Boat U.S. - September 2008 - (Page 62)

Bill Butcher tacks his veteran Westerly 26 sloop out of the bay at Lake Sakakawea State Park toward the open lake for an evening cruise. The boat rounds Prairie Dog Island and he points to a flattopped headland. It marks the beginning of many a long voyage he and his family have experienced in nearly 40 years of exploring Lake Sakakawea under sail. “There’s no better feeling than clearing that point and seeing nothing but water on the horizon to the west,” he says. “You’ve got 178 miles of water out there, clean water, stretching from the prairie shoreline you see here into the Badlands, which start about 15 miles to the west.” Butcher says that Lake Sakakawea has more coastline than California and that its shoreline is probably getting a bit longer these days because, after seven years of severe drought, Sakakawea is on the rise again. And when he says there’s nothing out there, he means that west of Pick City and Sakakawea State Park, or Ft. Stevenson State BoatU.S. Magazine September 2008 Park across the lake, the next port of call is 20 miles upstream.Beyond that, it’s another 20 miles or so to fuel, food and supplies. You have to be pretty self-sufficient to cruise Lake Sakakawea and that’s what Butcher, a retired FBI agent, and his wife Dina have been doing for all those years. While they were at it, the Butchers raised two daughters who “went to sea” — you almost want to say that about this lake — as infants and have been sailing Sakakawea ever since, now with their own boats and families. reation proved at best an afterthought back then, Butcher says. But today, Lake Sakakawea, named for the young Shoshone Indian woman who met the explorers here in 1804 and guided them west, is a playground for the entire Dakota/ Minnesota/Montana region. Indeed, Lake Sakakawea Raising Spirits Some 150 feet below Jolly Tar’s twin keels, the drowned bed of the Missouri River winds toward the massive earth works, Garrison Dam, about three miles to the southeast. It’s the dam that turned this stretch of Lewis and Clark’s river highway into one of the nation’s three largest man-made reservoirs over 50 years ago. Built for flood control, hydroelectric power and High plains sailors raft up at Bertho irrigation purposes, rec-

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Boat U.S. - September 2008

Boat U.S. - September 2008 Contents Behind The Buoy BoatU.S. Reports Member Forum List Locker Aluminum Can Do Cruising in Crossovers Second Guessing Seasonal Forecasts A Cradle for Your Baby Badlands Boating The Inns and Outs of Penobscot Bay All in the Family: The Butler Did It Stealing Back Peace of Mind DIY Boat Owner Files Good Foundations Boat Smart 2nd Time Around Hot Tips Tangled Line Seaworthy Ask Chuck At Your Service BoatU.S. Exchange Behind the Boat Where Our Flags Fly

Boat U.S. - September 2008

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