A wind story for the newbees
- Thread starter Dennis Jarvis
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A man called horse
Active Member
A different story about boulders mentioned in previous posts.
Date & canyon are a little foggy, but it was summer time & may have been adjacent to Moki.
We were in a bass boat. Saw the storm building way down south & coming on fast. Motored to the back of the canyon where several Houseboats were anchored with walls all around & some beach area, You know, the ones w/ the black stains. Before the deluge hit the water falls turned to roaring Niagras bringing with them huge boulders. Two houseboats took direct hits from the bouncing behemoths. All the houseboats were now scrambling to secure alternative anchorage and it was raining as hard as I’ve ever experienced. Luckily no injuries, just property damage.
Date & canyon are a little foggy, but it was summer time & may have been adjacent to Moki.
We were in a bass boat. Saw the storm building way down south & coming on fast. Motored to the back of the canyon where several Houseboats were anchored with walls all around & some beach area, You know, the ones w/ the black stains. Before the deluge hit the water falls turned to roaring Niagras bringing with them huge boulders. Two houseboats took direct hits from the bouncing behemoths. All the houseboats were now scrambling to secure alternative anchorage and it was raining as hard as I’ve ever experienced. Luckily no injuries, just property damage.
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
Ha! You remind me that it's always fun to go "shopping" after a big storm in a large bay on Powell. You never know what you'll find if you were on the leeward side of the storm, stuff all over the beach. We make an effort to return things, prop valuable stuff up on the beach for a few days etc. but it's almost impossible. finders keepers I guess. Lilly Pads anyone?
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Speaking of finding things on the lake after a storm, here's another story...
It's early September 1993, and our little group is in a 36-foot rental houseboat out of Halls Crossing. Somewhere down toward the Rincon, we're motoring along in a pretty solid crosswind, not terrible, but pretty strong and steady at 15-20 or so. Then a sudden gust came up out of nowhere, probably topping 40, and it's getting choppy fast. But that's not the biggest problem. Over there, maybe 1/4 mile ahead on the right bank, was something I'd never seen. A big tent literally lifted off from the beach where it was staked, and began to fly up and over the lake! At one point it was literally 30 feet in the air and moving fast, sort of toward us. It probably flew about 150 yards from the beach before landing in the water.
Well, there was no one around, so we did a beeline for that tent to try to save it. It's still floating when we arrive, but it's half submerged already and taking on more water very quickly, so it's hard to pull out of the water, and we're losing the battle. At one point, I'm trying to hold on, but realize if I don't let go, it's going to drag me down with it... so I let go. And it sinks. Gone. I looked over to the shore--there's a few things strewn around after that wind gust, a couple of chairs and a table, but hard to know when the people were last here or coming back. All I know is they were not going to be happy to find their tent had disappeared....
Wind is a serious thing at Lake Powell.
It's early September 1993, and our little group is in a 36-foot rental houseboat out of Halls Crossing. Somewhere down toward the Rincon, we're motoring along in a pretty solid crosswind, not terrible, but pretty strong and steady at 15-20 or so. Then a sudden gust came up out of nowhere, probably topping 40, and it's getting choppy fast. But that's not the biggest problem. Over there, maybe 1/4 mile ahead on the right bank, was something I'd never seen. A big tent literally lifted off from the beach where it was staked, and began to fly up and over the lake! At one point it was literally 30 feet in the air and moving fast, sort of toward us. It probably flew about 150 yards from the beach before landing in the water.
Well, there was no one around, so we did a beeline for that tent to try to save it. It's still floating when we arrive, but it's half submerged already and taking on more water very quickly, so it's hard to pull out of the water, and we're losing the battle. At one point, I'm trying to hold on, but realize if I don't let go, it's going to drag me down with it... so I let go. And it sinks. Gone. I looked over to the shore--there's a few things strewn around after that wind gust, a couple of chairs and a table, but hard to know when the people were last here or coming back. All I know is they were not going to be happy to find their tent had disappeared....
Wind is a serious thing at Lake Powell.
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