Amphibian's first sail, part 2

[kahpho]

I elected to take the boat to Howard Prairie Reservoir. It's been my "go to" lake for reliable predictable winds. In the summer it's always been N-NW at about 5 MPH in the morning, building to 10-15 later in the day. Run or reach to the south end then tack back north. Well, the Weather Gods were in a joking mood. This day it was 13+ with higher gusts when I got there, and from the E-SE! Later it veered more southerly and began to go light. With the wind in that quadrant and the surrounding topography the result is pretty typical of our mountain lakes. Fluky, patches of calms and gusts, generally rearranging themselves before you can get to them. Oh well, if you want to sail you gotta take what you get.

I chose to look at the bright side. I got to try varying wind conditions all in one day. In the light wind we'd ghost along. Tacking was sometimes in slow motion but always she pulled through. Never missed a tack. At times I couldn't detect breeze, still we'd ease along until some came our way. At one point, I happened to be in just the right place to catch a gust and stay with it as it crossed the lake. It was quite a thrill charging through the 3-4 other boats out who were either nearly calmed or just picking up a lift. Then the gust disappeared and I was left in another hole. I wanted to do that again! Alas, it was getting late, it was a perfect place to drop sail, so I did and lit the kicker. I was second in at the ramp. Everyone else had given up too. There's always tomorrow.

mel