Sunday at the lake

While finishing our boat-related projects late Sunday morning, we heated the last batch of cinammon and bread sticks for breakfast. Placing the spinnaker pole and boom in Babe, we drove to the marina.

There we found another minor obstacle. Apparently, the bracket we'd mounted on the mast had a vertical orientation, which did not become apparent until we tried to put the 3/8-inch gooseneck pin through a fitting with upper and lower annual lobes that was attached to the bracket. The pin would slide freely through the bottom part of the fitting, but would get stuck in the top part. The bracket was upside down. Since the bracket was very securely attached to the mast with stainless steel pop rivets, we decided to experiment before giving up on attaching the pin through the bracket. We did find that gentle tapping on the pin would allow it to go all the way through the bracket in the pin's proper orientation; this was much preferable to inserting it upside down. So, we assembled the pin with spacing washers and carefully tapped it into position. Mission accomplished; boom now attached.

Carol Anne telephoned Zorro to report a near absence of wind. A few nice puffs had come through, but by and large the lake surface had experienced zero to two knots of faint breeze, just enough to create some "fish scale" ripples on the surface. That report eliminated the possibility that Zorro would come again to the lake, but did let Carol Anne find out that a television crew was about to interview Zorro. Zorro was in the news because of an El Paso Times newspaper article describing his forthcoming induction into the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame. We'd just before found a copy of the newspaper and were glad to congratulate him.

Only about an hour of daylight remained when we left the marina (after chatting again with the crew of Ouroboros) and returned home. On the way, we were able to get shoes for Carol Anne at Alco. We fed the cats a light supper and drove north to Socorro, where we tracked down "Seattle" and gave him some Foghorn sailing club newsletters and fliers that he could use for the NM Tech sailing club's booth the next day at the "Club Fair". Not surprisingly, we paused to let Carol Anne refill her growler at Socorro Springs.

Elephant Butte Lake status, 12 noon, January 31, 2007:
4,343.98 feet above benchmark elevation, 557,894 acre feet.
Up .14' and 1,914 a.f. in 24 hours; up .34' and 4,641 a.f. in 71 hours.

Elephant Butte Lake Elev. (feet) . . . . Storage (acre feet) . . . Date
4,343.98 . . . . . . . 557,894 . . . . . . . Jan. 31, '07 (1200)
4,340.54 . . . . . . . 511,683 . . . . . . . Dec. 30 (0800)
4,336.52 . . . . . . . 460,330 . . . . . . . Nov. 30
4,331.24 . . . . . . . 397,510 . . . . . . . Oct. 31
4,327.10 . . . . . . . 351,800 . . . . . . . Sept. 30
4,325.18 . . . . . . . 331,550 . . . . . . . Aug. 31
4,308.50 . . . . . . . 183,870 . . . . . . . July 28 low point
4,339.88 . . . . . . . 503,030 . . . . . . . March 5 high point
4,334.06 . . . . . . . 430,410 . . . . . . . January 1, 2006