Father's Day Weekend

[Greene]

We hope all your Father's Days were great.  B and I spent the entire weekend sailing and adventuring on Lake Mendota.  I left work early on Friday and we were on the water by 4 pm.
 
We sailed around for a while and just enjoyed the sounds, sights and smells of being on the water.  As it got to be late afternoon we anchored outside the UW Memorial Union to listen to the bands.  This is one of our favorite spots to just watch all the sailboats coming and going.  Later we had a short night sail to a protected bay to anchor for the night.  Night sailing is turning into our preferred sailing time. The lake is so quiet and the sailboat just makes it own music at it slices through the water.  The lights on shore just add to the beauty of the scenery.  We anchored on a dead calm night and even slept in a little late.



We tried out our cheapo butane stove and by golly it heats water for oatmeal, coffee and tea in a big hurry.  B stayed on board to read while I took the little dinghy for a row and threw out the fish hook a few times.  One more tiny bluegill knows who the boss is now.  

The wind never showed up on Saturday, so we rowed into shore and took a nice 3 mile hike on Picnic Point.  It is a city kept park with lots of trails, fire pits (with free firewood), mechanical pump drinking water pump and great views of the city and the lake.  After getting back to the boat we put up our shade and took a relaxing nap.



We decided to motor over (still no wind) to the UW Union again for supper.  We anchored out near the other sailboats in a mooring field and rowed into the shore.  We walked a couple of blocks to State Street and went to Chipotle for burritos and a really good margarita.  Great place to eat and people watch - State Street is the perfect place for this hobby. Afterward we rowed back for a little wine and Amaretto with cheese and crackers with music from live bands on shore making this a great evening.   We decided that we would just stay anchored there for the night since the local sheriff's boat told us the weather called for 5 12 mph winds.  Dumb move on my part.  I should have gotten a real weather forecast and moved to a more protected anchorage.  During the night we had a nice thunderstorm with rocky waves kicked up by the wind.  Our dinghy ended up with 2" of water in the bottom of it.  



Sunday morning it cleared up at 10 am and we put the sails up for the nice breeze that showed up.  We sailed some areas of the lake we hadn't been into before and circled a bunch of sailboats in a race.  We had a leisurely sail and then put the boat back on the trailer to come home.

What a great way to spend Father's Day weekend.  

Mike and B

[DOUG142]

Mike,
Your weekend sounds great!  We really need to plan a sail together up on your lake.
Give us a call.
Great pictures too.
Sounds perfect.
Doug and Linda
Sweet Dreams, CP-19