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.