While sailing on Madrone, we have a few simple goals – keep the mast up, keep the keel down, keep the water on the outside, and keep the people onboard. And perhaps most importantly, make sure the boat always stays above sea level.
When traveling with AV, we have a little bit more flexibility on the last requirement. That’s lucky, because a trip to the Salton Sea in southeastern California meant that we ended up more than 200′ (60m) below sea level.
The Salton Sea lies in a low point created by the San Andreas Fault. Over millions of years, water has sometimes naturally flowed into the lake, sometimes naturally flowed out of the lake, and sometimes naturally evaporated completely.
The current level of the lake, though, is due to none of these things. Instead, it was actually created by an engineering error. Whoops!
