Mark's Paddling Blog: August 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

It doesn't get any better

Zoe and I spent the long weekend down at Lake Diefenbaker on her parents sail boat. John and Ginnie have a Nonsuch 26, the Valhalla, that will sleep 6. They met us at the Elbow marina on Saturday morning and after tossing our sleeping bags and cloths aboard and a quick hello we were off. Now this is the second year that we've spent a weekend on the boat and this is also the second time in a row there has been perfect weather for being at the lake but not sailing. There was no wind! The lake was perfectly calm so we had to motor around, not my favorite way to travel but it was still nice to get out on the water. Because of the lack of wind we couldn't sail so we had a very relaxing weekend reading, eating, visiting, swimming and napping (sometimes two naps a day). A little bit of down time was much needed, Zoe had finished her last final that Friday and needed a break and though I haven't been studying I have kept pretty busy. We spent the entire weekend on the boat and only set foot on land once to go for a walk along the top of the coulee in which we were moored. Our walk was cut short by an approching storm and we just made it back onto the boat and got everything battened down before the wind and rain hit. John and Ginnie are active divers and sailers so every year John goes down to the lake bottem and anchors a line into the sediment to which a large float is attached. These are located in sheltered bays and in deep coulees and serve a safe place to spend the night. The first night we spent in Massy Sputoon, a very nice and quiet coulee the second night we moved to Sage coulee which is a nice spot but well used by fishermen. All in all it was very nice to get out of the city for a while.