Tahoe City – Today I offer some boat tips on Lake Tahoe – in fact, in any body of water.
That’s not one of my regular column topics. Usually I write about California government and politics.
However, this time I’m writing about boats. Because after reading and watching news reports about a horrific accident in Tahoe that killed eight people on June 21st, I’ve won.
Plus, July 4th means we are at the heart of the boat season. California has 4 million recreational boats, according to the state’s Boat and Waterways department. There are an average of 514 boat accidents per year. July is the worst month.
I’ve been boating at Tahoe for 55 years and have been drinking water since I was a teenager.
These are my basic rules of safety and fun on ships that can be at least up to about 30 feet. My Tahoe boat was mostly 22-24 feet.
First of all, if Lake Tahoe’s winds are already blowing at 10 mph and not even at noon, be smart. Don’t go out on recreational power boats. The water could be much more choppier in the afternoon.
If you’re there and you’re watching a white hat form, head to the shore.
If a lot of yachts appear, you do not belong to the water with them. Get off.
And another thing, don’t pay too much attention to the manufacturer’s claims about how many people hold the boat. Boat makers tend to exaggerate. If you’re saying 10 people fit, then probably get to know the eight tops.
Certainly, the 10 might be able to board the boat, but the extra weight makes the boat more vulnerable to riding deep underwater and pouring water in a fierce swell. That could lead to subversion. And all those passengers roam around makes driving even more difficult as weight balance changes constantly.
But most importantly, monitor the weather forecast before you get close to the water.
Lake Tahoe is big and beautiful. It is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, 6,224 feet in the Sierra Mountains. It holds enough water to cover everything in California 14 inches. Two-thirds of the lake are in California and one-third in Nevada.
Weather patterns vary. The horrifying winds and thunderstorms are at one end of the lake, while the other lake has calm waters and blue skies.
Even on mild mornings, the weather and boat conditions on Lake Tahoe can quickly become dangerous.
(Max Whittaker/The Times)
I came from repeated references to everything caused by a sudden, unexpected storm on Saturday afternoon off the south and west coasts.
The intensity of the storm may have been unexpected – the north winds produce 8 feet of waves at 45 mph. However, winds were predicted by teenagers and the National Weather Service in their 20s. And it should have been a sufficient warning for the sailor: stay away from the water.
The person who made the most sense after the tragedy was Mary Laub, a retired financial analyst living in Minden, Nevada, who lived on a steep hill in South Lake Tahoe. She and her husband store a stately 26-foot cabin cruiser at the Tahoe Keys on the South Shore. And she habitually looks at the weather forecast.
She had planned to go on a cruise that Saturday, but after seeing the predictions she dropped the idea.
“The afternoon wind picks up at Tahoe. If they’re approaching 10 [mph] I won’t be out at noon,” she said.
“If there’s a whisper of the wind, I won’t go out. We’ve been caught there before. I won’t take a chance.”
The deceased were essentially a new 27-foot crustal launch, a high-end, gorgeous open bowboat. It was the third time we had a boat on the water. There were 10 people in their 60s and 70s. They were relatives and lifelong friends and were celebrating the woman’s 71st birthday. She was among the dead.
They were about to return to their west home in the afternoon from the popular Emerald Bay as an 8-foot swell sucked up the boat, subdued the engines and capsized the ship from the rocky Rubicon point near DL Bliss State Park. They were thrown into unusually cold water, and were likely paralyzed by hypothermia.
The party’s mother and daughter, both wear life jackets, were rescued by a team of Washoe County Sheriffs. It was not revealed at the time of this writing whether other people were wearing life jackets.
Meanwhile, boats along the southwest coast were either wet from the marsh, or robbed of mountains on rocks and beaches, often crashing into other ships.
The four crew of the 24-foot Open Bow Mastercraft grabbed life jackets and wisely dumped the boat and swam. They safely ran the rocky cliffs with exposed feet. The boats were essentially summed.
I called meteorologist Dawn Johnson at the National Weather Service in Reno.
She said that Saturday afternoon forecasts were “25 or so” winds and gusts of winds up to 20 mph.
Additionally, there was a maximum chance of a thunderstorm of 25%. “If there’s a thunderstorm in the lake, make sure you get out of the water,” Johnson said. “You’re at a high risk of being hit by lightning in the open water.”
There were strong winds on Friday night, she recalled, but by 11am on Saturday they had dropped to 5-10 mph. They then picked it up as a prediction.
“We have many times gusts of winds across the moon at that size, and we probably see gusts in the afternoon,” she said. “The sustained winds reach 25-30 miles.”
But they usually produce waves of just 2-4 feet, she added. “We’re trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
The 4-foot wave is a hurricane in my book.
And Mother Nature doesn’t care about Boater’s weekend plans.
