Sail into the sun set

Today the week long sail begins.  Boats will depart the docks loaded down with all kind of solid and liquid goodies.  Tonight the fleet will gather in Berthhold Bay.  The same lies and stories will be told that have been told for the last 35 years.  Sailors will be seated around the traditional campfire site.

As the week progresses people will be fried in the sun, washed in the lake and dazed by alcohol.  In the old days many attempts were made to plan the whole week out.  Over the years the sailors have learned you just go with the wind.  Working our way down the lake we usually go both North and South.  The trip south will take us down the Little Missouri for the traditional trek up Quinn's Crack.  This is a rattlesnake infested hike up across the narrow crack to the summit.  If the lake is at the right height the ships can go a couple hundred yards up the creek and anchor in a secure jungle.

Each of the anchorages brings back memories from years past.  Maybe we had a storm here or some other memorable event took place.  Hiking has become part of the voyage.  If there is a summit near the bay we anchor in a few brave souls will trek to the peak.  The greatest part of the western end of the lake where we travel is the isolation.  Lake Sakakawea is surrounded mostly by Indian reservation.  That means the shores are not plugged with homes and trailers.  It means you get to see much of the land just as Lewis and Clark saw it.

It seems to happen just about every year.  The boats are all tied down in a cove and then here comes the storm.  Last year we sat out a storm that did massive damage to the docks back at the state park.  We were fine, and glad we were not at the marina.  Ten or fifteen boats tied together rock and rolling in a storm gets everyone's blood flowing.

Then there will be mojito night.  Doc goes with us in his power boat.  Doc is the only engine guy brave enough to go on these outings.  Last winter The Commander and Kadizzle were camped on Lake Roosevelt in Arizona.  We kept seeing three coyotes go by with a domestic dog following close behind.  That domestic dog is Doc.  Doc's beast of a yacht is so big he has to park separately from the sailors, but he has become a loyal companion.  Every year Doc has a mojito night.   Doc mixes up drinks for everyone and the celebration is on.  Doc has trouble distinguishing work from play.  Kadizzle has known Doc for a long time.  The good baby doctor always wears his operating room scrubs day in and out.  Few boat captains are dressed ready to deliver a baby but Doc is.  So last year Nancy finally pulled it off.  While Doc was busy mixing his brew all the women went below in their ships  and put on scrubs.  When Doc came out with the mojitos he was greeted with more nurses than he would ever need unless he drank all the mojitos himself.

Kadizzle, Stroupini, and The Commander are going to make a raft trip down the Green River in Wyoming right after the great sail, so the Sovereign will have to return early from the great westward adventure. Pray for fair winds from the north or south and when you are sitting home in the next terrible storm think of a bunch of idiots out on that lake getting pelted with rain at seventy miles per hour.  Oh the joy of it all.