Lake Powell 2021
Lake elevation 3548 and dropping fast!
This year we ended up on the main channel just before Padre Bay at mile marker 20. Beautiful site but I would never recommend the main channel. Bad exposure to many boat wakes throughout the day, especially the tour boat that travels from Wahweap to Rainbow bridge a few times a day. And if a storm comes you can potentially be pummeled by wind and waves.
The weather for the week was forecasted to be just perfect and with the low lake levels, and most ramps closed, the boat traffic was at a minimum and there was no tour boats this week, so we anchored here. Many of our crew members were still in school and needed the internet to do zoom classes and upload their homework. This location offered 2 to 3 bars with 4G via Verizon. Verizon works the best on the lake. Normally if you can see Navajo Mountain then you will have internet. Luckily the weather men were mostly correct. We had one semi modest storm roll in one day for about an hour. No worries!
Once again a HUGE thank you to Laketime! Every employee at Laketime did their upmost to assure our vacation was fantastic. A big shout out to Belinda, Cook and Adam at Laketime!
This is Laketime's newest house boat time share, Canyon Casita. She was completely refitted in 2021 with 2 new engines, outdrives, generator, AC, flooring, etc. She has 2 kitchens with 3 refrigerators and a freezer up front, 2 1/2 bathrooms and 6 bedrooms. She also has solar panels so we only needed to run the generator if we wanted to turn on the AC or run the crane to lower and raise our wave runners. the solar panels had her at 100% charge by noon almost every day.
Since Canyon Casita was on the lake we had to haul all our equipment up and down the ramps. I haven't had to do this in 15 years. Laketime house boats are launch and retrieve. So the night you arrive you park your vehicles right next to your house boat at the Laketime yard and load your time share up in about a half an hour. This year we had to load the house boat the way others have to, down at the ramp with multiple trips via our ski boat. When it is near 100 degrees out this becomes a bit of a long haul.
By mid July of this year the main launch ramp at Wawheap became unusable for house boats. Our house boat time share, Turquoise Bay, was unable to launch at the first of August, which is our week. We were lucky enough to secure a week on this new beautiful houseboat later in the year. She was left on the water before the ramps closed so a few guests were able to enjoy her.
The new Stateline auxiliary ramp is currently under construction. Once this new ramp, which has the capability to go down to 3450, opens then Laketime and other launch and retrieve outfits will be back in business. 3450 is almost 100' lower then the lake is today. I am confident that this is the only year where we will have this issue. I am praying for a huge snow year in the upper Colorado in 2021/2022 winter season. But even a modest snow year should raise the lake enough to make this new ramp operational.
The weather for the week was forecasted to be just perfect and with the low lake levels, and most ramps closed, the boat traffic was at a minimum and there was no tour boats this week, so we anchored here. Many of our crew members were still in school and needed the internet to do zoom classes and upload their homework. This location offered 2 to 3 bars with 4G via Verizon. Verizon works the best on the lake. Normally if you can see Navajo Mountain then you will have internet. Luckily the weather men were mostly correct. We had one semi modest storm roll in one day for about an hour. No worries!
Once again a HUGE thank you to Laketime! Every employee at Laketime did their upmost to assure our vacation was fantastic. A big shout out to Belinda, Cook and Adam at Laketime!
This is Laketime's newest house boat time share, Canyon Casita. She was completely refitted in 2021 with 2 new engines, outdrives, generator, AC, flooring, etc. She has 2 kitchens with 3 refrigerators and a freezer up front, 2 1/2 bathrooms and 6 bedrooms. She also has solar panels so we only needed to run the generator if we wanted to turn on the AC or run the crane to lower and raise our wave runners. the solar panels had her at 100% charge by noon almost every day.
Since Canyon Casita was on the lake we had to haul all our equipment up and down the ramps. I haven't had to do this in 15 years. Laketime house boats are launch and retrieve. So the night you arrive you park your vehicles right next to your house boat at the Laketime yard and load your time share up in about a half an hour. This year we had to load the house boat the way others have to, down at the ramp with multiple trips via our ski boat. When it is near 100 degrees out this becomes a bit of a long haul.
By mid July of this year the main launch ramp at Wawheap became unusable for house boats. Our house boat time share, Turquoise Bay, was unable to launch at the first of August, which is our week. We were lucky enough to secure a week on this new beautiful houseboat later in the year. She was left on the water before the ramps closed so a few guests were able to enjoy her.
The new Stateline auxiliary ramp is currently under construction. Once this new ramp, which has the capability to go down to 3450, opens then Laketime and other launch and retrieve outfits will be back in business. 3450 is almost 100' lower then the lake is today. I am confident that this is the only year where we will have this issue. I am praying for a huge snow year in the upper Colorado in 2021/2022 winter season. But even a modest snow year should raise the lake enough to make this new ramp operational.
Till Next Year!
This years crew consisted of from left to right
Brent, Stephanie, Sara, Wesley and Rowan, Brian, Bree, Brandon, Jaime and Brad. Quite a few of our other crew members were unable to come due to us going later in the year.
Dooley Rescue Crew was busy this year! :)
This year we had quite a few fun things going on near us. One afternoon, during a brief semi moderate storm a rental from Aramark tried to anchor near us. It was their first day on the lake and the wind was still blowing about 10mph and they literally cut their engines once they put their bow on the beach. They had none of their anchors ready, heck their anchor lines were still in the rope locker, so right after they put their bow on the beach the houseboat went sideways into the beach. We were secure at Canyon Casita so I ran over to help them. Once again, I'm not an expert at any of this, but with a good 20 trips under my belt at Lake Powell and countless years sailing to Catalina I have figured out a few things. Our first day at Powell back in 2004 we also messed up quite bad and blew sideways. I've learned a lot since then. You can view some of the pages I've read on my links page.
When I saw them in trouble I ran over and I asked if I could help and they said please! I grabbed their anchor lines out of the anchor box. Had their ski boat pull the house boat stern off the beach and back to 90 degrees of the beach. Then I put the captain of the house boat at the helm with his engines on to keep the boat from going sideways again. It was at this point, I tied the first anchor line to the stern of the house boat, I then gave the line to one of the crew members and asked her to bring the other end of the line up to the front of the boat. I assumed she realized it had to go on the outside of the boat. She actually grabbed the line and ran it through the middle of the house boat down the hall way. Sorry but I just had to laugh at that one.
Once we got them secure we all had a good laugh and shared a few cold beers.
Then 2 days later another rental, this one out of Antelope, came up to the beach we were anchored at. The breeze was almost non existent but later this after noon it was forecast to blow up to 12 mph from the W/SW. This group was on the lake for the second day and tied their anchor lines on the bow of the boat and dropped them over board in about 15 to 20 feet of water with only 5 feet of rope. Wait, What?? Their engines were towards the beach and about 5 feet away from the sand. We were in the water relaxing and drinking and were all watching this happen. They were maybe 80 yards away and up wind from us. I soon walked over to them and asked if they needed my help. They said they were only here for a quick dip in the water and would be moving on again in about an hour and did not need my help. I advised the captain that the wind could pick up at any moment and I didn't want them to blow near the boat we were staying on. He waved me off and said don't worry!
Well sure enough about 10 minutes later the expected wind did come up but luckily only about 5mph and they were soon in panic mode. During the past 10 minutes they had tried to put their bow on the beach and get their anchors in the sand. When I came up again and asked if they needed help they were now very eager for my help. I soon realized they had put their anchors in with the crown of the anchor up in the air and the rope tied around the crown. All anchor lines were tied to the bow of their boat. They were all loose and laying in the sand and the house boat was still drifting. I soon got their captain behind the helm had him turn on his engines and directed him to keep the boat on the beach with his engines. I then instructed them to untie the crown of the anchors and we soon got the anchor lines from the rear of the boat and tied correctly to the anchors properly placed in the sand. I showed them the knot we use and soon had them good and tight. They were very appreciated and said they didn't have this problem last night. I asked where they were last night and after listening to them I think they were in wahweap bay last night. There was no wind last night so their poor job of anchoring with the anchors tied to the bow and on the crown of the anchor was most likely at least adequate for that night. When they realized how well their anchors were they let me know they now were going to spend the night. Once again we shared a drink and I made yet some more new friends on Lake Powell.
Brent, Stephanie, Sara, Wesley and Rowan, Brian, Bree, Brandon, Jaime and Brad. Quite a few of our other crew members were unable to come due to us going later in the year.
Dooley Rescue Crew was busy this year! :)
This year we had quite a few fun things going on near us. One afternoon, during a brief semi moderate storm a rental from Aramark tried to anchor near us. It was their first day on the lake and the wind was still blowing about 10mph and they literally cut their engines once they put their bow on the beach. They had none of their anchors ready, heck their anchor lines were still in the rope locker, so right after they put their bow on the beach the houseboat went sideways into the beach. We were secure at Canyon Casita so I ran over to help them. Once again, I'm not an expert at any of this, but with a good 20 trips under my belt at Lake Powell and countless years sailing to Catalina I have figured out a few things. Our first day at Powell back in 2004 we also messed up quite bad and blew sideways. I've learned a lot since then. You can view some of the pages I've read on my links page.
When I saw them in trouble I ran over and I asked if I could help and they said please! I grabbed their anchor lines out of the anchor box. Had their ski boat pull the house boat stern off the beach and back to 90 degrees of the beach. Then I put the captain of the house boat at the helm with his engines on to keep the boat from going sideways again. It was at this point, I tied the first anchor line to the stern of the house boat, I then gave the line to one of the crew members and asked her to bring the other end of the line up to the front of the boat. I assumed she realized it had to go on the outside of the boat. She actually grabbed the line and ran it through the middle of the house boat down the hall way. Sorry but I just had to laugh at that one.
Once we got them secure we all had a good laugh and shared a few cold beers.
Then 2 days later another rental, this one out of Antelope, came up to the beach we were anchored at. The breeze was almost non existent but later this after noon it was forecast to blow up to 12 mph from the W/SW. This group was on the lake for the second day and tied their anchor lines on the bow of the boat and dropped them over board in about 15 to 20 feet of water with only 5 feet of rope. Wait, What?? Their engines were towards the beach and about 5 feet away from the sand. We were in the water relaxing and drinking and were all watching this happen. They were maybe 80 yards away and up wind from us. I soon walked over to them and asked if they needed my help. They said they were only here for a quick dip in the water and would be moving on again in about an hour and did not need my help. I advised the captain that the wind could pick up at any moment and I didn't want them to blow near the boat we were staying on. He waved me off and said don't worry!
Well sure enough about 10 minutes later the expected wind did come up but luckily only about 5mph and they were soon in panic mode. During the past 10 minutes they had tried to put their bow on the beach and get their anchors in the sand. When I came up again and asked if they needed help they were now very eager for my help. I soon realized they had put their anchors in with the crown of the anchor up in the air and the rope tied around the crown. All anchor lines were tied to the bow of their boat. They were all loose and laying in the sand and the house boat was still drifting. I soon got their captain behind the helm had him turn on his engines and directed him to keep the boat on the beach with his engines. I then instructed them to untie the crown of the anchors and we soon got the anchor lines from the rear of the boat and tied correctly to the anchors properly placed in the sand. I showed them the knot we use and soon had them good and tight. They were very appreciated and said they didn't have this problem last night. I asked where they were last night and after listening to them I think they were in wahweap bay last night. There was no wind last night so their poor job of anchoring with the anchors tied to the bow and on the crown of the anchor was most likely at least adequate for that night. When they realized how well their anchors were they let me know they now were going to spend the night. Once again we shared a drink and I made yet some more new friends on Lake Powell.