Thursday, October 29, 2020

OCTOBER 27, 2020: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WIND?

 

OCTOBER 27, 2020

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WIND?

Predict wind had indicated that a weak Easterly would develop.  After last week’s disastrous dying of the wind, I was encouraged as we left the harbor shortly after 5.  There was an awesome 11 knot wind coming from about 230 degrees filling the whole bay.  It was going to be an awesome night for a sail!  We set the line and counted 14 boats out for the fun.   We called for a rather ambitious course W5 (to Schuyler and back to finish.  We were counting down the time and getting ready to blow the 5 minute horn when suddenly the wind died.  All eye turned East looking for indications of a new Easterly wind.  We postponed for 5 minutes to see what developed, and then another 5 minute postponement with nothing developing.  Since it was such a short night, we abandoned the race.  We motored out to the wind line for a short sail before returning to the harbor ending the last Tuesday night sail for the season.

 

RACE QS:

Since there was no race, I did not upload my track for the night.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON SAILING:

There has been a lot of interest expressed by the group to continue sailing on Tuesdays through the winter starting early in the afternoon.  Sailing in the winter is a little different from sailing in the summer.  I can think of three differences that need to be considered.

1)     We get rain in the winter.  Like most of us, I have foul weather gear but do not like putting wet sails away with mildew presenting a potential problem.  I do not think anyone likes the idea of sailing in rain during the winter.  In dealing with this, if the weather is not conducive to sailing, I will send an E-mail blast or text by 9AM on Tuesdays only if the races will not take place.  There will be no notice sent if sailing will take place as normal

2)     We get larger waves and shoaling of the harbor entrance in the winter.  We all must make a judgement regarding safety of our boats.  For these races, if conditions are serious enough to present undue hazard, I will also send out a notice by 9AM cancelling the race.  Please be aware that when a swell is pouring into the bay, you may need to time your exit and entrance to the harbor to avoid breaking waves.

3)     The club’s marks that are set for the summer races are pulled for most of the winter.  Once these marks are pulled, we will call impromptu courses over the radio.  The marks we have to work with are: GOV, Mile, SC7, SC3 and Schuyler (Yellow Schuyler mark replaced with small red buoy during the winter).  My inclination is to use Gov as the start buoy with various landmarks representing the other end of the line.  For instance, we could use the extension of the line formed by the end of the wharf and Gov as a start.

Let’s continue to meet at the start buoy until it is removed for the winter.   We will be blowing a 5 minute horn at 1:55 for a 2pm start.

Currently
I have over 100 people getting the notice of the blog.  I do not think it is fair to pester all of these people with notices of “no race” on Tuesday mornings.  I have all of your contact information but need to know if you prefer texting or email notifications.  Also, there should be one person on each boat that receives the message.  Please fill out the following form and either email it back to me or take a photo of the completed form and text it to  831-234-0322.

_)                _)                             _)                  _)                     (_                                                                 

Name of boat;  _________________________ Person to be notified:___________________________

Text phone # _______________________      Email address:__________________________________

Please circle phone or email to indicate preferred method of contact

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 I am looking forward to next Tuesday for a 2pm start.

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

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