Trips for 16' C-Dory's

[tengland]

I have a 16' angler and really don't know where to start. Does anyone have any trips to recommend? Fishing trips? Camping? Cruising? I'm open for lots of ideas.

Todd

[rogerbum]

Where do you want to go and how far are you willing to travel? The skies the limit. A CD 16 is a fine boat for short cruises in the Pacific NW, you'd just have to trailer it out here. While some overnight on their 16's it is IMHO a bit small for comfortable overnighting (especially for more than a couple of nights). However, there are tons of marinas within walking distance of nice hotel/motels and/or campgrounds. You could easily spend 1-2 weeks poking around the San Juan islands and island campgrounds in Washington state. There's also a TON of lakes not far from home in Wisconsin and MN. Not all of them are "big water".

It all depends on what you want to do. Cruising, camping, fishing, day trips, etc. Anything is possible but somethings are easier to do than others. Give us a few more clues about what your interests and constraints (time, $'s) are.

[BRAZO]

We live in Stoughton, so we share the same cruising areas. My suggestion is to trailer the boat to Sturgeon Bay or Fish Creek. Spend the night at Horseshoe Island, the day watching boats in Nicolet Bay, a night in Sister Bay, and at least a night in Fish Creek. From there you could head to Rock Island and spend the night and even head to Fayette Michigan.

Or just head across the bay to Menominee and enjoy their great marina. We have a 22, but we met a 16 footer (sea beagle) out fishing the bay in quite choppy conditions.

Door county is great cruising, just don't have a schedule because it does get rough.

[Bill Uffelman]

Used to hunt regularly in a couple of duck blinds on Sawyer Harbor at the crook of the elbow of Cabot Point.

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/Potawatomi/pdfs/potparkmap.pdf

We also fished regularly in Sturgeon Bay. Great cruising grounds and do try the fish boil at White Gull Inn in at Fish Creek.

Bill Uffelman
Las Vegas NV and Ocean View DE

[MilesandMiles]

Apostle Islands!!!

I had my 90 16-Angler out in the islands for 3-4 day stretches and they were the highlights of the summer.

Sleeping: I cut out the bulkhead and slept kitty-corner (beers at Tom's Burned Down Cabin/bar helped a lot)

There's 22 islands out there and only one has people living on it.

You can launch from Washburn (about 9 miles from the islands) parking is even free.

I'll have my 22-cruiser out there this year--I hope to see you out there!

M&M

[El and Bill]

Have you checked this out? There are other illustrated descriptions of cruises in your area on this webpage. Go to the homepage, click years, click 2010 and enjoy some vicarious cruises in your beautiful waters. Enjoy that 16. Drop a line if you have questions. El and Bill

http://cruisingamerica-halcyondays.com/apostleunique.htm

[El and Bill]

If you have geological curiosity. You might also want to check out the following -

http://cruisingamerica-halcyondays.com/apostlerift.htm

[tengland]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. For those of you who are asking, I'm not sure yet how much I'm willing to pay. I just want ideas. I'm more concerned about how long these trips will take considering that I have limited vacation.

Todd

[colbysmith]

I vote with Brazo, and say head to Door County. It's not that far, and there are a lot of nice spots you can boat, especially on the Bay side. As long as it's relatively calm that is. (Or whatever your sealegs and boat can handle...) Or head the other direction to the Mississippi River. That can provide a lot of fun locking through, just learn about wing dams! Dubuque has some nice ramps, or many of the state parks on our side between there and LaCrosse have some nice launches. However, with many you just need to find how to get out to the main channel. Another fun trip is the Upper Dells. I think your boat would work there. I use to take a Pontoon up there all the time. Nice launch in the Dells, but you have to get under a low railroad trestle. Perhaps there are other places you can launch if you have any kind of height to the boat. If you have more time, the Apostle Islands up in Lake Superior are worth the trip!

[trebleplink]

I have a 16' Cruiser, and do "camping" trips with my ham radio on the local lakes and rivers. I found the main issues to be:

1. You need to have mosquito-tight living quarters, so some kind of rear "doors" or custom tent is required.

2. In the Summer, some kind of forced-air ventilation is required for comfort, while keeping out bugs.

I made a screened "muffin" fan insert for the front hatch to solve #2. It draws about 3/10 amp, so leaving it on all night doesn't affect batteries. I additionally have a 5/10 amp fan in the cabin.

Here is my webpage showing C-scape:

http://w4neq.com/htm/mobile.htm

Looks like you have Ole Miss nearby and a couple of respectable lakes ...

You might want to see Ray Macke's pages to see what he's done with his similar-sized boat - 27,000 miles so far :

http://www.egyptian.net/~raymacke/

[ldraker]

Todd, we met you at Guttenberg in August. Glad to hear you've bought "Lil Sis." We know you'll enjoy her.

We're known as the "minimalists," and we're proud of that title. And using the attributes that earned us that name, we find it easy to camp on our 16, "See-Saw." We don't fish, so we don't have that equipment to transport. Of course, your angler is configured a little differently from our cruiser; ours has a "real" berth, and we think yours doesn't. We met a C-Brat in Bellingham a few years ago, who travels solo, has DriDek on the floor, carries a backpacker ThermaRest mattress, rolls it out in the floor, and tops it with his sleeping bag when it's bedtime. He said no problem.

We came to the C-Dory life from backpacking, camping out of a 17-foot cruising sea kayak, spending 3 months in Europe about 7 years ago, with a backpack and backpacker tent, same in Australia and New Zealand, and two years ago, hosteling with backpacks for a month in South America. So we're definitely used to doing without a lot of amenities.

We've had our 16' C-Dory for about 3 years, have done LOTS of day trips in MANY lakes, but we've also done several longer cruises, from overnight to 16 consecutive nights on Lake Powell. This past May, we spent 5 or 6 nights on board, roaming Louisiana with Tex and Sharon, including three days on the lower Mississippi without getting off on land (because there was no place to disembark--the river was 19' above normal). On that trip, we launched at Venice, at the south end of the Great River Road, went 90 miles up the river through the French Quarter in New Orleans and back, past Venice, and out to the pass where the river dumps into the Gulf, then back to Venice. It was fabulous!

Then in August, we went down the Mississippi from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, spending 7 nights on the river on the Dory along the way. (We have posted several pictures from that trip on the Guttenberg- Mississippi Gathering photo album. And we posted several pictures of our Lake Powell trip on the Lake-Powell album. We will be posting more pictures of the Guttenberg gathering and the North Carolina gathering and the Mini-Loop soon! Look for those.) After the gathering in Guttenberg, we headed to North Carolina to the gathering at Oriental. After that we headed up to Elizabeth City and did the Carolina Mini-Loop, spending three nights on the boat, going up the Great Dismal Swamp, into the outskirts of Norfolk, Virginia, then east to Currituck Sound, Coinjock, Albemarle Sound, and back to Elizabeth City. That was our first foray into open water.

Sometimes we camp on beaches, sometimes in marinas. It's all super! We do have a "camperback," the canvas-and mosquito-netting-and-clear-plastic enclosure over the back, which provides us with more space and shelter from weather. We have plastic bins under our berth with a JetBoil backpacker stove, fuel cannisters, plastic plates, silverware, GI can opener, microfiber towel for dishwashing, freeze-dried backpacking food, crackers, tortillas, canned meats, fresh carrots, granola bars, fresh and canned fruit. We also have a bag-shower and towels. We keep our clothes and toiletries in duffel bags and stack them on the berth, under the console. (We're not very big people, and we like to cuddle, so we don't need the entire berth to sleep in.) We spread out sleeping bags on the berth, and throw lots of stuff on top of them during the day--our daypacks with rain gear, books, sudoku puzzles, a tiny bag with games like Farkle and Yatzee, etc., our life vests, throw cushion, etc. Of course, all that has to be moved into our seats at bedtime.

We have a portapotty. For long trips, we carry a six-gallon plastic water can of drinking water. We don't carry an ice chest or anything that needs to be kept cold. We have bag chairs and a "roll" table for camping on beaches. (And now we're going to be adding a dog to the mix.) All this is pretty minimal, but we're happy with it. It's lots easier than we two 70+-year-olds carrying all that stuff in a backpack over a mountain pass in a hail storm! We're happy and hope you will be too! Enjoy the trip!

[JAKE7746]

I saw a c-dory last night and think maybe you> I live on Lake Koshkonong and My Dory is on lift close to Mounds > If you write maybe we can meet> Jake[/b]

[colbysmith]

Jake, your profile shows Florida. But you are talking about Lake Koskonong in Wisconsin, right? I live up in Stoughton. Today, possibly, we might take our C-Dory and put in at Newville and boat up thru Lake Koshkonong, the Rock River into Ft. Ackinson and back. I haven't done that since I had a pontoon boat about 10 years or more ago. Colby

[DuckDogTitus]

[Stan Major]

I did about 20 miles on this still very new C-Dory 16 Cruiser. Leaving Wednesday morning for a week in Beach Haven NJ trailering the boat. Looking forward to getting on the Lewes Cape May ferry across the Delaware Bay. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to C-Dory across the Bay.