by GreenLake » Fri Sep 10, 2021 7:50 pm
While the crew was off getting ice cream, I looked around at the dock and chatted with several people on different boats. One couple owned a SCAMP, a little micro cruiser shorter than a DS.
By the time we all sat down with our ice cream, the wind had died again, with some finality. From where we were sitting we could see the entire stretch of our return trip: it was a solid sheet of glass.
Normally, statistically, you'd expect something like a sea breeze in the evening, which would blow our way. That day, though, we had seen from the water that the interior of the countryside was under a cloud layer, which disrupts the thermal driving the sea breeze. By this time, those clouds had lifted, so we didn't give up hope quite yet; but so far it did not look very promising — without wind, only the tide might have pushed us part of the way. But at best only as far as that point furthest away from all land.
To postpone the need to come to any decisions about alternate plans we checked out a nearby restaurant and got some takeout food: fish & chips, coconut prawns, crab cakes, shrimp, clam chowder and salad.
No sooner did we have our food in hand, than we saw a small patch off the side of the dock with a bit of a ripple on it. We took that as an encouraging sign, packed food and everybody on the boat and raised sail. By the time we pushed off, the patch had spread far and wide, and once were fully out on the water, the wind picked up and before we knew it we were cruising close to hull speed dead downwind.
Next: the return.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~