Day #5 on the lake

Max Temperature 84 °F / 28 °C
Wind Speed 8 mph / 13 km/h (SSW)
Max Wind Speed 28 mph / 45 km/h
Max Gust Speed 37 mph / 60 km/h

Tuesday, April 3rd was my 4th day to sail in 2007. There was a monster storm headed our way from the midwest and forecasters were a bit off in the timing. They called for it to hit between 10:00 PM and midnight on Tuesday, but we knew by noon that it was on the way and the lake would be dangerous several hours before it even got dark.

I printed out some great articles on tuning and checked them against my setup and I was right on the money except for boom-height being an inch or two low, so I put my boom up two inches. I also tuned the 9.5 for light winds.

Tim arrived around 11 and we chatted for an hour. By the time I persuaded him to rig his 7.5, my 9.5 was obviously going to be a handful, but I did not want to take the time to re-downhaul, so I just tightened the outhaul an inch.

My muscles were burning after a couple of runs across the lake and I really wanted to lower the booms, but I had tightened the inhaul, had several inches of outhaul, and was afraid I couldn’t clamp the boom shut if I tried moving it while in the middle of the lake. It took awhile to get to an island to adjust things. Just as soon as I got back onboard, I was overpowered and decided to head back in for smaller stuff. Tim followed me in and as soon as we hit the beach, the wind died. We had now been sailing for just over an hour.

I rigged a 7.5, grabbed the smaller Bee 284 and we went back out the minute the wind returned. We both had some good rides, but winds were getting quite shifty and we were watching the sky. I think we saw the same first lightning strike, because we headed for the beach at the same time.

We had time to get in before getting showered on. The showers ended fairly quickly and we broke down and quit for the day.

Surface water temperature is 68.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and 68.4 degrees at 10 feet. I baked in a full 2mm suit and switched to a 2mm shortie, which was perfect.