The weather's been changing with frosty nights and warm days. We decided to shirk some chores needing to be done and take advantage of the weather on Saturday. Winds 10-14mph, mid 70's temperature.
We got up early and were on the road a little past 7am.
This picture shows the early morning shadow of Galactica and her tow beast!This time, we put in at Ray Behrens Access which we'd never used before at Mark Twain Lake. We've decided that this is to be our primary ramp in the future. It's a few miles closer to home than the ramp we normaly used and a decent setup with flushing facilities.
We met up with some of the MTLSA members and decided there simply weren't enough boats for the chore of setting up the full regatta so a bunch of us decided to do a fun midship race. Dock A to due north of the C navigation marker and back. Winds were strong but flukey in some areas.
We started on a run then tacked port for a long broad reach. Galactica held her own against the bigger sailboats during most of the first half. All of the boats were all fairly together for quite a while even though we started a hundred or so yards behind the other boats. We were leeward of the fleet and with slightly better wind, worked our way to second place. Just as Galactica's bow came up to the stern of Rogue, the winds opened up in the Spalding pool, the 34' Hunter, Rogue, took off and displayed what a fast boat she is, leaving the rest of us way behind.
Winds shifted, foul for a simple return leg and are alway chaotic from the Dam through the BlackJack arm. We followed Recess and Endeavor close to the north shore with the aim of tacking and cutting off some distance into the Blackjack arm. I saw both of them have wind troubles near the shore, trees sticking out of the water and some fishermen. With hind sight, I should have tacked to avoid the same area but winds were keeping Galactica on a slightly better trajectory.
As we got closer, the winds shifted and we tried skirting the point without putting ourselves in irons. The Wind fluttered and clost to a treetop, sticking a foot out of the water, the current grabbed us heading midship directly towards the tree top.
I dropped the motor, fired it up and powered around a fast tack, kissing the treetop along the last 10 feet of Galactica's port side... Hence her new nickname at the marina: Battlescar Galactica. Fortunately, the skuff will buff out of her pretty blue hull!
We lost ground with the flukey winds of the Blackjact arm which gave us more trouble than normal. Regardless, it was a beautiful and fun day. We would have been better had we reefed the main or at least partially furled the 150 Genoa foresail. We spent a large portion of the sail heeled over from 25 to 35 degrees, a major gust put Galactica over to 50 degrees. I rounded up quickly, eased the main sheet and she didn't go over but it sure felt like it. Angie thought it was fun!
Our fuel tank on the windward side had its breather vent open. Though only half full, a lot of gas leaked out and ran over my foot due to the angle of heel. Note, when sailing in good winds--close the fuel vent...
We enjoyed conversation and ice cream at the marina. We were going to leave Galactica berthed while we went out on a 37' Tartan, Higher Porpoise, but their puppy fell through a hatch, falling 6 foot to the deck below and breaking her forearm. They took her to the vets. Angie and I went for a short lazy sail with just the Genoa up in good wind. Very pleasant and fun.
The ramp has a center dock so that two lines of vehicles can put in or take out at the same time. An idiot and his girlfriend/wife decided it was a nice free dock and parked their fish&Ski boat on the starboard side--blocking that half of the ramp. They proceeded to hike along the shore to fish from the beach. It took us 40 minutes of idling in the current while the traffic jam cleared. We were next so I held back enough for someone to pick up their driver and another moron shot in with his fish&ski and took his time going up to get his truck. Meanwhile, someone in a boat chewed out idiot number one about blocking the ramp where upon the idiot cast his rod again and commented that they were not done yet.
More boats arrived so I pushed Galactica in and quickly retrieved our tow beast and pulled her out. Angie had the fins up and everything prepped while I was jogging up to the parking lot.
We had a lot of folks come by as we de-rigged Galactica and a Lawyer from Centralia even came aboard to check her out. We got home in time to enjoy pizza with our son! All in all, a great day on the water and if this is the last time we get to sail Galactica this season, it was a wonderful way to end the season!
Sounds like a perfect day to end the season, minus the idiots at the dock. Perhaps a keel-hauling would clear their senses?
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