06-13-2008, 05:00 AM
My brother came down for the week this week to take care of some business on his vacation. On Tuesday I made him go sailing with me!! It was his first excursion on Sunshine and his first time on a sailboat.
We went up to Van Pugh park on Lake Lanier. This is not my favorite put in spot but it is one of the six public ramps which actually reach the water due to the ongoing drought conditions in Georgia. The winds were out of the Sou-Souwest at about 5 mph and increased throughout the afternoon. Mostly sunny skies and brutal Georgia sun. It had been 98 f on Monday but thankfully was much cooler (in the 80s) on Tuesday.
We sailed out of the cove to the west on a broad reach on the port tack. Once we attained the main channel of the lake, the wind picked up and we tacked down the lake to the south west. I have this thing where I would rather tack going out if I'm not going anywhere in particular and run back. That way the easy part of the day is when I need to get back. There were very few boats on the lake as it was a week day.
After tacking for about two hours, we reached the mouth of Big Creek where I usually put in. We sailed around in the big lake for half an hour or so before turning back for the 20 minute run back to Van Pugh.
Every thing went fine until we landed at the ramp. We went to load back on the trailer and found that the starboard bunk only had one bolt to hold it on! Well, I couldn't find a hardware store on my GPS so we made sure the remaining bolt was tight and loaded up. There is a Worst Marine on the way back to the interstate so we stopped there for a couple of new bolts and repaired the trailer before heading home.
It was a wonderful day for sailing. Nothing particularly exciting happened we just had fun. I just figured with all of the recent sailing stories of boats being damaged in storms and such, it was time for a story of a nice day on the water.
We went up to Van Pugh park on Lake Lanier. This is not my favorite put in spot but it is one of the six public ramps which actually reach the water due to the ongoing drought conditions in Georgia. The winds were out of the Sou-Souwest at about 5 mph and increased throughout the afternoon. Mostly sunny skies and brutal Georgia sun. It had been 98 f on Monday but thankfully was much cooler (in the 80s) on Tuesday.
We sailed out of the cove to the west on a broad reach on the port tack. Once we attained the main channel of the lake, the wind picked up and we tacked down the lake to the south west. I have this thing where I would rather tack going out if I'm not going anywhere in particular and run back. That way the easy part of the day is when I need to get back. There were very few boats on the lake as it was a week day.
After tacking for about two hours, we reached the mouth of Big Creek where I usually put in. We sailed around in the big lake for half an hour or so before turning back for the 20 minute run back to Van Pugh.
Every thing went fine until we landed at the ramp. We went to load back on the trailer and found that the starboard bunk only had one bolt to hold it on! Well, I couldn't find a hardware store on my GPS so we made sure the remaining bolt was tight and loaded up. There is a Worst Marine on the way back to the interstate so we stopped there for a couple of new bolts and repaired the trailer before heading home.
It was a wonderful day for sailing. Nothing particularly exciting happened we just had fun. I just figured with all of the recent sailing stories of boats being damaged in storms and such, it was time for a story of a nice day on the water.