Hot Rum... NOT!

November, 2004

 

Four boats pulled into SDYC and were set up, ready to go by 11:30. With rain and light wind, the group decided to wait for breeze while eating lunch in the bar. By the time we were done, the wind had picked up, but so had the rain and the temperature had dropped another 5 degrees. By 1:00, the rain showed no sign of abating and the wind was cold, gusty, and unsteady. The decision was made to pack the boats up and, unsatisfying as it was, call it a day. The only guy who claimed that he wanted to go on out was conveniently without crew (anyone heard from Bill McKinney? Never showed up and must have suffered a serious accident.) Naturally, by the time everyone was ready to drive out, a mere half hour or so after pulling the plug, the rain had quit and the wind steadied out. Nice conditions for an afternoon sail. All in all, not a glorious day for Fleet 3.

Bill

And from the lead miners...

Mark and I pulled the plug before dragging Bollocks! down to SDYC when I read NWS report for Small Craft Advisory, winds 20-30 with 6-8' seas, rain and thunderstorms. I know several boats made the journey there but Mark and I decided the J120 seemed a more appropriate boat for the conditions. Did anyone get salty?

We left the dock in Caper in 2-4 kts from the S in steady rain. The pre-start was 15-18 from the SSE- more rain. By Ballast point it was a solid 22-24 from the SE and built to steady 25-26 with a couple gusts hitting 28+ ESE before we hit the end of Zuniga Jetty(with more damn rain). We planed back into the channel on south swells that were easily 6'. When we got back to the bar(in time for the second half of the Chargers victory), there were no 5o5's (or drunken 5o5 sailor! s) to be seen, but lots of people planning a trip to the sail loft today. Anyway, every now and then NOAA gets it right I guess.

Other notes:

Staghound recorded 18.8kts coming back into the channel (chute up), some notable contraptions seen from the boats were DC's very pretty new boat using about a 70% main sail (not a regular reefed main but a main cut about 75% of the height of the mast) and some 40'(ish) race boat using what was clearly marked as an Etchel's main. Strange.

Geoff