PUFA NEWSLETTER
September 1, 2003
Fred Glasbergen, President
Daryl Hegyi, Vice-President
Sandra Clark, Treasurer
Debbie Major, Secretary
Mail to: Pacific Ultralight Flying Association
102-16071
82 Avenue
Surrey,
B.C. V3S 2L6
PUFA Newsletter published by Glenn Ursel
PUFA Website Version edited by Walter Klatt
Editorial Note
by Glenn Ursel
I was away in Ontario for a month on a motor sailer owned by a cousin
of a second cousin of mine. When I returned last week, I learned of
the very serious motorcycle accident that Fred Baron and his wife, Precy,
suffered on July 22nd at the intersection of Highway 10 and 152nd Street.
While Precy luckily received only serious abrasions, Fred was quite critically
injured with many broken bones in the pelvic area and rib cage. I understand
that he is mending slowly at the Royal Columbian Hospital and we wish him
a complete recovery.
With respect to other sad news, I also learned of the recent passing of former
PUFA member Ken Huber who died of cancer this past month. Ken’s Super
Koala is now owned by Ron Smit who hangars it at our Glen Valley Airfield.
Ken was an enthusiastic ultralighter and PUFA member and will be sorely missed
by his friends at the King George Airpark.
I met Jeff Rochon the other day and he told me that he and Josef Kietaibl
flew their planes into the Abbotsford Airshow and had a good time there.
Jeff says they had a number of trade show type exhibits similar to those
you find at the Arlington Airshow which made the airshow more enjoyable.
Apparently the weather cooperated quite nicely too.
The King George Airpark scene is also evolving as a spiffy new hangar
is currently being constructed by Gerry Kinsey and Jerome Carsh. Their
new hangar is sure to be a welcome addition to the airpark due to the spare
no expense and painstaking construction methods that Gerry and Jerome are
using.
With respect to other news regarding the King George Airpark, Fred Glasbergen
advises that Transport Canada is very concerned about pilots not obeying
the altitude restriction over the King George Airpark. He will be meeting
with Transport Canada and Boundary Bay officials on September 9th, 2003 regarding
the altitude incursions that have been occurring on a regular basis.
The approach and departure procedures for Boundary Bay specify a height of
1,500 feet over the King George Airpark.
As I mention above, I went to Ontario to go sailing with a relative of a
relative so to speak and include a short story of our trip around Nipigon
Lake in this issue of the PUFA Newsletter. The decision to hold the
next meeting coincident with the Ultralighters' Reunion on September 6th
didn’t give me much time to prepare a newsletter so I hope you will tolerate
my rendition of my latest vacation saga. One thing I learned on the
trip that has relevance to our ultralighting sport is the use of a GPS.
I didn’t know anything about the a GPS before this trip but, by the end of
it, I was familiar with the process of creating waypoints and linking them
into routes for navigation purposes. I am now enthusiastic about getting
one for my ultralight.
As always we invite, nay implore, you to submit your stories of any ultralight
related activities.
Sailing on Lake Nipigon
My second cousin, Hugh Forbes, was visiting his cousin, Harry McLeod in May
of this year. Harry was telling Hugh of his interest in sailing around
Lake Nipigon but lamented the fact he couldn’t find anyone to accompany him.
Hugh, of course, immediately thought of me and suggested to Harry that I
would be the adventurer to invite on this epic voyage. So they emailed
me and I readily agreed to the plan.
Harry requested that I come to Ottawa and help him bring the sailboat to
Lake Nipigon by towing it behind his Dodge van. I briefly considered
riding my motorcycle to meet him in Ottawa but soon discarded the idea due
to the distance, cost and time it would take to ride there. Instead
I purchased a return flight on Westjet over the Internet and flew there via
Calgary and Hamilton on July 14th.
Lake Nipigon, located one hour's drive northeast of Thunder Bay, is the largest
inland lake contained entirely in Ontario, measuring roughly 100 km by 70
km (62 miles by 43 miles). The lake is a typical Canadian Shield lake
with deep clear waters, numerous peninsulas and over 500 islands. It has
a recorded depth of 450 feet (137 m). The lake's fish species include walleye,
pike, lake trout, brook trout and whitefish.
Lake Nipigon north of Lake Superior
The lake is about 1,400 km from Harry’s house in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa.
After I arrived in Ottawa, we spent a couple of days preparing for the trip.
I purchased a fishing rod, some hooks and a fishing licence as part of the
preparation. Finally, on July 16th, we were ready and left about 3:30
in the afternoon. We got as far as Samuel de Champlain Park and camped
there for the night. The route we took was along the north shore of
Lake Superior and the road climbs up and down quite a lot of steep hills
which gave Harry’s Dodge a good workout since we were towing a weight of
about 4,000 lbs. The second night out we camped at Pancake Bay Park
and the next day, July 18th, we arrived at Nipigon which is a town south
of Lake Nipigon. We stocked up on food and ice and left to go north
on Highway 11 to Beardmore, a village near the lake.
Lake Nipigon route travelled and anchorages displayed
by dashed lines and numbers.
From Beardmore, we drove to a marina called High Hill Marina which is in
a park operated by the village of Beardmore. The next day, July 19th,
we erected the mast and launched the sailboat. We motored to Shakespeare
Island late in the afternoon. We didn’t try sailing because there was
a thunderstorm approaching and we were anxious to get to our anchorage.
Harry had forgotten the airpump for the Zodiac so we decided to return to
High Hill Marina to get this. While we were enroute back the next day,
July 20th, I experienced an intense pain on my left side. By the time
we arrived back at High Hill Marina, I suggested to Harry that we go in to
the Nipigon Hospital to check this out. He agreed and we drove in that
evening. The doctor there diagnosed the trouble as a kidney stone and
prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication. The next day, July 21st,
we returned to High Hill Marina and camped there overnight. While
we were there, a fishing derby had been in progress and we saw 35 lb lake
trout being cleaned and measured by Ontario Ministry of Resources government
biologists. The people catching these huge fish were using down riggers
which permitted them to fish at depths of 300 feet or more. The following
day we again set off in the boat for Shakespeare Island. The boat has
a 50 hp four cycle Honda outboard motor which powered the boat to 12.8 mph
under full power, consuming about 1 litre of fuel per mile. By the
reducing the power to about 2,000 rpm which resulted in a speed of
about 5.6 mph, we increased the mileage to about 3.5 miles per litre.
We reached our anchorage at Shakespeare Island (indicated by No. 1x on map)
by early evening of July 22nd and set out two anchors to ensure that
the boat did not drag its anchor during the night if winds came up.
Anchorage at Shakespeare Island
Our meals consisted of oranges and raisin bran flakes with milk for breakfast
in the mornings, tuna or salmon sandwiches for lunch and boiled potatoes
and onions with canned vegetables and either canned ham or weiners and beans.
For cooking facilities, Harry had a stove in the boat which operated on alcohol
and a propane barbecue that was attached to the boat on the outside at the
stern. For water, we carried three 20 litre jugs which we used for
cooking and drinking. While the lake water was said to be clean enough
for drinking by the locals, we preferred to obtain our water from municipal
treated systems.
Harry had a Garmin GPS 128 that he used for navigation but he had only learned
to use the waypoints and had not yet learned to connect them into routes
to facilitate navigating from waypoint to waypoint. We studied the
manual together and figured it out. I found the GPS to be a great help
in navigating around the lake where the shore line often appears similar
to other shore lines. It also was a great safety tool in avoiding the
many rock shoals around the lake.
The next day, July 23rd, we sailed in light winds for our next anchorage
at Chubby Harbour (indicated by No. 2x on the map) at the east end
of a peninsula of mainland sticking into Lake Nipigon from the southwest
corner of the lake. At this site, there were quite a lot of mosquitoes
in the evening. Harry had screens that he attached to the cockpit door
opening and the hatch above the sleeping area to the forward deck.
Each evening we would put the screens up which were held by velcro strips
and then we would proceed to murder the mosquitoes one by one with fly swatters.
At first I didn’t take Harry’s attempts at eliminating the bugs seriously
but I soon found out that it definitely helped to make it easier to sleep
at night.
One thing Harry pointed out to me on the map of the area was a small group
of islands to the north of Chubby Harbour and to the west of Paul Island
that were called the “Ursel Islands”. I wondered if some distant relative
had been responsible for naming these...
The next day, July 24th, we motored out to Paul Island and then put up the
mail sail and genoa to sail west to Lamont Island. On the way to Lamont
Island, a government motorboat with two conservation officers pulled up alongside
and greeted us. Since we were under sail, they didn’t bother to stop
us for inspection.
Glenn, the Sailor, on Lake Nipigon
When we reached Lamont Island, we found that the winds were not favourable
to proceeding south to our intended anchorage near Two Mountain Island (indicated
by No. 3x on map) so we took the sails down and motored the rest of the way.
We anchored the boat at the south end of a narrow bay which was surrounded
by swampy land - a perfect environment for mosquitoes. Needless to
say, we had the fly swatters in full use that evening and the next since
we stayed here an extra day due to uncertain weather conditions. While
we were here, we fished and caught 3 pike and 3 perch. Harry is a retired
wildlife biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and worked
with fish during his career. Consequently, he was expert at filleting
the fish we caught. The perch was very good but you had to watch for
the Y bones in the pike that are not removed in the filleting process.
Harry McLeod in his Zodiac
A word about toilet facilities. The sail boat had a small enclosed
washroom with a chemical toilet that lasted the two of us about 5 days before
it needed emptying. The toilet consisted on a top section that stored
water for flushing purposes and a bottom section that received the waste.
Each time we needed to empty the bottom section, we would remove it and load
it into the Zodiac along with our bags of garbage and take it to shore where
we dug holes to bury these items. While we were at Two Mountain, we
also tried our hand at baking bread. We had brought 3 bags of general
purpose flour with yeast and corn oil which we mixed with water to make bread
because we didn’t think that store bought bread would last for 3 weeks on
the high seas, er, lakes. We had some trouble with the bread loaves
falling because we jiggled them at the wrong moment. We solved this
eventually by putting them into Harry’s barbecue to rise and then turning
on the propane later to bake the loaves.
Baking bread in the Sea Barbecue
On the morning of July 26th, we motored down to the southwest corner on Lake
Nipigon called Black Sturgeon Bay and followed a long waterway to the south
end where we looked for a safe anchorage. Due to the prevalence of
weeds in the shallow water, we had difficulty finding an acceptable anchorage.
While looking for a weed free anchorage, we hit a rock shoal that was only
a foot or so under water which we had not seen. Luckily, I had the
motor in neutral at the time and we more or less drifted onto the shoal.
We backed off the shoal and inspected the boat hull and found no damage.
Shortly after that
we found an acceptable anchorage (indicated by No. 4x on the map) and settled
in for the night.
Harry’s McGregor motorsail boat at anchor
Pelicans swimming at South Sturgeon Bay
While at the South Sturgeon Bay anchorage, we saw 6 pelicans, 1 blue heron,
2 gulls, 1 cormorant, 1 bald eagle, 2 turkey vultures, 1 scaup (species of
diving duck) and 1 snapper turtle.
On the morning of July 27th, there were gusty winds so we spent the morning
fishing on the Zodiac but, by noon, the winds had abated and we embarked
for our next anchorage, Caribou Island to the north. At the entrance
to the harbour there, we found two trapper cabins which appeared to be used
by aboriginal hunters in the winter since there were snow mobile parts lying
about. We had noticed that the beaver houses in this area of the lake
appeared to be old and no longer used.
We wondered if the animals had been over trapped. One of the cabins
appeared to be no longer in use but which had a rusty old can opener. We
later came back to salvage this item since our one and only can opener on
the sail boat packed it in that evening. When you are living on canned
food, can openers tend to be a fairly critical tool although we had knives
we could have used if nothing else. While attempting to go on the next
day, a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon towards Gull Bay and we had to
beat a hasty retreat to our harbour at Caribou Island.
On July 29th , the winds were not suitable for sailing and we motored up
to Wilson Island to the north where we anchored for the night (indicated
by No. 6x on the map). While motoring into a bay for anchorage, a large
motor cruiser swept by towing 3 outboard motor boats. It was the first
boat we had seen in more than a week.
The next day, July 30th, we motored north to Jack Fish Island and then turned
to the west where favourable winds permitted us to convert to sail power.
Each time we did this, I would steer the boat directly into the wind while
Harry would remove the outer covering from the main sail and then raise it
by inserting sliders into a metal slider on the back of the mast and pulling
the sail up by a rope slung through a pulley at the top of the mast. You
had to keep the boat directly into the wind in order to prevent the sail
from filling with wind and making it difficult to handle. Our destination
this day was Wabinosh Bay which is a small bay emptying into the northwest
corner of Lake Nipigon. A river flows out of Lake Wabinosh to the west
of Lake Nipigon and empties into Wabinosh Bay through a series of rapids.
As we neared the entrance to Wabinosh Bay, we were uncertain where the channel
was. There were a couple of what in the distance appeared to upended
stumps which Harry wished to avoid. We ended up going to one side of
them where the water turned out to be extremely shallow. We got through
without incident but we later learned that the “stumps” were actually pilings
apparently put there to mark the channel.
Wabinosh River rapids
When we entered the bay, we found the motor cruiser that we had seen near
Wilson Island had got there ahead of us. Since the water was deep close
to shore, we had to nose the boat into shore and tie the bow and stern to
trees. The bay (indicated by No. 7x on the map) was supposed to be
good for pickerel and a couple of men we met off the motor cruiser
confirmed that they had caught several pickerel that day. Unfortunately,
we did not catch any despite several hours of trying. Besides the competition
from the motor cruiser, there were also at least 25 pelicans swimming in
the bay or standing in the shallows of the rapids.
The next day, July 31st, we were deluged by heavy rains and so we stayed
at Wabinosh Bay. While we were preparing dinner that evening, a man
and woman suddenly appeared who apparently had run the rapids from Lake Wabinosh.
They paddled off into Lake Nipigon. We presumed they had one of the
nearby Indian reservations as destination since High Hill Marina was many
miles away. Shortly afterwards the motor cruiser left.
On August 1st, we motored up to the White Sands River (indicated by No. 8x
on the map) where we had difficulty finding the channel to enter the river.
At one point, I had to raise the motor and get off the boat to push it along
the shallows to the channel
White Sands River
while Harry pulled it from the front with his Zodiac. However, we finally
got the boat into the river and nosed it into the bank where we tied the
bow and stern to nearby trees. We then took the Zodiac up the river
to try the fishing and to explore the river upstream.
Harry’s Zodiac with 2 hp Honda four cycle outboard
The next day, August 2nd, we untied the boat and Harry led the way in his
Zodiac while I attempted to follow him without hitting anything. As
luck would have it, I did clip an underwater log which damaged the propeller
slightly but we got through the shallows without further incident and headed
for Kenna Creek. When we got there we found the creek was not navigable
and so carried on to Murray Island (indicated by No. 9x on the map).
On August 3rd, we motored over to the Britannia Islands to the northwest
of Murray Island but did not find an acceptable anchorage. The bottom
was rocky and there were a lot of shoals about. We therefore continued
on south to Geikie Island, passing Hoffmann, Logan and Vennor Islands.
Caribou are reputed to appear on the beaches of Windigo, Murran, Logan and
Murchison Islands in the evenings but we didn’t see any.
Cormorants on a small island near Geikie Island
The next day, August 4th, we set the GPS for Murchison Island. On the
way we passed a small island that literally encrusted with cormorants.
Everywhere we went in the northern section of Lake Nipigon, the pelicans
seemed to fly out from nearby islands to greet us. They seemed to be
quite curious about us and would fly by our boat and land nearby to inspect
us further.
Curious Pelican
We anchored at Murchison Island that evening (indicated by No. 11x on map).
The next day, August 5th, we motored down to High Hill Marina to complete
our tour of the northern portion of Lake Nipigon. On the way, the depth
sounder indicated a maximum depth of 450 feet. That evening we went
in to Beardmore to get some necessary provisions like beer and wine to carry
us through the next segment of our tour of Lake Nipigon.
On August 6th, we left High Hill Marina for our tour of the south portion
of Lake Nipigon and got as far as an anchorage on the south side of Shakespeare
Island (as indicated by No. 12x on the map). The winds were high and
gusty all night so we stayed at Shakespeare on August 7th.
On August 8th, we carried on to a bay on the mainland peninsula to the east
of the Two Mountain Island anchorage that we had stayed at during our tour
of the northern portion of the lake (as indicated by No. 13x on the map).
I caught a 7 lb northern pike here which we had two meals of over the next
two days.
Glenn’s 7 lb Northern Pike
On August 9th, we motored down to Twin Rivers at the southwest corner of
the south portion of the lake and found the river too shallow to enter.
We then proceeded around south McIntyre Bay as the area is called and then
north to anchor on the east side of Fairbault Island (as indicated by No.14x
on the map).
The next day, August 10th, we carried on back to Shakespeare Island where
we anchored overnight in the same spot we had previously stayed at (as indicated
by No.15x on the map).
The following day, August 11th, we motored back to High Hill Marina to complete
our 3 week motorsailing odyssey around Lake Nipigon.
We took the sailboat out of the water and took down the mast and main sail
boom to ready the boat for the long trip back to Ottawa.
Preparing the sailboat for the return trip to Ottawa
All in all it had been a fascinating and enjoyable interlude for this ultralighter
from Surrey.
Glenn Ursel
