Sometmes not enough...

July Fourth weekend. I had hoped to go up to the lake Thursday evening, since the university was closed on Friday. But I was way behind in responding to student projects, so I spent time Friday at the office. Got up to the marina Friday evening and went for a row up the river to the railroad bridge and back. Apparently, the weather had not been good, with rain, too much wind for sailing, or both. The wind was still pretty good that evening, so as I say I rowed and then took the camera out for some sundown photographs.

Saturday, Independence Day, was different. The wind first thing in the morning, during my walk, was great, but I took my time after walking and breakfast getting ready for sailing. By the time I was out on the lake, the wind had droppped a lot but was still sailable. It soon when to zero, give or take, but shifted to the northeast. It was really fickle, though, and frustrating. I caught the 2:30 pm back in and even made a pretty good landing back in the slip. Apparently others had somwhat better wind farther out in the lake, but I never managed to get that far. I ended up going about six miles in three hours. Not very impressive. I guess I'm at least improving some of my skills. Oh well, the earlier days this season were great sailing, so some calms are to be expected.

I joined some of the Dock B folks for a Fourth of July cookout in the evening and ate too much. I was asked about rowing the night before, with some people apparently impressed with how far I had gone and how fast I rowed. I concluded that it is all in the audience, however, and not really about me. Most of the people there (not all, but most) were even older than I and quite overweight; a different audience would not have been very impressed. I have decided that I seem to be becoming one of those skinny old guys, with wiry arms and very gray beard and hair, at least now that I've lost the stomach, that seems to be it. For some reason, betting in shape again doesn't seem to have actually reversed the aging process. Huh. Took another long walk to try to work off some of the extra food.

Sunday started with even less wind. In fact, if there is such a thing as negative wind speed, Sunday morning would have had it. I decided to walk before breakfast and then take a late morning row up rive. I think in the coming weeks, on a calm morning, I'll do some rowing first thing, with a camera. I really like the early morning light, and I seem to be exhausting the possibilities of the beach and jetty areas in Port Clinton. Also, I'm hoping that rowing first thing in the morning will allow me to go further without hurting my back. The wind picked up a bit later but never got as good as it was even yesterday, so I skipped any more sailing this time.