Great Weekend

If anyone reading this passed up the chance for sailing with me this weekend (oops, wait a sec; that assumes that anyone does in fact read this, or cares, or wants to sail, all of which are fairly dubious propositions), you made a mistake. A faculty colleague and her friend did join me on Saturday, which turned out to be a great day!

I went up to the lake pretty late on Friday, so I didn't get any sailing or rowing done then. Woke up early on Saturday and took a 2-3 mile walk. After breakfast, I prepared the boat for sailing, and my guests showed up a bit before 10, early enough, in fact, to catch the 10 am bridge opening. Casting off went smoothly, and we were out on the lake in short order.

The winds early in the morning were from the south, but by the time we had the sails up, they were from the west or maybe southwest and fairly light. That made setting sail easy, but the sailing was slow, and then the wind died completely.

Turned out that was just a prelude to the predicted wind shift to the northeast, which took place pretty quickly. Soon the wind had not only changed direction but started to pipe up nicely, getting up to what seemed to be Force 4 or so (this was confirmed by Keith in the Pearl a few slips down from me who measure guests up to 16 mph when they were out). We didn't go anywhere, or try to, just back and forth a few miles on a tack, occasionally dodging fishing boats or the Jet Express. I had forgotten to turn on the GPS but I did after an hour or an hour and half. After that, we sailed over 20 miles at an average speed of 4.6 mph. It claimed a maximum speed of 10 mph. That seems high, but maybe it calculated it over a very short time period (seconds).

We caught the 4 pm bridge opening back in and docked again without serious incident. Geez, but I hate docking. Last weekend another sailor was complaining about the process, too, since it is so hard to predict where a sailboat will go under power. And then there's the lack of brakes. Anyway, however, a very excellent sailing day--sunny, warm (but not hot), excellent wind, and someone to help with boat handling!

Sunday, the wind was pretty light in the morning, so after another long walk and breakfast, I decided to row upriver. By the time I was back, the wind was good, but I went below and promptly fell asleep. Might have been a good sail, but I decided to just come home. Saturday made up for it anyway.

So far, the long-range forecast for next weekend looks good, although the wnd might be light. I'll be keeping tabs on it.