DAY - 04: First Day on Lake Powell

Day - 04: Friday, September 26, 2014

Beginning Location:    Page, AZ

Final Location:             Anchored at Face Canyon on Lake Powell, UT/AZ

Everyone was up and about by 7 AM, some earlier. Around 8 AM Diane, Pat and I made a grocery run to the local Safeway for the final provisioning of our houseboat. We would be well stocked.

Before leaving the hotel, I picked a 7-day Utah fishing license. We'll see what we catch for my $40.

After checking out of the hotel by 9 AM, we did a quick run to the store for newspapers but failed in the mission. Jack discovered that in Page, there is rarely seen a newspaper of worth, maybe once a week on Sunday.

By 9:30 we had crossed back over the Glen Canyon Dam and headed for the Wahweap Boat Rental Marina. We were checked in for our boat by Diana, a concession worker from Romania. Relatively quickly we had the paper work complete and had secured the services of a valet/porter to move our baggage and goods from our cars to the boat.

By 10:30 we had boarded our 62' houseboat designated as #B-5. Soon we had inspected the boat and been given our 1-hour boat briefing, well not really an hour, maybe 15 minutes. We learned how to start/stop the motors, the generator, the appliances, etc. we were given a few tips on troubleshooting and anchoring at the shorelines. Greg and I left the boat in the capable hands of Sheila, Pat, Jack and Diane for the movement to the fuel piers and final check-out while we proceeded to the small boat marina to pick-up a 19' powerboat.



As an aside, Greg and I learned a lesson in our departure from the small boat docks.

"The lesson: If boat has three lines attached to the pier, all three should be taken in before moving said boat."

In our case, with two of three lines in, no matter how much power we applied to the engine, the boat did not leave its mooring. The problem was soon solved, it's likely no one noticed other than us but I did want to get out in front of the story.

With our return to the houseboat at the fueling piers we made ready for sea, no, no, no; made ready for the lake and by noon were underway with plans to head up-lake for about 25 miles before settling in for the afternoon and evening.

But, not so fast, seems that we had not laid out a good navigation plan; well we didn't actually have a chart. As it would be, our course from the marina soon took us to the end of a dead-end canyon. Don't laugh, it happens all the time. For you smug navigators out there, navigating on Lake Powell is not as easy as it sounds. Turns out we had simply missed the outbound channel but with due speed we had corrected our course and were re-routed into the channel around Castle Rock.

The Castle Rock channel was long and narrow with two-way traffic. Seems that with water levels as it is, there would be a variety of choke points caused by bare rocks and shoals. The channel was a couple miles long and loaded with boats of all sizes, some going our way others in the counter-flow pattern. For the Naval Officers amongst us, the terms Straits of Malacca, Suez, etc. came up. Nevertheless, in 30 minutes or so Captain Greg had safely maneuvered us into open water and we were on our way.

Green Buoy?

Did I mention the buoy confusion? Is it "red right returning" or "green right returning"? We couldn't understand why most of the boaters were on the wrong side of the buoys; but suddenly it dawned on us, we were actually returning, so red on our right was a good thing. Clearly Jack and I are still suffering from the shock we received while in Australia when we learned that the American convention for buoy placement was not universal. Bottom-line, we should have read the notes where it clearly states the buoy convention for Lake Powell.

By about 4:30 we had found a nice beach to anchor the houseboat for the night. We soon had grounded the houseboat and had four anchors secured to the beach. The six of us then sat back to enjoy our first afternoon and evening.

Is That Gilligan?

Observed Sunset

First up was TV operation, getting the Dish Network ready for the weekend's football. Though the set worked briefly, we had soon given up and conceded there would be no football in Mudville this weekend.

Diane had planned a Tex-Mex night starting with great margaritas, did I mention the margaritas … After two pitchers … Then came the chicken quesadillas and a mixed salad for dinner followed by frozen chocolate chip cookies. We were very well fed and did I mention the margaritas?

After dinner everyone headed topside to watch the stars and to await the oncoming storm, seems that one of the onboard weather guessers was sure the wind and rain would begin by midnight and the other onboard weather guesser was sure it would hold off until the next afternoon. 

Borrowed This Photo

From our southwest to northern horizon we witnessed one of the greatest lightning shows I've ever seen. The flashes silhouetted the surrounding canyon rocks. Only once or twice did we hear thunder and as one of the weather guessers had surmised, there would be no storm over the good ship B-5 tonight. 

By 9:30 most were bedded down though I did stay topside for stars until 2300.

With the weather for tomorrow looking stormy for the afternoon, we'll stay at this anchorage for a second night and depart up-lake on Sunday.