7-21-2018 No Racing

                                                                                                                                                    by Cathy

This is racing from last week - a perfect day. This week, not so much. 

We were warned by Jim that it was going to be hot so we needed to be ready to start at 10:30. Dallas is under an excessive heat warning until 7pm Sunday. Five of us rigged and were ready to go while Nancy and John headed out to set the course. Unfortunately after throwing in the first mark, the committee boat died and started drifting to shore. John called Jim who suggested throwing the anchor out. I'm going to have to remember that.

My boat was half off the dock and fully rigged so I figured at least I'd get to sail around a little. Everyone else was in the same situation so we all went out with a few of us taking some paddles to the committee boat. I actually didn't realize how hard it is to sail with a long paddle sticking out of the cockpit. Meantime we all sailed around in circles while Larry jumped on the committee boat to see if he could determine the problem.

Maybe he took some instrument to check the battery but the battery in that died. Or something like that. I'm not sure I got all the story straight but in the final analysis the committee boat was towed back to the boat club by the rower's motor boat. Then there was some problem with the rower's motor boat so we found them a zip tie.

I was one of the first to head in as I realized it was gusty and shifty and having only sailed 2 times this year, I was not really prepared for that amount of wind. Plus it wasn't like the committee boat was going to be able to rescue us if we had a problem. Now from the CSC site I see that there was a 23 mph gust that went through at 10:53 am. That's probably what convinced me.

Larry was next and tied up to the dock but then his painter broke and his boat drifted around in the harbor. I thought it was going to shore but apparently the boom vang and/or main sheet was still cleated a little so fortunately the boat sailed back to Larry, then back out because we didn't bring the hook in time, then back in again where Larry and Miles grabbed it. This whole thing was beginning to be kind of funny and as it got hotter and hotter and it had been so gusty, maybe it all worked out for the best that we didn't sail.

Larry was left trying to figure out the problem with the motor boat and the rest of us probably headed straight to air conditioning! I know I did.

Update from Miles: BTW- Kudo's to Larry for repairing the boat yesterday.  Seemed to by a burnt fuse or something.  I'm glad Larry knows how to fix things because I sure don't.