Day #11 on the lake

Max Temperature 88 °F / 31 °C
Water Temp: Still nice and slightly cool, perfect!
Wind Speed 3 mph / 7 km/h ()
Max Wind Speed 16 mph / 26 km/h
Max Gust Speed 24 mph / 39 km/h
GPS: I didn’t use it.

I had not planned to sail today, but am sure glad I did. Hutch called this morning and wanted to visit, but I had a busy schedule and asked him to drop by around noon. He left around 1:30, I saw SW12-18 on wunderground and decided to go.

It was definitely not blowing that hard at Cook, plus it was steady from the SE. By the time I got the 9.5 rigged and down to the beac, it had died. I ran into a sailor who is now a kayaker and we shot the breeze for awhile, then he left and I decided to give it a go. By the time I got to Stone Island, it had picked up quite a bit and I was pretty overpowered by the time I reached the shore outside Hamilton Creek. The 9.5 was loose halfway to the 3rd batten, I shortened the crap out of the harness lines and was still pretty overpowered, so I decided to sail in and get nourishment.

While I was at the car grabbing a snack and water, it was really up and down. One minute I was thinking of rigging 7.5 and Fanatic, the next minute it wasn’t even 9.5 weather.

After 10 minutes I went back out and again it picked up by Stone Island… I mean REALLY picked up, The closer I got to Hamilton Creek, the harder it blew and I was determined to drive hard with my toes to reach maximum speed. I gave no desire to jibe as there was no way I wanted to uphaul or waterstart. I reached back and forth across the lake a bunch of times and was getting pretty far upwind, although it took many trips as I wasn’t pointing well. I stayed out about an hour and both my arms and legs were plently tired when I came in. Again I thought of the 7.5, but PWC and boats were getting plentiful and the wind and rough water were requiring all my concentration, so I did not feel good about their presence.

Day #10 on the lake

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

Max Temperature 84 °F / 29 °C
Wind Speed 6 mph / 8 km/h
Max Wind Speed 15 mph / 24 km/h
Max Gust Speed 21 mph / 33 km/h (at 9:00AM, It dropped off after that, see map below.)

NOAA and the TV weathermen called for the same as yesterday - S 5-15, but wunderground called for S 10-20, so I was hoping for a better day today. As I drove over the dam toward Cook, it certainly looked better than yesterday. I was tempted to sail at the dam, but headed to Cook hoping to run into a girl I saw there yesterday, plus it would be blowing harder there.

It was lighter by the time I got to Cook and was blowing SSE, which meant the best winds were up by Cook Point closest to Bear Island. It was dead in the middle of the lake and I would need to sail across the lake toward Hamilton Creek, past Stone Island at the very least, to lay the point. It looked like it might be better toward Seven Points, but I was not going to risk getting stuck over there, as the winds were getting lighter by the minute.

I sailed for about an hour and got in the front strap 3-4 times, but never really had a good run. I came in and watched the wind for about an hour and it looked like a steady 10 at best. The 10.5 might have been just enough.

Day #9 on the lake

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Max Temperature 87 °F / 30 °C and sunny
Wind Speed 2 mph / 7 km/h ()
Max Wind Speed 13 mph / 20 km/h
Max Gust Speed 18 mph / 30 km/h
GPS: Didn’t bother

Today’s S 5-15 forecast was pretty on the mark for a change. I took the AHD and Bee to Cook and it was blowing better than expected with a a few whitecaps. I rigged the 7.5 Bee, made a couple schlogging trips almost to Hamilton Creek and back before I got far enough upwind to hit the good stuff. I had maybe 5-6 good runs in the straps and man it was nice, but I could see it was dying, so after 30 minutes I went back to rig the 9.5. I was wearing the Camelbak and threw an energy thingy in it, hoping to stop somewhere for a pick-me-up.

I rigged the 9.5 according to specs for a change, meaning 30cm mast extension as recommended instead of 25, and I had her floppy down to the 3rd batten. Big mistake, I was hurting for power.

I sailed toward Hamilton Creek again, tacked a bunch trying to get upwind and realized I couldn’t point for crap. I thought about coming back to Cook, which was a straight shot, but I’d had a hard enough time getting upwind and didn’t want to lose it. I finally got to Bear Island and backed off the downhaul and I thought that would put more space between the foot of the sail and the cleat than I wanted, but it was just fine.

I had my energy thing and was glad I brought it. The air was in the mid-80’s but the water felt a little cool and I was actually chilly on shore for a minute when the wind honked.

Back on the water, the 9.5 was much better now. I usually go with 25cm extension for light wind and now I am certain that is right for the light stuff. I sailed for two hours on the 9.5/AHD.

When I saw it dying, I went in and got the air mattress out and carried that and my chair down to the beach. I only used the air mattress for a few minutes because I heard the maintenance guy with his weedeater, then heard the riding mower.

I did not want to go back out and leave an entire rig (or anything for that matter) on the beach where these 2-cycle morons would spray pebbles on it, so I sat in the chair and enjoyed the sun. Finally after 1:45 minutes, they came down my way and I said screw it, packed up and left. It was a very good day; I saw only a couple of power boats and four PWC, none of whom came anywhere close to me.

Another sailable day

Today’s forecast was S10-20. I showered last night, went to bed early and slept like a rock with plans to sail again today and by 10:30, I had eaten and showered and it was blowing nicely. I hooked up the trailer and headed out, stopping at the bottom of the hill for ice. It was obviously blowing better than then 12-16 wunderground said, so I came back home for the 115 liter Fanatic.

Driving over the dam, the wind looked way better than yesterday and I got to Cook to see solid whitecaps. I thought for a minute about going out on 7.5, but it was really solild whitecaps upwind and below Stone Island, so 5.5 was the safe call.

Small problem in the trailer: There was no 430 mast. I watched the water for another 5-10 minutes, picturing sailing with a 7.5, and thought, “hell, no!” Since I was still tight from yesterday, I decided to blow off sailing today. But tomorrow’s another day!

Day #8 on the lake

Max Temperature 83 °F / 28 °C
Surface water temperature is 74.3 degrees Fahrenheit, and 74.1 degrees at 10 feet.
Wind Speed 2 mph / 7 km/h ()
Max Wind Speed 14 mph / 22 km/h
Max Gust Speed 20 mph / 32 km/h
My Max GPS Speed: 22.4 mph
Total Distance: 10.45 miles

Today’s forecast as of 6PM yesterday was for just 5-10 out of the south, but with a front coming tomorrow, I felt like it would be better that that today and was right! I got to Cook and it looked better than I expected, but died two seconds later, so I rigged 9.5 and Superlight. The I got out to the middle and it picked up so that I could almost rail for a second, but then it dropped off. The forecast was forSE which I never saw. Winds were southerly osccillating to SW and when it clocked to SW, it usually died down.

I sailed for 20 minutes, then came in to drink water and eat. 45 minutes later I went back out with the 9.5 and AHD and planed most of the time. That’s when I hit 22.4 mph!

I was hoping to top 25 mph, but was quite pleased with 22.4. I never saw a whitecap and guess the top wind I sailed in to be 14 mph.

YouTube - Hatteras Helmet Cam

Nice footage of blasting in Cape Hatteras.

Day #7 on the lake

The forecast was only SE 5-10, but since they’ve been 12 hours off for days and they called for 15 last night, I hoped the 15 would show up today and I was right! It was blowing a solid 14 by 8:30 this morning and was still there at 10, so I showered and went. Nate was supposed to work on his boat at Hamilton Creek around noon and had the Prodigy on the rack, so I went to HC. The slot toward Smith Springs Road didn’t look too good, but it was a straight southerly and in front of Bear Island did look good, so I headed for Cook. On the way there I thought I would check out the dam (that’s where Tim wanted to sail and might get out later). The dam looked good and my favorite parking space was open, so I parked. It looked good enough up by Goose Island that I thought I might need the 5.5, but decided to go 7.5 instead and was glad I did, as I never quite got the 7.5 to plane.

I came back and rigged the 9.5 and got up by Goose Island in one tack. I got a couple of rides, but each time I tacked and went toward Nashville Shores, the wind went SE and I got headed, so it was time to work back upwind each time I came on Port toward the Visitor’s Center. I could tell after about three runs that it was getting lighter, so I came back in to grab a banana.

After the banana, it was even lighter, so I threw the 9.5 on the Superlight and decided to sail to Hamilton Creek. Maybe there was better wind at Cook, maybe there would be another sailor up there, maybe Nate would be ready to go.

I worked upwind pretty easily until I got to the second Elm Hill Marina entrance. I was never anywhere close to railing, but kept watching the GPS. Going 5MPH on a Superlight isn’t too bad, but anything slower than that is really boring. The wind got ligher and lighter and by the time I could see Cook Point and the entrance to Hamilton Creek, I figured it was at least another 30 minutes to the mouth of the marina. I was hot in the shortie even though I fell once and got wet, so I decided to head back to the dam. That took about an hour.

Surface water temperature is 71.0 degrees Fahrenheit, and 69.7 degrees at 10 feet.
I wore a shortie and it felt good when I fell in, but was hot otherwise.

Day #6 on the lake

There was a decent breeze as I waited outside the dealership for my car. I saw an earlier wunderground report of light and variable gusting to 17, WTF??

So as soon as I got my car, I ran home, got the trailer and headed to Hamilton Creek. Southerly winds looked decent in front of Bear Island, but looked DW and much lighter to the SW toward Anderson Road, so I headed for Cook. I stopped at the dam for a look and the parking lot was nearly empty, so I pulled in and rigged the 9.5 and AHD. Getting out was a pain as not only was there barely any wind, but it was coming from everywhere.

The GPS said my top speed was 5.7 and I sailed for 40 minutes. Maybe tomorrow will be better.