Musings on the past weekend

Labor Day weekend was a bit disjointed and rather busy; it's hard to try to tie it together in anything resembling a unified blogpost. So, you've been warned.

Friday afternoon Tadpole hopped aboard Babe and we headed north to Española. We were hungry enough to order a bunch of fast food; my triple-burger might cause a vegetarian to swoon and Carol Anne ordered four items from the value menu, to her later regret. Then we ventured into Wallyworld to buy some big buckets of ice cream and other groceries before continuing the drive north. At least the construction zone north of Cebolla (by Jeff & Mary Spill's ranch) was better, with most of the area now paved. We stopped by the cabin to offload perishables, then drove on to the marina.

By then, only about an hour of light remained and Carol Anne's system was making her pay for indulging in fast food. So, it was tough for us to rig and get out, and it was a bit heroic for Carol Anne to stand by the helm, but that's what happened. We lined her Etchells out of the slip, then sailed out of the marina in very gentle, 2 mph breezes. With little wind or light left, we stayed in the marina cove and the upper part of the Narrows, tacking around buoys and sailing by the marina pavillion. At least we'd sailed, and we were able to sail back into our slip before visiting with some folks at the marina.

Saturday morning we took care of some household chores and ran down to the transfer station, finally arriving at the marina late in the morning. I spread a bit more gravel on the trail and Tad and another teen went out in one of our Sunfish.

At noon, we held a sailing club meeting, where the club approved buying more knee braces for reinforcing the attachment of the B dock finger piers to the mainwalk pier, along with encased floats to replace the old open foam floats. Then the club members got into the fun stuff, discussing club policies for granting waivers to slip tenants and the slip rental priority list. The gist of the discussion was that the old policies were appropriate for when the lake and marina were full, but do not serve the club well in times of drought. Essentially, the old rules force the club to try to find a sublet renter for a senior slip tenant who wants to take a year or two off from keeping a boat in the marina, and deprives the club of revenue in times when the club is most in need.

After the meeting, we hosted an ice cream social under the marina pavillion (see pavillion picture in a recent post). We had about five flavors of cream, plus nuts and various toppings; sunny weather made the event a success.

During the meeting we had met a new member and a couple of prospective members. After the ice cream social, we took a couple out sailing; one member ("Y woman") had never before sailed but both enjoyed themselves. We again sailed out of the slip, tacking upwind through the Narrows and out into the main body of the lake. We explored portions of the east end of the lake, but light winds and distant thunder and storm clouds kept us from venturing too far. Finally, as the weather threatened to close in, we returned to the marina, sailing into the slip under jib. We were just in time, too; just after we had secured the sails the rain and a bit of a blow began. For a bit, we even had whitecaps within the protected confines of the marina cove.

to be continued with.... Rescue!