Jun 14, 2013
Aaron’s Stronghold #sandcastles (at La Crosse Sailing Club)
seen from Sweden
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from T1
seen from Singapore
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from Singapore
seen from Philippines
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from Russia
Aaron’s Stronghold #sandcastles (at La Crosse Sailing Club)
Flying the Chute
Heading home in the late afternoon
Wondrous Wind
Although the airport - a mere quarter mile from the lake - said the wind was only 11kts, when I got to the club it was already blowing 14-17kts. What already seemed like a good day for solo sailing turned out to be an excellent day. The winds continued in that range (with gusts up near 20) for the next three hours as I sailed around our small lake, chasing down other sailors or just reveling in the beauty of boat, water and wind.
Despite putting the keel all the way down, I managed to only hit one stump, and a rather short one at that. Otherwise, it was fantastic as I beat, reached and ran. Let the boat maintain wing on wing, had her cruising along for 6.3kts (over land via GPS), and heeled her over anywhere from 10 to 40 degrees putting her rail into the water at one point.
Perhaps my most memorable moments were those with the boat heeled over while beating into the wind, the tiller extension in hand, and standing up tall with one foot on the cockpit seat, the other on the gunwale. Such a feeling of freedom and excitement is overwhelming.
When the wind calls.
We're starting to get it right - when the wind calls, we darn well answer. No excuses, no hesitations. Today I was working through the morning and the boys were doing their own thing. However, around 11:00, I checked and found that the winds were going to build to just over 10kts in the early afternoon. Now, I knew that we had an appointment at 3:30, but it was going to be just over 10kts and that's really comfortable for the boys!
So, I took ten minutes to grab some apples, cut up some carrots and green peppers, fill some water bottles and grab a box of Cheez-it Snacks (and just as you were thinking I was all healthy and stuff). Then I loaded up the car and off we went.
Well, the wind never really got much above 10, but we had the lake to ourselves and had a wonderful time. We reached down to the spillway, beat a path back up the lake and had time to do it again. We were back in the slip by 2:30, home by 3:00 and off to our 3:30 appointment.
That's right, when the wind calls you darn well need to answer