Despite the blustery wind, we made it to Arlington's marina and slept the peaceful sleep of the very-tired.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Coming Soon 2014 adventures!
So, we've been a little quiet this winter. The boat has been snuggled in for the winter, but Glen & Naomi have not been idle. Glen just recently returned from the East Coast where he did a bit of consulting -- evaluating the restorability of a 36-footer recently discovered in a marina yard. Fun, exciting stuff. Met lots of wonderful new people, and growing that network of rescue boat enthusiasts.
More to come soon!
-Naomi
More to come soon!
-Naomi
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