Way back in the early 80's we made our first trip to Lake Powell with Cathie's parents. It was mostly their treat with us chipping in for gas money. It was a great trip, and ever since then Cathie has wanted to take our family and treat them to a week in a houseboat on Lake Powell. So 30 some odd years later the time had come to bite the bullet, sell some stock, and hit the road, or lake as the case my be.
When we went with Cathie's parents, there were just 6 of us on the trip. Now the family has grown and now there are 17 who are going and chipping in for gas. Houseboats on Lake Powell come in various sizes, but Coast Guard regulations say only 12 can be on board while underway. Also, they are designed to sleep 12, although if you're friendly you could squeeze more in. Anyway it was decided to rent two 59' Discovery XL houseboats from Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas. By booking and paying a year in advance we were given a 30% discount, but it was non refundable. The kids guaranteed us that they would go, so we pulled the trigger.
Now any trip to Lake Powell must include a speed boat, and of course they would rent us one, for a princely sum of $5000. I wasn't going for that after renting two houseboats, so son Eric and I bought one for the trip.
We found this nice 19' ski boat priced right, so we scooped it up. We had to spend some to get it perfect, but we hoped to break even upon selling it on our return. Even if we lost $1000, we were ahead of the game.
On the appointed day we hit the road at 4 am and caravaned to Kanab, Utah for an overnight before arriving at the lake the next morning. Upon arrival, Grandpa went to the rental office to fill out the necessary paperwork, while everyone else unloaded all our supplies and carried it to the waiting boats. By the time the paperwork was done, everything had been transferred to the boats. (Grandpa knows how to plan ahead) Next we meet our instructor, Bob, who gives a walk-through of the boats and explains how things work. On one boat, the steering wasn't working properly, so a mechanic was summoned who supposedly checked things out, and gave us a thumbs up. With Randy and Gary piloting the houseboats, Grandpa in the speed boat, (Grandpa's got this down) we headed out of the Marina and sailed off into the vast and treacherous waters of Lake Powell. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lake Powell, it's big. It is the second largest man made lake in the US after Lake Mead and a has 1900 miles of shore line. It is approximately 185 miles long and is in two states. Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, formed the lake and was completed in 1966. Anyway, it's big, really big.
Everything was going fine in my little speedboat, but Randy was having trouble in his houseboat. Seems the steering didn't get fixed after all. At first I thought it just might be Randy, but not so. When you leave the marina, first you cross a large bay, easy enough. But then there is the Castle Rock Cut, a narrow man made channel that by saves a whole bunch of time to get up lake. It was here that I knew we really had a problem. Randy, doing his best, still managed to hit the side of the channel, no damage done, but he monetarily became sideways in the channel, blocking all traffic. He managed to get straightened out and into open water, where I joined him.
There really was something wrong with the steering, but by constantly turning the wheel one way and then the other, we managed a very nice zig-zag course up lake, thus avoiding any torpedoes shot by lurking subs. We weren't going to chance going back through the cut, so we headed up lake and found a suitable beach for a camp. It was decided to stay put and not drive the thing until it was fixed. Since it was a really nice sandy beach, suitable for the grandkids so we opted to stay put. Eventually the steering was fixed, as was the air conditioning in the other boat, but we were soured by the condition of both boats. Dirty, run down, with lots of stuff broken.
Did we have fun? Why yes we did. The kids all tried out sking, tubing, cliff jumping, and digging large holes in the beach. The temps were in the high 90's, which for Lake Powell in the summertime was fantastic. We've been there when it was 117, way to hot. We had thunderstorms each night with some strong winds, but we had the boats anchored securely to the beach and we didn't budge. We divided into two groups for the boat ride and hike to Rainbow Bridge. About 30 miles up lake from camp and a short, less than a mile walk to the Bridge. It is the largest natural bridge in the world, standing 290 feet tall and 270 feet wide. It is said you can put a 25 story building under it.
I'm going to make a second post about the problems with the boat and the outcome of my dealing with the rental company. But in the mean time, enjoy the latest YouTube video.
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