A calmer weekend ... can be a good thing.

Through Wednesday night, breezy winds had been forecast for the weekend of February 25 at Elephant Butte Lake. But, the weather cleared out, the isobars stretched apart on the weather map, and we instead got a minimal-wind weekend. The on-and-off breezes were frustrating for sailing, but a bit of relief after last weekend's 25-mph winds and 35- to 40-mph gusts. Now, can someone upstairs just get that wind meter calibrated for something in between?

The women held another sail training session, though attendance was down to six of the most faithful of the gals. On Saturday, with minimal winds, coach Ken and crew (Carol Anne and two others) did a lot of safety inspections and fixes/repairs on a boat; the owner should be glad to be getting a much safer boat after a lot of loose fasteners and frayed line-ends and untaped sharp edges and a loose hatch had been mended. Sue, Sharon, and Jo Ann got to do some good work on Kachina while the Cranky Wench got her toenails, I mean toerails, sanded and varnished to look pretty. On Sunday, Carol Anne got to do a lot of helming practice early in the day aboard Constellation with Braxton. I got to ride along and play jib trimmer on the Etchells while some of the other gals got on the J-24 Kachina and did a bunch of spinnaker work. Later in the afternoon, after a good lunch at Big Food Express/Club Bossa Mundo/Tu Bulls' place, I got another ride with Braxton, this time on "Extrepid" and we flew the spinnaker in on-and-off wind that finally vanished, leaving us on a near-mirror-flat lake.

The ladies also worked some on communications, preparedness, and team roles and goals. Some more boat- or crew-job-hopping may be happening as a result. As sort of a follow-up, we have borrowed and ordered some more racing and sailing videos and hope to have Monday-night get-togethers for watching them.

Now we're looking forward to the weather predictions, not for the Butte, but rather for southern California. Carol Anne, Larry, and Braxton will drive Braxton's truck and Larry's trailer to pick up USA 125 from Ventura harbor; WMCIK and I will fly out Friday night from New Mexico to join them.

It looks like Ventura is about to be hit by some windy, wet weather, with another front predicted for Thursday or Friday, but the late-week front is supposed to be cooler and drier and clearing out during the weekend. That might be good enough WX to sail a motorless thirty-foot sailing dinghy (open keelboat) around the harbor and into Pierpont Bay before the boat gets craned or Travel-lifted onto the trailer. We'll see.