Great Daysail Beats the Weather

August 9, 2008
Great Daysail Beats the Weather
John Hart introduced Kelly Greene to sailing on Lake Erie this weekend as the three of us did a terrific daysail in wonderful weather from Sandusky Bay to anchor east of Kelley’s Island. Even though John had sprained his ankle a few days ago, he was up to hopping aboard Kelly IV as we slipped away from the dock. The westerly breeze put us on broad reach all the way from Sandusky Bay as John and I swapped turns sailing Kelly IV.
A noteworthy event took place when a 60 foot motor yacht actually slowed down to reduce his wake as he passed us leaving Sandusky Bay. Of course the captain of the large motor yacht did the right thing as all skippers should. Sadly, what makes this event noteworthy is that this is the first time on Sandusky Bay that I’ve experienced a powerboater actually honor the rule of minimizing their wake as they passed another boater. If the large sportfisherman a few weeks ago had done the same, we wouldn’t have had to buy a new lamp globe and risked the injury of 9-year old Sarah Paviol as she ducked the globe when it was bounced out of its holder as the 4 foot wake of the sportfisherman blasted us.
John sailed us into the shallow water just east of Kelley’s Island, we furled the Genny, then luffed up to the anchorage. I dropped the anchor and we drifted back in the breeze to set the anchor and settle us into a quiet spot for a wonderful lunch.
Our excellent lunch of fresh fruit, shrimp cocktail, ham salad sandwiches, and lemon cookies was provided by Jack van Arsdale. We sailed without Jack as he had other commitments that kept him off the water, but he came through with a terrific lunch anyway.
Given the nice breeze, lots of room, and no lee shore, we sailed off the anchor without firing up the diesel. John and Kelly both took turns at the wheel as we sailed away from Kelley’s Island. The breeze had enough southing in the westerly wind that we had to sail almost south, paralleling the shore making very little progress towards our return to Sandusky Bay. After sailing more than a mile, we tacked only to confirm that we were not going to make much distance to windward. We did sail long enough to bring the entrance to Sandusky Bay onto our port beam. Then we dropped our sails and turned on the iron genny for a windward slog back into the bay. With the wind blowing onto our bow as we turned into the slip, only a little maneuvering got us smoothly into position for tying up and wrapping up a wonderful day of sailing.
The forecasted thunderstorms didn’t hit us until we were well into our dinner at Terry’s, a local pub on the east side of the causeway crossing from Sandusky to Port Clinton. And the thunderstorm was over by the time we left, so the weather was no factor at all this weekend!