Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2018

Yuba Strikes Again

The Man and I usually avoid going to Yuba Reservoir for the simple fact that it always, always has daily, severe blowing wind.  I had only been there once with The Man, years ago, and it was true then.  It was true for The Man every other time he's been there.

So, needless to say, it had been quite some time since we ventured to that lake.

But at the invite of some friends we hadn't seen in a long time, we decided to venture out.

The first part of the day was beautiful.  The Man did amazing on the wake board (sadly, I didn't have my phone on the boat so I didn't get any of his awesomeness with jumps on video), I tried the wake board out, and we generally had a nice morning run.




We sun bathed and ate a lot of junk food and took some dips in the water to cool off.

The Man mentioned we needed an adventure.

And sure enough, the wind hit.


We had been hiding in our friend's RV from the sand blasting that the wind was stirring up, when The Man decided to check on the boat.  It was then that he realized trouble was pending.  He ran out into the water and got on the boat to start draining the heavy fat sacs.  While he was doing that, the anchor line broke, leaving only the shore line secured, and the boat was blown into the beach area where it sat sideways, with the waves pounding on it.  With every pounding wave the boat was threatening to capsize with West inside of it.



People began running off the beach to help hold the boat while West continued to work to drain the fat sacs and lighten the weight of the boat.

Eventually the boat was man handled so that it was turned around and facing into the wind, so capsizing was no longer a threat.



However, the questions remained on how badly the bottom of the boat was damaged, and if West would be able to drive it through the stormy waves to the dock so we could get it out of the water.  I was nervous as I watched him pull away, pounding into the waves.

I was told to quit watching him and get in the truck.

So I did.



I don't want to lose that man.

Take the boat, but not The Man.

The Man got his adventure after all.

And it turns out with minimal damage.  A lost alternator and some bent skegs were all that Yuba took from us. Considering the pounding the boat was taking while sitting on the shore, that's pretty incredible.



Since our initial plan was to sleep on the boat, or in the bed of the truck, or even get a hotel room in a neighboring town, we didn't have many options for shelter.  We made hot dogs over a tiny stove in the bed of the truck, huddled in the truck with a movie, and waited for the worst of the wind and bit of rain to stop. So we could gather around campfires with friends.

When it didn't really subside, we called it a night and headed for home.

One thing can be certain with Yuba and all its wind... it delivers on the adventure.