NMSC Heron Lake Marina Weekend of August 19--21

What a gorgeous, wonderful weekend!

It started with the Heron Lake Town Hall meeting, where we got some good information about the lake and made the Powers That Be more aware of our sailors' situation and needs.

A small board and member meeting set the slip refund amount at 65%. Several folks went sailing on Saturday, plus we had young people and dogs and kayaks and things happening.

The potluck dinner on Saturday evening worked out very well -- burgers and dogs, Greek salad, beans, shish-ka-bob, cake, cookies, watermelon, and a pie heated on the grill, plus plenty of beverages. We'll do something like that again for Labor Day weekend. No one went hungry.

A brief rain squall was the set-up for a fantastic double/double arch rainbow to the east of the marina. The sunset to the west bathed boats and shore with a wonderful soft glow that reflected from the harbor waters.

Back at our cabin, I played with my blocks (moving 75-pound landscaping blocks).

By Sunday, several more boats had moved into the marina, so we're probably up to 25 or some such. Some potential new members came by during the weekend and received applications; one even left a check for membership and sublet fees.

The lake level is fairly steady these days; it went down three inches and lost 1250 acre feet in three days due to a weekend release of about 1500 acre feet. The lake is about 10 inches below this summer's highest elevation.

Looking forward...
The VHF radio will probably be working soon; this week's dockmasters will be working on it.
Several tasks still need to be done in the marina, such as attaching the short truss between C29/C31 and the connecting walkway, and removing a few finger piers from the west part of A south. These might be used to make a temporary walkway/gangway to the "isthmus" until a heavy-duty floating gangway can be set up to receive the big, heavy, 64-foot fixed gangway next spring.

The normal, "firm yield" for the annual diversions of water into Heron is 96,200 acre feet in a season. If we get 25% of the firm yield, that should suffice to get us most of the way through the summer of 2006. With 50%, we should pretty much be assured of a full season. If we get another good year with around 120% or more, that would pretty much guarantee that the club would have a 2007 sailing season.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from Carol Anne (Five O'Clock Somewhere):

This has been a good year for rainbows

We've now had the third utterly awesome multiple rainbow this summer. This time, we were at the marina, celebrating its official opening, after a long drought that had left the marina grounded, and then major work to rebuild the marina and also to get insurance so we could reopen. Pat, who is the vice-commodore of the sailing club that runs the marina, volunteered WCMIK and me to make a Greek salad, and the commodore volunteered to grill up burgers and dogs. All members were invited to bring potluck side dishes to join in the feast.

As we were finishing up dinner, a small rain squall blew up. And then the sun came out, and we were looking at a full-arch double rainbow, and then a third rainbow emerged beneath the first. And the sun was shining on the clouds as well, so there were shifting hues of rosy gold reflecting from the clouds onto the water and the boats. And the camera was up on shore in the truck, but even if we did have the camera, it couldn't possibly capture the whole awesome light that surrounded everything and everyone.