Brian_Watford
04-21-2008, 10:55 AM
The admiral and I left Atlanta for the 2 hour drive to lake Hartwell at 9:30 AM. It had just quit raining but was still grey and overcast. As we drove to the lake we once again ran into the rain. It seemed to worsen as we got closer to the park. There was a constant drizzle with occasional medium to hard showers. It was still misting as I went into the park office to purchase my day pass. Once that was done we drove into the campground to see who was around.
We met Dustin and his girlfriend as we approached the ramp. They informed us that the ramp was closed and we would have to use the other one which is a better ramp anyway. Dustin and Kayla (I hope the name is correct) followed us to the ramp and we all got to work setting up Sunshine's rig. While we were rigging, the sun came out and we had lots of sun with puffy white clouds for the rest of the day. About half an hour later we were underway with our Southeastern Fleet colors proudly flying. Thw winds were out of the west north-west and we were heading almost due east running wing and wing. Sunshine is not a Stevenson boat. She is a CS17 which has a cat ketch rig.
Winds were great and in no time at all we saw a sail on the horizon. I broke out the binoculars and soon discovered that the boat was indeed none other than that infamous pirate Keith McClean on his pirate sloop Whippoorwill. We had the weather gauge on him and so I had Dustin break out the long 12. Once within range I gave the order to give her a shot across the bow. Gunners mate Dustin quickly complied and BOOM! :twisted:
[b]Dustin reloaded as a crackle on the radio preceeded a voice asking "are you firing on us?' We fired again and shortly thereafter Whippoorwill returned fire. AARGH. By this time we were close enough to exchange pleasantries and put away the artilery.
We sailed together down the lake sometimes reaching speeds of 5.8 knots. We turned to sail back up the lake to the campsite and started our long tack back. Dustin took control of the tiller for the ride back. We got a little behind on our first tack, but quickly caught back up once we got on a starboard tack.
We all docked our boats and met back at the campsites for beer and barbecue. The park manager was grilling some venison and Brian Walters through on some sausages. Good eatin.!
We all went out for a late afternoon sail a little later. I'll leave this story for Brian to tell. I think he was glad he had on his brown pants :wink: Many thanks to Dustin and Kayla for being such good crew for this cruise and Brian for the next cruise.
Thanks to Keith for arranging this outing it was a great day for me and the admiral. Your beer is mighty tasty.
We met Dustin and his girlfriend as we approached the ramp. They informed us that the ramp was closed and we would have to use the other one which is a better ramp anyway. Dustin and Kayla (I hope the name is correct) followed us to the ramp and we all got to work setting up Sunshine's rig. While we were rigging, the sun came out and we had lots of sun with puffy white clouds for the rest of the day. About half an hour later we were underway with our Southeastern Fleet colors proudly flying. Thw winds were out of the west north-west and we were heading almost due east running wing and wing. Sunshine is not a Stevenson boat. She is a CS17 which has a cat ketch rig.
Winds were great and in no time at all we saw a sail on the horizon. I broke out the binoculars and soon discovered that the boat was indeed none other than that infamous pirate Keith McClean on his pirate sloop Whippoorwill. We had the weather gauge on him and so I had Dustin break out the long 12. Once within range I gave the order to give her a shot across the bow. Gunners mate Dustin quickly complied and BOOM! :twisted:
[b]Dustin reloaded as a crackle on the radio preceeded a voice asking "are you firing on us?' We fired again and shortly thereafter Whippoorwill returned fire. AARGH. By this time we were close enough to exchange pleasantries and put away the artilery.
We sailed together down the lake sometimes reaching speeds of 5.8 knots. We turned to sail back up the lake to the campsite and started our long tack back. Dustin took control of the tiller for the ride back. We got a little behind on our first tack, but quickly caught back up once we got on a starboard tack.
We all docked our boats and met back at the campsites for beer and barbecue. The park manager was grilling some venison and Brian Walters through on some sausages. Good eatin.!
We all went out for a late afternoon sail a little later. I'll leave this story for Brian to tell. I think he was glad he had on his brown pants :wink: Many thanks to Dustin and Kayla for being such good crew for this cruise and Brian for the next cruise.
Thanks to Keith for arranging this outing it was a great day for me and the admiral. Your beer is mighty tasty.