Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, Jan. 9, 2009

Sunshine over the bow.

On Friday, we (Batgal, Tad, and I) got to the lake in time for a great sail with "Zorro" on Constellation. Winds were pretty brisk, though not as strong as the previous Sunday, so we did some sailing in the race course area and then headed north past Long Point Island and Kettletop Mesa. We got about as far as Barney's Cove and near the south Monticello boat ramp before heading south, again enjoying nice spinnaker runs and reaches. The wind let up a bit, but not too much, and we wound up sailing in dusk and twilight, then under the rising moon, which was very near full. Coming into the marina, we were slow to get the mainsail down and came in a bit "hot".

That evening we left Tad at Dino and Sister Rosebia's cabin at Hot Springs Landing and drove back to Albuquerque, with plans to return south later in the weekend. Gerald got to learn some practical lessons about managing rental properties with Dino in our absence.

Bow view to the south

Bow view

Sail and sky

Tad (mostly his hair!) and Batgal

Batgal

Hilly panorama

Moon over hills

Mountain and hill panorama

Little Kettletop