Many folks know
that the peninsula formed by land between Idlewild Bay and Scenic Bay on Lake
Pend Oreille, Idaho was the second largest U.S. Navy training facility during
World War II. Many folks don’t know that
the Navy has maintained a presence on the lake even to today. The operation today is the U.S. Naval
Acoustic Research Detachment. In
addition to a 133-foot, quarter scale destroyer, there are several
submarines.
If you only go to
the Bayview part of the lake on weekends, you might get a glimpse of these tied
to the docks at the research facility located in the southwest corner of Scenic
Bay. Occasionally during the week, you
get to see these boats transiting between Bayview and a research area north of
Cape Horn - - in the deepest part of the lake (1,100 feet plus deep). The submarines are often escorted by a surface
support boat.
Snickerdoodle’s sail number is 4839. One mid-week afternoon while I was sailing
back to Bayview from Whiskey Rock, my VHF radio announced, “Sailboat #4839;
sailboat #4839; this is the U.S. Navy; maintain your course; say again –
maintain your course; a submarine will surface directly astern of you; maintain
your course.” And, sure enough, about
thirty seconds later a submarine surfaced about 200 meters astern in my
wake. That was an exciting afternoon.
barnaclebillholcomb@gmail.com
Exciting indeed. I'd heard that there were subs active in the lake but never from a first person account. That's good to know. Last year was our first year sailing there. Have you been contacted by the Navy before? We don't have a VHF onboard. Is that a good reason to have one? I'm pretty sure that in a collision with a sailboat, the sub always wins.
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