With Joanie in Chicago for the week, I promised myself a full day of sailng. Maybe even a multi-day sail. I'll explore a new creek, island, or head north into New Bern for a night. After waking at 4am Monday to drive her to the airport, I returned home for a short nap, only to wake to a day of rain. So, Tuesday it is then. Yesterday had 15-20mph winds with gusts to 30 so that's a no go. Checking the weather forecast last night, today would be the day!
After a quick breakfast I placed a cooler with waters and a sandwich, not in the cooler, in the cabin and went to retrieve my camera and wallet. Once back in the house I remembered I needed to finish fixing the dents in the wall from moving a table upstairs. With that complete, I set out to go sailing. Passing through the garage I saw the tools and hadware left out to complete the maintenance on the Orion's water tanks, so off I went to do that. As I approached the boat, a neighbor was coming in so I helped him dock and we got to talking. An hour later I started working on the water tanks. While doing this I saw a Sunday Cat sailing up the creek and remembered the promise to myself. Once the Orion was squared away I returned home only to look out at the glass like surface of the water. Okay, maybe it's only the creek. I'll check the webcams view of the river. Nope, calm there too. Friday is a guys night out with dinner and a comedy show, so an all day sail is out. Maybe a half day. Saturday I pick Joanie up at the airport, so 🤞 the wind cooperates and I keep my promise tomorrow.
After dinner I looked outside and the CYOA pennant was flying so I climbed aboard, raised the main, let out the genoa and slowly sailed out of the cove. I made it about a half mile when the winds, laughing at me no doubt, decided to call it a day. Putting the sails away I started the o/b and headed in.
Well, I gave it a shot.
I finally made it out yesterday after a long period of no sailing. Windfinder on Sunday showed a max 12 MPH wind forecast for yesterday (Tuesday). On Monday Windfinder now forecasted a max 8 MPH winds for Tuesday. I thought that would be alright I'd still be sailing but was disappointed. Tuesday morning arrived and I pulled the Suncat out of the barn and start preparing for the trip to the lake. While preparing I stop and look at the trees and see absolutely no movement at all. I stop and check Windfinder and now it shows max 5 MPH. I was taking a friend with me and I decided to go no matter what. Got to the lake and in the water. Raised the sail and motored out to the middle of the lake. Shut the motor off and had a nice lunch and good conversation. After eating we slowly motored the length of the lake while being teased by the wind picking up enough to shut the motor off. Then after shutting the motor off the wind would die off. It was warm but low humidity and there was hardly anyone around. A nice peaceful day but no wind.
My friend summed the day up nicely when she said. "Not much wind but maybe we needed a chill out day".
You tried Carl! I am looking at the water and dreaming about sailing, but can't yet due to a recent medical procedure, lol.
Once again it's a no go. I should be out fishing, bike riding, or kayaking, but instead I'm cleaning out the underbrush and feeding the mosquitoes and ticks.