59’ Wanderer

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No problem. My boat has a brand new owner out on the lake right now. Last week I drove an hour south of my home in SoCal to meet up with him and impart some of this same knowledge. The idea is to make a new boater's first experience a good one.

He is pulled up in Friendship Cove right now, the next short canyon just uplake from Last Chance. Sheltered from most wind and waves. Friendship is also home to plenty of wildlife, including river otters, ringtail cats, and chukars. We've even caught walleye off the back of the houseboat.

If there are any specific questions that you need answers to, I'll try to help. That's my favorite part of the lake, Last Chance, Friendship, Rock Creek, and Dry Rock.
 
We rented the same boat two years ago. I can't comment on the fuel range, but just wanted to say that it's a pretty good rental boat.
We rented a different one the first time, and the Wanderer was so much nicer. You're going to enjoy it.
It filters lake water for the fresh water use, which is really nice. We did have one problem with that system that once they showed us wasn't a big deal. The strainer (filter) would clog and shut the water off. Ask them about that, and how to take care of it while on on your, as you don't want to call them every time it happens and it's super easy to clean. Enjoy your trip.
 
No problem. My boat has a brand new owner out on the lake right now. Last week I drove an hour south of my home in SoCal to meet up with him and impart some of this same knowledge. The idea is to make a new boater's first experience a good one.

He is pulled up in Friendship Cove right now, the next short canyon just uplake from Last Chance. Sheltered from most wind and waves. Friendship is also home to plenty of wildlife, including river otters, ringtail cats, and chukars. We've even caught walleye off the back of the houseboat.

If there are any specific questions that you need answers to, I'll try to help. That's my favorite part of the lake, Last Chance, Friendship, Rock Creek, and Dry Rock.
Thanks on the tip on Friendship. I had a bad experience in Last Chance last July. I will check it out.
 
Thanks on the tip on Friendship. I had a bad experience in Last Chance last July. I will check it out.
We checked out potential sites in Friendship by PWC on 5/5, and we were surprised by the forest emerging from the shallows at the end of the canyon. It kind of limited the usable beaches, but that can be a good thing sometimes.

We rode out a storm there once that really tore up docks and floating breakwaters closer to the dam. We listened to people screaming for help on the radio, while we watched multi colored waterfalls coming off the cliffs in a 3/4 circle around us as hail pummeled the surface of the bay.

Some of our favorite trip photos have been shot there. Macros of bees inside Jimson Weed flowers, and a spectacular, perfectly timed shot of a lightening strike hitting the main channel just as a boat passed by.

We like to hike, so we favor campsites at the very end of canyons. Winds coming from the north end of Friendship can blast you with beach sand, but it hits the boat in such a way that you're taking it evenly on the bow, never taking the risk of being blown sideways onto the beach. The canyon walls are close enough that winds coming out of the east or the west pass right over the top of the cove.

We were pulling out one year long ago, maybe 2006, and I was using the PWC to make sure we weren't going to back the houseboat into any obstacles. I spotted a large light colored "rock" in the way, and I asked for the boat hook so I could figure out if our outdrives would clear it. I poked it with the hook, and it was soft, so I snagged it, and a big striper shot out of a large tent that had been blown off the beach!
 
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If you are carrying gas cans, make sure they are tied in securely.
We saw a wakeboard boat lose 5 of his six cans that were on the back in the Maytag straight last week as it was pretty rough.
Fortunately a pontoon boat stopped and helped him round them up.
 
Let's do some math, shall we?

You're leaving out of Wahweap Marina, via the Maytag Straits, past Padre Bay (to avoid the yahoos), to somewhere around Face Canyon (buoy 25), Last Chance Bay (buoy 28), or West Canyon (let's call it the same distance as buoy 30).

Using Last Chance as a theoretical destination, that's about 32 miles uplake from the Wahweap Rental dock. Please note, Last Chance is a very long bay, and the figure used only gets you to the mouth of Last Chance. At 8 mph, that's a 4 hour cruise. There are Wakeless Zones at Anchovy Point leaving Wahweap Bay, and at Antelope Point Marina, which you have to pass through, but we'll simplify our calculations and leave out the reduced fuel consumption and extra time in those areas. The specs on that boat say it burns 16 gallons per hour while underway. That figure is for BOTH motors, NOT for EACH motor. So 4 hours multiplied by 16 gallons per hour equal 64 gallons to arrive at the mouth of Last Chance. You will consume the same amount of gas covering the same distance on your return, so 128 gallons burned in transit, both ways.

Starting out with 300 gallons in the main tank, subtracting 128 gallons allocated to the outboards for travelling, you are left with 172 gallons to burn in your generator. Doing all your High Electrical Demand activities like showers, cooking, and using the A/C simultaneously, that 20 KW generator is going to burn 4 gallons per hour. 172 gallons left in your main tank, divided by 4 gallons per hour, left you enough gas to run the generator for 43 hours. On a 7 day trip, that allows for 6 hours of generator use each day. Let's hope it's not 110 degrees outside.

If you have a runabout or PWCs, the toy tank is going to be used keeping those fueled up. If you don't have anything to fuel up out of the toy tank, and you can pump that off into the main tank, that extra 100 gallons will allow you to run that generator an extra 25 hours, so 43 plus 25 give you a total of 68 hours of generator run time, which, when spread over a 7 day trip gives you the ability to run the generator for almost 10 hours per day. Better, but that still means taking care to get the most efficient use of the generator run time.

As others have stated the specs are quoting a really heavy fuel consumption rate for the outboards, but it is probably done to make sure you don't cut your fuel usage calculations too close.

So, in summary, back off the throttles, to maybe 6 mph, and stretch out the cruising fuel. Allow that extra fuel for driving around to find a beach and maneuvering into your camp once you find it. These numbers leave you arriving back a Wahweap on vapors, so you must never let that generator run if it is not ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Your vacation might be unpleasantly warm at times, but the alternative is running out of fuel and having to pay the rental office to send a rescue boat to do an emergency refuel. There's one word for that: EXPENSIVE. As if $5.03 for regular at Wahweap isn't bad enough! And, do yourself a favor: Make sure that the gas tanks are both ACTUALLY full BEFORE you depart. If you leave with anything less than 100% of the fuel you're supposed to have, all these calculations go out the window.

Take care, watch for whales, and enjoy the lake. I did 2 rentals before I bought into my own houseboat 15 years ago. Beware, you might find that this trip is the start of a regular habit.
You have given me a tremendous amount of HELPFUL information regarding our upcoming trip to Lake Powell! Thank you for that!! We are scheduled to depart on our houseboat on Monday June 28th and we did pay for the early loading the day before. are there any tips or tricks that you can give me regarding steps that need to be taken to get signed in or loading of the boat Etc.... thank you in advance for any info you can provide.
 
The sign in and load steps are pretty straight forward and simple. We've never done the early boarding but my suggestion is to make sure you are there early enough to catch the rental folks at the desk. We were there one year and it seemed like there were some early boarders walking around & they couldn't find anyone to help them get checked in. I never got the whole story but maybe they showed up too late and all of the rental workers were gone. I'm sure you are fine as long as you show up on time.

If you're bringing a boat, use the courtesy slips in front of the rental building. They will also let you park in a slip by the smaller boats if the courtesy slips are full. You can park your trailer up in the top paved parking lot if you want to keep it near the renal location.

The rental marina is way down the beach now. The load/unload parking seems a bit further away from the marina then it usually is but I'd park down as close as you can for loading. The rental office is down the center walkway & to the left, rental boats on the right. The load/unload ramp is on the far right.

I'm not sure if you could do it but we send a scout boat out the day before to find & grab a spot, camp there overnight. Then we bring the scout boat back in to lead the houseboat to the spot. This really cuts down on fuel cost by not having to look for a spot.

Also there are showers if you need them at the RV campground up the road from the rental marina. It's about $2 in quarters for a shower.
 

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My last Aramark rental was 2005, so my knowledge of Wahweap rental practices and policies are really outdated. But I can offer some general tips.

Leave dock as early as possible. Early morning water is very calm. You've got a lot of running to do in the main channel, and anyplace with vertical walls will reflect wakes back at you. Once boat traffic starts, the water will stay uncomfortably choppy for hours. You'll make better speed on smooth water.

As Wyrman stated above, the water filtration system strainers/prefilters can clog quickly. Plan on making water only in the morning, when all the silt and debris suspended in your cove has had a chance to settle out overnight. If you've got neighbors who get out early to fish, they've stirred up stuff that will clog the system. Same thing applies to wind, don't try to make water in a storm.

Listen to the weather reports 2 or 3 times a day. They can be repetitive, but they can save your trip by alerting you to bad weather coming.

Dig your anchors deep, or tie to BIG rocks. Figure out where the wind will come from, and plan for extra anchor lines on the windward side. Tightening anchor lines by hand in the wind will tear your hands up, and could potentially allow the boat to get away from you. I use 10,000 pound rated ratchet straps to secure the boat. Cleat your anchor lines at the back of the boat, run the lines to shore, and tie a loop (using a bowline knot), then attach the ratchet between the loop and your anchor. When the anchors dig in and the lines start to go slack (and the boat starts to move around), it's a whole lot easier to take up the slack with the ratchet. I actually use 2 ratchets per line. That allows me to readjust one ratchet on a line, while still having one ratchet under tension. That way there is no chance of the boat getting away from you, even in a 60 mph wind.

If you've never used them before, Home Depot sells them for about $10 each. They're 27 feet long, but only leave about 6 feet of distance between your anchor and the loop on the end of the rope. Set things up so that 6 feet of space is easily accessible on flat ground, not over water or jumbled rocks, if you can manage it. You'll only be able to take up a couple of feet of slack before the strap will "coil bind" in the ratchet mechanism. Tighten one ratchet until it coil binds (which will require you to undo the "bound up" one). That is where the second ratchet proves it's worth. It is there, attached to the same points as the first ratchet. Tighten ratchet #2 enough to take the stress off ratchet #1, then you can undo #1 without letting the anchor line loose. Readjust #1, and then you can take the slack out of #2, if necessary. Repeat the process as required. It will pull the nose of the boat into the shore, but that is a good thing. When it's time to leave, you might have to swing the boat from side to side with the engines to work it loose before attempting to pull straight back off the beach. Sounds complicated, but it's the best $40 you'll spend, and you'll thank me later!
 
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The wanderer is an on demand system, anytime you use the water, it pulls it from the lake. It's not really a big deal, IF you ask about it by the guys that check the systems with you before departure.
 
The wanderer is an on demand system, anytime you use the water, it pulls it from the lake. It's not really a big deal, IF you ask about it by the guys that check the systems with you before departure.
On demand, wow, different from my boat. We are a monohull, so we fill a tank under the deck. I'm guessing the Wanderer is a pontoon, so no room under the floor. Kind of a drag, since you draw from the lake as needed, whatever the water quality. I guess it beats the old rentals that had a tank on the roof, and that had to last until you could refill at the marina.
 
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