What a week it has been! We drove from Denver to Seattle on Saturday the 28th. 1,400 miles in 20 hours! We met Donald at the Kent plant on Sunday morning and picked up our new trailer. We promptly hit the highway headed south to Alameda. We made a brief stop at Bridge Bay Marina on Lake Shasta to check out the ramp and parking situation for our upcoming vacation.

 

We arrived in Alameda at 11:00 pm on Sunday night. Another 900 miles down and 14 more hours of driving! Monday we loaded Karma on her new trailer. After having lunch with Maureen’s Aunt and Uncle we went back over to Karma to start “re-loading” her with our gear. How many people can say they have taken delivery of their boat twice! Through out the week, I continued to stow and ready Karma for her trip north. Permits for towing, new heavy duty hitch installed on truck, new heavy duty receiver and ball, flags, banners, etc!

Karma will spend a week on Lake Shasta on her journey north. She will once again splash in Puget Sound on the 17th of June at Alki Point Boat Ramp. From there (since it will be late) we will head to Bell to spend the night. Saturday we will proceed to Karma’s new home in Eagle Harbor at Winslow Wharf Marina.

While being only short distances so far, towing Karma has not been too bad. You do have to remember to take all turns wide as the length of the trailer with the boat is 42 feet! Total length of the truck and trailer is 62 feet!

Well, today was our first day for towing Karma any distance. I headed out of Alameda at 7:30 am. Three and a half hours later than I had planned. It seems that getting the permits were just a little more bothersome than I thought it would be. I submitted all of the information over a week ago. After a half dozen calls this morning, finally, they showed up on my email. For those of you that have said is it really necessary? I was stopped twice today and had to show the permit. Once was at the toll both for the Benicia Bridge, the other was a commercial enforcement officer with the CHP.

I rolled the truck and the trailer onto a scale outside of Redding. Total weight was 23,500 pounds. Once I got that weight done, I pulled the truck off of the scale and weighed just the boat and trailer. I dropped the tongue onto the scale to place all of the weight on the scale.

The weight of Karma and the trailer came in at 15,040 pounds! That means Karma’s weight is just under 13,000 pounds since the trailer along came in at 2,100 pounds! Sure glad I had that extra heavy duty hitch installed!

Karma did well just following right along behind the truck. I kept my speed at 55 to 58 miles per hour. No sense in rushing when you have 15,000 pound tailgating you! My average fuel consumption was 10 MPG. This is the same that we got when towing Solitude. (she was 5,000 lighter)

There was 25 gallons of fuel aboard. No waste. No water. 1,000 pounds of gear.

The launch at Bridge Bay Marina went off without a hitch. The ramp was plenty steep enough so she came off very easily. She drew quite a crowd when I pulled over to the fuel dock to fill the water tank. People were amazed at how good looking she was. I was amazed with the number of people that asked what she cost. Not a question I would ask……

Maureen fly’s in tomorrow night. I will pick her up and then it is a beautiful week of cruising Lake Shasta. The weather is predicted to be sunny and in the mid ninety’s all week! A week from Friday, we will pull her out of the water and continue our journey north! Watch for posts on our website as well as here to our continued adventure on Lake Shasta!