A Sad End

Today, we removed Odin from the Great Salt Lake. We will likely never sail her again.....

The Great Salt Lake water level has begun dropping earlier than ever, and this spring the water level rose less than it has ever recorded during a water year. The Great Salt Lake is Fucked.

There has been two crane days to put all boats over a 3 foot draft, and the plan is by the end of June to have every sailboat out of the lake.

We put off taking Odin out of the water as long as we could, but our summer is ramping up to be too busy to get Odin out another weekend.

I fixed up the trailer a few days prior to get the lights working and ready to go. I reattached the sideboards on the trailer so that they wouldn't fall off, and made sure the extendable tongue slid in and out nicely. The left brake light was dead, so I had to replace it, which wasn't hard, but annoying.

Today we hitched up the trailer, put the kids in the car and headed out for one last sail before we pulled out. One of the lights fell off the the way so I had to do some emergency surgery on it to fix it and bolt it back onto the trailer. This is where everything started to go wrong.

We got to the park about 12, which is an hour after I had planned. What I had forgotten about was the event known as Lakefest. The parking lot, already filled with boats that had been pulled from the water was now FILLED with cars. We parked along the head of the lot and Nikki looked for an open two spots in the lot. Luckily, someone had just pulled out of one, so we brought the trailer in and were able to park, albeit a long way from our slip.

We debated just heading home, coming back tomorrow, and trying again. There was going to be no way to drop the mast with that many people around WATCHING US. One of the most awkward things we do on the boat, and the last thing I want is 2 thousand people watching us.

We decided to head out sailing anyways even if we had to leave the boat one more night till tomorrow. The wind didn't seem extreme, and I didn't think to look out into the waves.

We loaded up the boat and motored out. It was a bit rough out in the channel, but I didn't think the waves were terrible, just a bit rocky. There were some small white caps though. It wasn't till we turned north that we really felt the waves.

They were 2-4 feet at a period of about 1 second. For reference, the period of the wave (time between waves) should be twice the height of the wave to be comfortable. So a 3 foot wave to be comfortable should be a 6-second period. The kids were in the V birth, slamming up and down on the ceiling. Neat the end of the deep water channel we came down hard and I heard something loud crack. I still am not sure what it was, but the kids headed up top right away.

We decided to keep with it, though. We went to drop the keep and it didn't feel quite right. It felt heavy, but didn't feel like it was dropping right. Even so we prepared to put up the sails, determined to get a sail in one last time.

We settled in to talk through the steps, and gauge the situation. And we backed out. The risk just wasn't worth it. In a 56 year old lake sailboat, not made for heavy seas, it just wasn't safe. We turned back to run from the waves into the marina.

I don't regret turning back. It was an amazing learning experience discussing things with the family, waying the pros and cons and making the smart and safe choice. It will help us get through things in the future I am sure of it.

So we surfed down waves and headed down the channel. The wave had build since earlier, so taking them on the beam was not run at all, but the lake is so low that the reef has started breaking the surface, so we were able to get out of the worst of the waves fairly quickly.

At the dock we stopped to talk to our neighbor boat about his plans for pulling out, and he was going to pull out that day to. Our family rested up, and buttoned up and then went to look over Lakefest. They just so happen to be wrapping up, and the parking lot was clearing out.

We made the decision that since we were here and didn't want to haul the trailer back again, we should just wait a little bit and pull the boat. We setup the boat to come out as we waited for the kayaks to pull out of the water after Lakefest.

That took an hour and a half longer than we planned. Luckily, we had a meal packed, so we sat around and waited. I helped my neighbor's boat drop its mast while it was still in the water. so that he could pull his boat.

We have always pulled the boat and dropped the mast while on the trailer, I am nor really sure which way would be easier.

After waiting, we moved to the top of the slip and get the trailer tongue extended. I backed the trailer down the ramp and into the water. I had been warned about the end of the ramp having a bit of a drop-off, and there was a bit of one, but I felt not enough of one that I couldn't pull the 2500-pound boat out. I left the trailer a bit out of the water and went and pulled the boat around. Mark sat an the bow to guide me in, Warren did some camera work and we glided into the trailer.

Nikki drove us up the ramp and we parked in the planned spot. After checking the trailer placement, we chocked the trailer added a aft boat stand and started work on dropping the mast.

This was a bit more difficult than normal. There are a few reasons for that.
1. I forgot to mention the spiders. and the 1 1/2 hours we took to spray off the boat when we got to the marina. The boat was still crawling with them.
2. I always wire my turnbuckles. This prevents them from spinning loose and causing a massive rigging failure under load. These wires had to be cut to remove them. I forgot the cutters, we had to untwist them. I thought.... The cutters were in the car we found them after doing 3/4 of the turnbuckles.
3. No practice. The boat has been in a while, so we haven't lowered the mast in 5 years when we removed it at last low lake time.

Eventually, though we did get it down and everything buttoned up. It was 9 p.m. by this point and we were all exhausted. We drove back roads to get home, not stopping despite being hungry.

We got the boat home and parked it in the driveway. I pulled the motor from the back of the car and put it in the garage. There were still spiders everywhere, crawling all over it.

Side note, I am writing this two weeks later. The spiders were also in the car, and we had to knock out webs for days till eventually we parked in the garage with the windows down and bug bombed the garage and car.

So now the boat sits there next to the garage.

I started this story with the phrase "we will likely never sail her again." We have big things coming, big sailing dreams, a decade of planning, a decade of learning to sail on Odin, a decade of saving, and all of that is coming to a head.

More on that soon.....