Father's Day Sail; Lake of the Ozarks

Gravois Mills Access, 38.309841,-92.81898

My father who ironically got me hooked on Horatio Hornblower novels while younger, had never sailed until this weekend. I took him to the Lake of the Ozarks for Father's Day. The Gravios Mills Access was deserted compared to other ramps I've been to. That made it very pleasant while launching and recovering Galactica. The Dock is sturdy with all the cleats. Some public docks tend to miss cleats.

Launching and docking Galactica went smoothly. Dad parked the tow beast and trailer; I picked him up at the dock. We headed down the long Gravois Arm to the main lake.

I was intending to remove the reef from the mainsail once we were on a wider section of the arm. We had a head wind the entire way. With Saturday offshore boats rocketing every which way, the waves were rogue in every direction and at times, large. At one point near the main Channel, the waves were easily four or more feet. I decided to wait until we were at our cousin Bob's place and reset the sail there. Good thing. We would have been caught by a squall with a 40+ mph front.

We took Bob's truck into Osage Beach and got chicken and salad for lunch. Bob's a Korean and Vietnam vet. Dad's a Vietnam vet. I'm Desert Storm era. It's always interesting to hear their memories.

As we powered past the lighthouse island and headed into Bob's cove, I saw a Macgregor X hoisting his sails in the distance.

We were hot and hungry otherwise I would have headed over to say hi. It would have been fun to find out who the X was and hoist sails along with them!


We docked Galactica so that her rigging didn't touch Bob's roof using a couple spring lines. Dad slept up at Bob's place and I camped out on Galactica. We got up early on Father's day, had Breakfast and headed out. The wind was steady as I replaced the tail tales. As soon as I was done, the wind died; otherwise, I could have sailed straight out of the cove.


Although my family had me on power boats as young as 6 months old when we lived on the east coast, this was Dad's first time sailing. He seemed amazed by the sudden peace and tranquility when you turn off the motor and the sails take over.


We idled out of the cove and raised the sails. The wind was light and sporatic. It took a couple hours to sail less than four miles. Eventually, the wind died so we lowered the sails and motored up the Gravois Arm.

Twice, we sailed for a short while then had to revert to the aluminum Genny. It was a relaxing weekend and I got to teach my Dad something new!