It was a dark and stormy night (well, a gray and drizzly afternoon, anyway) when I took off for Arkansas. I'd been anticipating this messabout for quite some time, as due to scheduling conflicts I had missed the annual Rend lake messabout.
I work the weekends, four ten hour days on and three days off. For this trip I had taken four days off straight, so I had a nice break from work. Mini-summer vacation you might call it.
A couple days before the messabout I cleaned the boat out, scrubbed it down, and loaded up with provisions and bedding for one person. I left the cold box stuff in the house, but other than that I was ready to go that Wednesday. I had earlier decided to go up a day early get in some alone time with the boat, and take a break from things.
It was a four hour drive to Russellville pulling the boat. My little Toyota Tacoma with four banger would do fine if the speed limit was still 55, or if the ground was level, but it kind of bogs down on the hills. Not too surprising, the last trip I weighed the boat, and it came in at just about 3500lb. This is precisely the towing limit on the Tacoma, coincidentally. I got to the lake after dark and put the boat in with the mast still folded and the sail cover still on. Motored to the little cove where we'd had the messabout last year. It was kind of hard to find in the dark, but between the flashlight and the GPS, I found it.
Temperature was nice, lots of wind, but the little cove sheltered me from the wind and waves, with just the occasional boat wake to bounce the boat around.
Set anchor and slept to the sound of rain hitting the cabin. I have learned from previous trips that I sleep much better in dry clothing, so I changed into PJ's and set the fan up. Temp was nice outside, but the fan is a lifesaver inside the cabin when you are trying to sleep. Need to get me one that turns slow and quietly, and runs off of 12v. The one I use is a cheap 115v fan from WalMart. I run it off the inverter, which works fine, but adds inefficiency and some extra noise to the cooling equation.
The Arkansas state park authority had saw fit fill in the nice sandy beach with a six inch layer of red clay. This was the type of red clay that sticks to your feet in huge globs and won't wash off in the water. I swear they dug it out from the ground at my house. I decided everyone at the messabout should write them a nice thank you letter for this.
Picked up a block of ice from the marina, and poked around a bit. Decided if I wasn't here for the messabout, the marina would be a nice place to stick the boat. Might also make a decent hideaway in a storm. Any port in a storm, and all that.
Windy and rainy all day Friday. People started to arrive in the afternoon, mostly old hands from the last Russellville messabout.
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Ate dinner at Phil’s house, checked out his boat projects. Took the camera, but forgot to take pictures!
Re-anchored the boat next to the riprap. I was fine where I was, but my anchor line was blocking access to the little cove, didn't want it chewed up by a propeller.
In the evening, the wind shifts to blow directly into the cove, boat starts bouncing around, but anchor seems to be holding. I don't worry about it to much, and go back to sleep.
A little after 9am on Saturday I wake to the sound of the wind howling outside the boat.
Suddenly, the wind is blowing hard enough to pull the windward anchor out. The boat is pulled around by the limb/tree line and starts bouncing up against the rocks.
I quickly change out of my PJ's into some jeans and go for a swim (well, a wade, anyway) to reseat the anchor. While I'm in the water, I hear what I think is either the wind whistling through the power lines, or some kind of warning siren. Turns out it was the latter, and there were tornadoes just a couple of miles away. Fun. I go swimming during a tornado warning.
After a couple tries at reseating the anchor with no success, I move to plan B. I unhook the shoreline, pull in the anchor rope, start the engine from the water, and hop onto the boat. A few hundred feet down the shore from the messabout is the marina where I got the ice yesterday.
I head there. I'm bouncing around quite a bit, with the wind and the waves coming from directly abeam, but Schrödinger just shrugs it off and keeps on trucking. I beach the boat on the grass in the shelter of the marina's breakwater, make breakfast, put the bedding away, and tidy up.
When the wind calms down I head back to the cove. Engine quits on the way, but restarts with a couple pulls. This is a Nissan I bought brand new. It started stuttering after I had had it about six months, like it has a fuel problem or something. I have a $30 marine water filter on the gas line, and use gas stabilizer religiously. I've taken the carb apart and cleaned it, to no avail. I've even had Max the outboard guru look at it. Some kind of fuel problem is his diagnosis, but we aren't sure what it is.
A few more people arrive, we visit some, it's basically raining all day.
Several of the folks call it for rain, and head home. I decide this is a good idea, and follow suit.
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