He's been keeping us up late nights, and last night in lieu of not being
able to sleep, my mind started thinking about Lake Chelan in Washington
State. I have only been there once, but i remember how crystal clear the
water was which made it famous. I started thinking how I would go about
doing a potter cruise there some day. Its a very deep, (3rd deepest in the
US) sometimes narrow (like 300 yards) and 55 miles long with steep
fjord-like sides. Could be some good channel wind for run sailing. I
would like to do the 55 mile (110mile) trip someday. But i realized that
with such narrow passing that motoring might be a requirement in my potter.
So I started thinking about MPG and I seemed to recall some number I had
once come up with at 5 mpg out of my 4hp 2 stroke. That would mean that I
would have to take about 22 gallons of gas to motor the likely 3 day trip.
I also would want to take a small 1800watt generator for conveniences and
to recharge batteries or run DC for the aux elec motor I would take as a
backup so this would take a few extra gallons too.
So Im specifically looking for feedback from those of you (presumably in WA
state) who have been there, inquiry if you have sailed there and experiences.
The lake far end has some great bicycling near the entrance to North
Cascades Nat Park, so I thought to strap two bikes upright on either side
of the mast (since I might not be sailing but motoring anyways) Any
thoughts on this? Any one done it before? And where would I store the 22+
gallons (minus about 6 in the marine outboard tank on the floor of the
cockpit) so that it wasnt a big problem like for fumes and volume, and has
anyone done this?--I recall a photo with someone in Carolina that had 1
gallon strapped to the side rail) maybe could strap two 5 galloners to the
top of the companion way rails wedged between them and the hatch, and two
more within the aft part of the deck of the bow pulpit. Althought there
is plenty of room in the quarter berth, I think fumes is too much of a
problem possiblitity so would avoid this at all costs.
Advice???