Wow! Another great sail

The weather has definitely been cooperating so far this season. Another good sail today.

Our summer sessions start on Monday, and I had a late meeting on Friday, so I didn't go up to the lake on Friday; didn't make it until Saturday evening in fact, since I spent some time on Saturday at the office to prepare for classes starting. After having some dinner, I still had time to take a row upstream, returning just at sunset (no lights on the dinghy, so....). Then I took a walk.

My plan was to get up before dawn, because I had noticed some good sunrise picture possibilities last weekend and wanted to try to capture them. I didn't quite make it, but I did spend most of an hour taking some pix. Perhaps I'll post some later. Then took another walk and had some breakfast.

I spent some time readying the boat for sailing, although I was worried, from the weather reports that the wind would be too light. Around 10, my former department chair and her husband, who are now in Detroit, showed up for a sail. Unlike last week, neither had any sailing experience to speak of.

We motored out of the river, catching the 10:30 bridge opening. At first, the wind remained light, but the forecast said "variable, below 10 mph." The "variable" part of that was right, but as the day progressed, the winds became stronger. Certanly there were periods of light winds, but there were periods of very acceptable winds. They probably weren't up to the Force 4 of last week, but I would estimate that in the best periods, they were above 10 mph. Maybe 12 mph? Good sailing, especially for novices, since it was fun and exciting without enough wind to be scary.

Acording the the GPS this time, we went over 22 miles. This was a complete reading this week, since I remember to start it before we left the dock. Average speed was 4.1 mph, but this time it claimed the maximum speed was 13.3 mph, which seems especially high. If it has any reality, it was just for a few seconds (I wonder again how often they calculate this). I suspect that the average speed and related things are more accurate than a single reading like that.

We caught the 4 pm bridge opening. No, actually it was an opening at about 3:45 pm. I think it was that the towboat (Triple-A on the water!) needed to come back from a tow. Bad landing at the dock, however, with me miscalculating and having to back down and try again. We did hit the dock, but no damage that I could see. I need to figure out a way to practice this in different winds and other conditions. Docking remains the scariest part for me.

Anyway, an overall excellent day.