Went Sailing Saturday December 19, 1998. I saw others post
about their trips I thought I'd tell mine.
I'm in the midst of changing abodes. So I thought I'd quickly
install my dishwasher. And take my friend Vince, and daughter
Tawnie Rose (7) sailing. This was at 0800 when I made the decision.
A cold front had just come through, the wind was up and it was sunny,
but not very cold yet.
Well after I went to get Vince, we wrestled the Dishwasher into
place, and we ran to the plumbing store twice to get the right parts
it was 1330 before we had the boat attached and were ready to go.
It was now over cast and quite cold for a fair weather Texan like me.
Wind 10-20 MPH temperature in the high 40's.
We went to "Decker Lake" which is really just a cooling pond for
one of Austin's power plants. Vince and I had the boat set up
and in the water pretty quickly. The lake is well appointed with
two launch ramps and docks. The Docks are on the southern end of
the lake.
The wind was blowing cold from the northwest, so we
tied Frimi in a berth with the bow pointed North towards the
open end of the dock and rigged sails. Vince wasn't convinced
that we could sail into the wind like this but it was blowing from
about 30 degrees to the west of the berth's opening. So once
we had all sails up it was simply a matter of releasing the lines
and we were sailing. The wind was blowing 10 MPH with gusts to 20
according to the weather service. So we were able to go a long
at a pretty good clip. It wasn't as exciting as you SFO sailors
experience, but it was entertaining enough for Vince, Tawnie and I.
We uncovered the compass to find that anything over 5 degrees of
tilt was uncomfortable. This indicates to me I need more experience.
The lake has the shape of a V opening towards the Northwest. The power
plant sits between the arms of the V and the Dam is at the base.
We sailed Around the peninsula to the northern end of the lake
tacking back and forth. Each leg of a tack taking about ten minutes.
I struggled with the depth finder, but found the battery dead.
During this time Vince piloted and we didn't go as fast as we
did once I gave up on the depth finder and took over the tiller.
I showed how bad a skipper I am when we were approaching the dock.
I had Vince lower the main, but failed to ask him to lower the jib
as well so we hit the dock a rather smart blow, but suffered no apparent
damage. Either I need to be more communicative, or run all lines aft
so I can handle both tiller and sails at once. I'll probably do both,
since I can not always be sure to have a crew along, and when I do
they're even more landlubbers than myself.
When I asked Tawnie Rose if she'd enjoyed the cruise, she said yes
which I found pleasantly surprising. Usually we need to take another
child and/or her mother along in order for her to enjoy herself. But
now that she's seven perhaps we've enter a new phase?
My victories were that I actually got on the water that day despite
weather, and dishwasher; Tawnie Rose enjoyed her self. Failures
were not charging the battery, not sealing the can that holds the
water to test the depth finder, not communicating during landing.
Overall we had a good time, my spiritual batteries were recharged
and all is right in my local world today.
# Regards Tom Bodine @
# Skipper "Frimi" P-19 #1019 ,-+-'
# Dancing to the music life has given me. A