Sailing – Hot Sun & No Wind

It’s always windy on Stockton. I’ll re-phrase that. It’s almost always windy on Stockton. I can remember another calm day on Stockton, and that was at the same time of year, September 2010.

It was fairly windless when we arrived at the marina. With a hot day forecast, we reckoned the breeze would pick up as the day went on so we motored out, put up the sails and drifted around. There was just enough wind to let us ever so slowly travel up the lake. Not only was the wind slack, but its direction seemed to change 180° on a regular basis.

It was also hot – one of the hottest days of the year. Not bad for September. Needless to say, I no longer consider the Bimini a frivolous accessory. It was absolutely essential to stop us frying in the sun.

At one point John commented “I Could walk faster than this.” To which I quipped “You’ve spent enough time on EfM to be qualified to try it.”

At the north end of the lake, we managed to pick up a small breeze, just enough to get us moving for a while. Luckily the wind stabilized in direction so we managed to crawl our way back down the lake under sail. Finally, we gave up and started the ‘iron topsail’.

It was a long but good day. We managed to sail around eight miles at a little over one mile an hour. John was right. My average hiking speed including stopping for pictures, food, and exploring is 1.1 miles per hour. I could have hiked it just as quickly.

Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.