The pager incident

About 1998 a good friend, Phill Dold gave Gwen and I the use of his boat slip in Tahoe Keys for the summer. We had a 26 foot MacGregor sailboat at the time. It made it so easy to just drive up and hop onto the boat, be on Lake Tahoe in a matter of minuets. No towing, launching, or rigging the mast and sails. Friends could meet us at Tahoe Keys and we could be on the lake like, whoosh.

On one trip, I was up on the lake alone. I had sailed around most of the day and had sailed into Emerald Bay just as the winds had kicked up and the lake had turned into a churning, white capped monster. Inside Emerald Bay tho, it was as calm as glass. I went deep into the bay and as I backed into the West shore I dropped the anchor, kept backing to set the hook, and got within ten feet of the shore. I shut off the motor, and with the stern line tied to the back of the boat, jumped in and swam to shore, looped the line through a root of a tree, then swam back to the boat. If any of you have gone swimming in Lake Tahoe, you know this is no small feat. The water is about fifty degrees on a warm day.

I had enough daylight left to set up the barbecue, cook a nice steak, sit out under clear skies and watch the changing colors as the sun set. I also had a 12 volt T.V. VCR set so I was watching a movie, Star Wars I think, when someone rowed up behind the boat to see if I had any spare propane canisters. He ran out on his barbecue before he could finish his meal. I tossed him a spare bottle and he paddled back to his boat. His wife yelled a thank you from about a fifty yards away. It was so quite in the bay that I think you could whisper and be heard. What a wonderful day this was. Tahoe has a beauty all of its own.

About nine o'clock that night my pager went off, beeping. The only cell phone I had was wired into the truck back at Tahoe Keys. The pager just shows numbers, and if you have the right program on your computer you can send a text message. Well, we didn't have that at home, just a phone calling a pager and leaving a phone number. This one was from my wife. No message, just the phone number. Well Gwen knew where I was so I figured she just wanted me to check in with her in the morning as I was out and about. A few minuets later the pager goes off again! The same thing, my home phone number on the pager. I figured, OK she just did it twice to be sure I got the page. A few minuets later, a third beep, beep, beep, and its home again. OK, there must be something going on at home that required three pages in a row. Three of anything in a row means get moving.

Thank goodness I looped the stern line around that tree root so I didn't have to go swimming at nine thirty at night. I started my motor to warm it up, pulled in the stern line, went on deck, and as I was pulling in the anchor, the fellow I had given the propane to yelled over to me to see if I was having a problem. I told him that I had just gotten three pages to call home, and that I was heading over to Tahoe Keys. He waited a moment, then asked me if I knew what was going on out on the lake. It was sooo quite where we were that I had forgotten that a wind event started as I pulled into Emerald Bay. I asked him if he knew anything. He yelled back, thirty five to forty mile an hour winds from the West! Well, twenty five mile an hour winds are a white knuckle event if your under sail, so I thought I would just use the motor and scoot back to Tahoe Keys.

I yelled a thank you for the heads up to my new propane friend as I finished pulling in the anchor. I motored out to the mouth of Emerald Bay. As I cleared the mouth of the bay and made a slow right turn, I couldn't make out anything on the far shore. I had my running lights on and with the back lit compass I took a heading that should get me close to the entrance to Tahoe Keys. Unless you run into another boat, there is nothing to run into. And what idiot would be heading out on a night like this. So far, just one.

The waves were somewhere between four and six feet high. I was looking up at water when you should always only have to look down at water. The wind was howling like a banshee. I throttled the motor back to a fast idle. I had both rudders down and locked, and no sails were up. The mast alone was pushing me along faster than I wanted to go but I needed the motor pushing to keep control of the steering. I was going just a little faster than the waves, so I would climb up and surf down each wave. As you do this the boat tries to do something that is called "broaching" which means diving into a turn as you descend each wave. If you allow this to happen the boat will roll over as it hits the bottom of the trough. Its a game of playing with the throttle to maintain control. The bow plow's into the wave, then you climb up and surf down the other side and have to throttle up again and plow into the next wave. It could be fun if you were looking for something like this. I wasn't! It was a great lesson on boat handling tho.

When I was within a quarter mile of the Eastern shore I finally saw the entrance lights to Tahoe Keys. As I approached the shore the waves fell to a reasonable size and steering became easier as the boat went into the channel to the marina. Inside the marina the wind slowed down some, but all the boats that had masts were clanging and banging with loose sails and rigging. It was nice to be tied up to a dock. It took about an hour to cross the lake. I felt like I had just crossed the North Atlantic. I was cold, wind blown and worn out. A very exciting trip, but my thoughts were with my wife and what might be going on at home. It was about quarter to eleven by the time I got to the truck and made the call home.

After a couple of rings, Gwen sleepily answered.
I asked, "what's up?"
Gwen answered, "what do you mean?"
Well you paged me three times.
Oh, sorry, I just wanted to be sure you called when you got the chance.
False alarm, but a very exciting night time sail.