jdonalds
Jetboaters Commander
- Messages
- 609
- Reaction score
- 375
- Points
- 197
- Location
- Redding, CA
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2006
- Boat Model
- SX
- Boat Length
- 21
Just a little report on our afternoon on the water...
I haven't had the boat on the water much this year, perhaps 6 or 7 times. My son called and asked to go out so I jumped on the opportunity. It was a nice but different day.
First I filled the boat gas tank for the first time since July; that will indicate how little we've used it. It only took 21 gallons. Sad but true. The bonus was the price per gallon was only $3.49, the lowest I've paid in a very long time. California gas prices are higher than most other states. Six weeks ago we paid $4.05.
My son and I drove the 15 miles to the launch ramp then waited for others to show up. I took a few photos today; nothing special.
This is the Brandy Creek area launch ramp on Whiskeytown lake. It's a sizable parking area for trailers but I've never seen more than the three rows closest to the ramp filled. Today, being a Monday in late September, it was very thin. That's my boat with the 4Runner door open, one of only three trailers in the parking area. We are in the first lane right in front of the ramp.
We moved to Redding, CA from Southern California in 2011. The Los Angeles area must have 10s of 1,000s of boats and precious few lakes. Launch areas down there can be counted on to have full parking lots. Most lakes have max-boats-on-the-water limits and hit those limits most nice summer weekends. We were so pleased to find exactly the opposite up here.
My son sits in the boat waiting for the rest of the passengers to arrive.
While waiting I took a few photos. The air was a little smoky due to the fires burning in California. It doesn't show up too much in this photo but normally those distant mountains are quite clear to the eye.
All of the lakes in this region are very clear. You can literally drink the water; I've talked to fishermen who do just dip their cups in the water rather than carry water with them. I personally haven't done that.
A clear sign that fall has arrived.
My son, on the left, who initiated this boating day, his 16 month old son, and his girl friend/mother of the baby. Little Jaxxen hated the life jacket and screamed for 45 minutes before giving up and having a good time. We almost cut the day short due to that unpleasant experience. But later he was at ease and walked all over the boat laughing and having fun. Whew! My middle son is driving.
One thing that made this a much different day is my son Keith, at the wheel, just pulled away from the dock in No Wake Mode and started cruising around the small lake. For the next three hours that's all we did. We didn't go over 5 mph for more than 5 minutes the whole day. Nobody wanted to be towed so we just sat and talked. It was actually very nice but I've never done that before. Since I had just filled the boat I'm curious to top it off again to see how much gas we used.
For about a half hour the wind came up and two sailboats came out of the marina. One was a 5.2 Nacra and the other a 25' Cal. You can barely see the Nacra in this photo. The afternoon got a bit cool and, while no whitecaps, the lake was bumpy.
My oldest daughter. Lucky me, I had three of my six children with me today.
Fun for me is I got to play with my new WeatherHawk SM-18 SkyMate Hand-Held Wind Meter, Yellow that my wife gave me for my birthday last week. It had decent user ratings on Amazon and was in my wish list for over a year. It registers wind speed and temperature. The temperature reading is recorded with that small sensor in the left window shown below. It changes temperature readings in a matter of seconds. I measured 81 degrees in the cockpit but when I held it up in the wind off the port side of the boat it dropped to 77 degrees in 3 or 4 seconds. Fun. I'm always curious about the temperature and wind-speed. I wish I had something to indicate water temperature.
Anyway in spite of the baby screaming it was a pretty good, relaxing afternoon.
I haven't had the boat on the water much this year, perhaps 6 or 7 times. My son called and asked to go out so I jumped on the opportunity. It was a nice but different day.
First I filled the boat gas tank for the first time since July; that will indicate how little we've used it. It only took 21 gallons. Sad but true. The bonus was the price per gallon was only $3.49, the lowest I've paid in a very long time. California gas prices are higher than most other states. Six weeks ago we paid $4.05.
My son and I drove the 15 miles to the launch ramp then waited for others to show up. I took a few photos today; nothing special.
This is the Brandy Creek area launch ramp on Whiskeytown lake. It's a sizable parking area for trailers but I've never seen more than the three rows closest to the ramp filled. Today, being a Monday in late September, it was very thin. That's my boat with the 4Runner door open, one of only three trailers in the parking area. We are in the first lane right in front of the ramp.
We moved to Redding, CA from Southern California in 2011. The Los Angeles area must have 10s of 1,000s of boats and precious few lakes. Launch areas down there can be counted on to have full parking lots. Most lakes have max-boats-on-the-water limits and hit those limits most nice summer weekends. We were so pleased to find exactly the opposite up here.
My son sits in the boat waiting for the rest of the passengers to arrive.
While waiting I took a few photos. The air was a little smoky due to the fires burning in California. It doesn't show up too much in this photo but normally those distant mountains are quite clear to the eye.
All of the lakes in this region are very clear. You can literally drink the water; I've talked to fishermen who do just dip their cups in the water rather than carry water with them. I personally haven't done that.
A clear sign that fall has arrived.
My son, on the left, who initiated this boating day, his 16 month old son, and his girl friend/mother of the baby. Little Jaxxen hated the life jacket and screamed for 45 minutes before giving up and having a good time. We almost cut the day short due to that unpleasant experience. But later he was at ease and walked all over the boat laughing and having fun. Whew! My middle son is driving.
One thing that made this a much different day is my son Keith, at the wheel, just pulled away from the dock in No Wake Mode and started cruising around the small lake. For the next three hours that's all we did. We didn't go over 5 mph for more than 5 minutes the whole day. Nobody wanted to be towed so we just sat and talked. It was actually very nice but I've never done that before. Since I had just filled the boat I'm curious to top it off again to see how much gas we used.
For about a half hour the wind came up and two sailboats came out of the marina. One was a 5.2 Nacra and the other a 25' Cal. You can barely see the Nacra in this photo. The afternoon got a bit cool and, while no whitecaps, the lake was bumpy.
My oldest daughter. Lucky me, I had three of my six children with me today.
Fun for me is I got to play with my new WeatherHawk SM-18 SkyMate Hand-Held Wind Meter, Yellow that my wife gave me for my birthday last week. It had decent user ratings on Amazon and was in my wish list for over a year. It registers wind speed and temperature. The temperature reading is recorded with that small sensor in the left window shown below. It changes temperature readings in a matter of seconds. I measured 81 degrees in the cockpit but when I held it up in the wind off the port side of the boat it dropped to 77 degrees in 3 or 4 seconds. Fun. I'm always curious about the temperature and wind-speed. I wish I had something to indicate water temperature.
Anyway in spite of the baby screaming it was a pretty good, relaxing afternoon.
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