6/27 TESOD: Rain, with breeze!
Synopsis: 3 boats, lots of rain, 8-18 knots of breeze, starting at around 170 degrees, continually shifting right through the evening. No races completed (by me anyway), but just boathandling and speed practice going out to the mouth of the severn and back in to the NA seawall.
I showed up at 4:30 in the SSA dinghy park to rig the boat in the rain. It had been breeze on all day. John had already called me once from the club to say breeze on get your butt down here. Unfortuantely he couldn't take off work at the SSA junior program or I would have been there at 1 PM. Anyway, we hit the water by 5 in the lee of Eastport and by the time we got to the shoal pole we were raking and planing upwind. We got out to the spider, pulled the kite up and let 'er rip. We were both stoked just to be sailing, having spent all day watching the wind and wishing we could be out in the 5-oh. It was raining. We didn't care. It was just awesome to be out there tearing around the mouth of the Severn with warm air and water and no powerboats. John commented that it's tough to practice boat handling in the 5o5 because it's just so much fun to drive the boat in a straight line! We buzzed the RC on one of the runs downwind. Not sure what the laser guys were thinking watching us come screaming down in a cloud of spray and foam. Another 3 trips up to the spider and back down to SSA, and I had to come in and switch out for my other driver Martha who I took for her first 5o5 ride last week at TESOD and there was very little breeze. So little in fact that we had to paddle the boat back from Pussers...last week I promised we could go sailing again, but next time in breeze. That promise came true on 6/27.
But I digress. When John and I hit the dock, Dan Wittig was rigging Bob Patterson's boat and Mike Coe was getting Ali's boat ready. Martha hopped in and we headed back out. We made a couple more laps and by that time Ali and Dan had made it off the dock and we all headed out to the bay for some upwind speed tuning. Dan and Ali definitely had speed on us but Martha was quickly getting the hang of how to make the boat go fast. The breeze went up we put some rake in. The breeze dropped off, we took some rake out. At one point I took a very spectacular swim while driving from the wire and Martha was working on stuffing the kite back in the bag (I hate how that stupid kite comes out of the bag!!!) Unfortunately this happened right in view of the other boats, so there was no way to brush it off. All we could do was laugh. At least we didn't flip. Nothing broken but a little slice of ego...
By the time we got out past the spider it was starting to look truly ominous back in Naptown, so we pulled the kite up again and went careening off back down hill. On the way down Martha just kept saying 'I love sailing 5o5's!' Seriously she probably said that 10 times. Anyway, as we came back in the wind went flukey and the rain arrived in earnest. Trying to get into the harbor was a bit hairy. It was dumping massive buckets of rain, so much it was very difficult to see. Eventually we hit the dock and got the boats put to bed. After 2 helpings of Kieran's special and a couple glasses of wine, I went home super happy. 2 skippers, 3 hours of sailing, plenty of breeze, and a whole lot of fun. So much fun in fact that we didn't even remember to show up for any races! Plus the TESOD courses were set up way inside where the breeze was flukey and light and the water was not mast-depth!
We'll do it all again this thursday. Show up and take a ride!
I showed up at 4:30 in the SSA dinghy park to rig the boat in the rain. It had been breeze on all day. John had already called me once from the club to say breeze on get your butt down here. Unfortuantely he couldn't take off work at the SSA junior program or I would have been there at 1 PM. Anyway, we hit the water by 5 in the lee of Eastport and by the time we got to the shoal pole we were raking and planing upwind. We got out to the spider, pulled the kite up and let 'er rip. We were both stoked just to be sailing, having spent all day watching the wind and wishing we could be out in the 5-oh. It was raining. We didn't care. It was just awesome to be out there tearing around the mouth of the Severn with warm air and water and no powerboats. John commented that it's tough to practice boat handling in the 5o5 because it's just so much fun to drive the boat in a straight line! We buzzed the RC on one of the runs downwind. Not sure what the laser guys were thinking watching us come screaming down in a cloud of spray and foam. Another 3 trips up to the spider and back down to SSA, and I had to come in and switch out for my other driver Martha who I took for her first 5o5 ride last week at TESOD and there was very little breeze. So little in fact that we had to paddle the boat back from Pussers...last week I promised we could go sailing again, but next time in breeze. That promise came true on 6/27.
But I digress. When John and I hit the dock, Dan Wittig was rigging Bob Patterson's boat and Mike Coe was getting Ali's boat ready. Martha hopped in and we headed back out. We made a couple more laps and by that time Ali and Dan had made it off the dock and we all headed out to the bay for some upwind speed tuning. Dan and Ali definitely had speed on us but Martha was quickly getting the hang of how to make the boat go fast. The breeze went up we put some rake in. The breeze dropped off, we took some rake out. At one point I took a very spectacular swim while driving from the wire and Martha was working on stuffing the kite back in the bag (I hate how that stupid kite comes out of the bag!!!) Unfortunately this happened right in view of the other boats, so there was no way to brush it off. All we could do was laugh. At least we didn't flip. Nothing broken but a little slice of ego...
By the time we got out past the spider it was starting to look truly ominous back in Naptown, so we pulled the kite up again and went careening off back down hill. On the way down Martha just kept saying 'I love sailing 5o5's!' Seriously she probably said that 10 times. Anyway, as we came back in the wind went flukey and the rain arrived in earnest. Trying to get into the harbor was a bit hairy. It was dumping massive buckets of rain, so much it was very difficult to see. Eventually we hit the dock and got the boats put to bed. After 2 helpings of Kieran's special and a couple glasses of wine, I went home super happy. 2 skippers, 3 hours of sailing, plenty of breeze, and a whole lot of fun. So much fun in fact that we didn't even remember to show up for any races! Plus the TESOD courses were set up way inside where the breeze was flukey and light and the water was not mast-depth!
We'll do it all again this thursday. Show up and take a ride!
posted by J Bergquist at 7:47 AM
1 Comments:
Three 505 teams made it our during TESOD.. I'm not sure if any raced, as it was more fun to sail out past the Spider into the better breeze. Several more people would have liked to sail; we ran out of boats.
J World Director Dan Wittig and crew borrowed Bob Patterson's boat, Ali/Mike were out, and J was crewing first for John Loe and then for Martha Fisher.
We outlasted the TESOD fleet; they called it an evening while the 505s were still blasting along out in the Bay. The sky was darkening, and not just because of dusk, as we turned around and hoisted. We were wire running back with a dramatic dark sky and dark water, which highlighted the whitecaps. The one thing we did not see was lightning (and we heard no thunder either). Then it started to rain very hard. The water surface looks very different when it is raining very hard, and though the wind was now lighter, we were still going fast close hauled in Spa Creek, through the rain.
Mike and I tried to go down ego alley, so we could come out with the kite up, but with 180 degree shifts we decided this would not work and bailed, but not before nearly capsizing right in front of Pusser's, which probably provided additional amusement to everyone in the bar indoors, wondering what on earth the sailboat barely visible in the torrential rain was doing in ego alley.
Quote of the evening from Martha (age 19). "This is the most fun I can have, legally."
Despite prompting, Martha DID NOT say "505s are way better than Thistles and J22s."
Ali
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