Fourth of July and the Sailing was Great!

Last week I got all caught up on everything for my classes by early Friday afternoon, in hopes that I could get away for the long weekend without having a lot of problems pile up. I mostly succeeded, since there were only a couple of emails from students all weekend. I'll take are of them this evening or tomorrow.

Before then, though, I have to say that the sailing was great this weekend. I got up there on Friday, and paddled upriver. I'm definitely starting to gain some stamina for kayaking, since I can paddle continuously for most of the trip at least up to the railroad bridge and back.

Saturday, I paddled again and then went out sailing for a few hours. The wind was from the southwest, roughly. That means that it is coming off the Ohio shore of Lake Erie. Especially when you stay within a few miles of shore, the waves are generally very small. Waves need time and room to build up on a body of water; the distance that wind travels over water to build up the waves is called the "fetch." With the wind from the southern semi-circle the fetch is very short and the waves stay small. That means you can have a good wind with smooth water. Perfect conditions. I didn't go any where in particular, just back and forth for a while in the Port Clinton area, but I sailed about 15 miles, according to the GPS. The wind seemed to be dying, however, so I pulled down the sails and started in. At that moment, of course, the wind increased again and stayed that way most of the afternoon. I met Keith and Debbie on their way out, and they may have had an even better sail. Oh well.

Sunday, I rowed upriver and I decided to go up the coast to the West for a while. There was no warning about live firing at Camp Perry, so it was safe to sail through the defined danger area there. And in fact, I was not stopped. (Last week, Frank told the story of sailing into that area and having a fast (and armed) boat and a helicopter inform him quite clearly of his mistake.) I got about five miles up the coast, when the wind died at about 1 pm. I had been going about 5 MPH or more, but my speed dropped precipitously. I figured that if the wind stayed as it was, it would take me two or three hours to get back to PC. I started back, but the wind returned and tacked back and forth a bit, going 18 or 19 miles this time. Mostly good winds and no traffic at all along the coast to the west. At one point I looked around and saw literally no other boats in sight, certainly not within 2 miles or more. Things picked up a little later, but they mostly stayed close to PC. In fact, after sailing for hours almost alone, I got a little nervous as I approached the river mouth, looking for my opportunity to get the sails down safely and head back in. I had one of my better dockings, to. No one was there to help, but the wind did help bring me to a stop and I turned into the dock early enough to let it gently drift to the dock, where I got the spring line on. Good day all around.

It did start getting very hot on Sunday, and Monday was even worse. I did some kayaking in the morning, but as the morning progressed, it got harder to do much of anything. In the cockpit, there was a breeze but the sun was brutal. Down below, I could get out of the sun, but the breeze was mostly lacking. I tried to do some work around the boat, but finally gave up and headed home.