Here you can see my new flag mounts. The ensign flies off two grommets on the leach and the burgee pole has new ss mounts on the mast. This eliminates the flag halyards that just seem to get in the way.  The other shot shows my new quick lashing for the steering. It works fairly well to relieve the steering hand, but doesn't give the precise setting that the steering clutch does. Unfortunately the steering clutch is a bit variable in how it applies pressure. I really ought to get around to beefing up the affair.

Sailing was pretty good, until it started to rain. I decided to postpone lunch and get the boat off the water. I'm glad I did, since a nice snow storm started to move in as I was getting the boat out. The sail dried out while I ate my lunch in the car between storms. The only people on the lake were a few fisherman, that I deem a little more crazy than the lone sailor.

Jean & I went out of the marina and did a little sailing. Winds were light, but that was perfect for Jeans sunning. We had a nice picnic and a nice day.

I decided that I had put off reefing far too long now. It was blowing so well that I was afraid to reef on the water, so I beached the boat. This was the first time I had reefed my new sails. The jiffy reefing worked like a charm, although I'm glad I did this ashore. I decided that since I will be close hauled most of the way back I had better start now. WOW, what was I waiting for? ALOHA handled beautifully under a reefed main.  My steering came back, the boat moved ahead well but was not tender at all. A complete difference. As the wind picked up, I spent a few of hours tacking back to the ramp. It was still a lot of work but things were much more stable. There was no way I was going to drop sail without going a shore. This made for a less than perfect docking, in fact it was pretty awful. Even with both sails let fly, I could not reduce my speed enough to stop at the dock, and I was too close to turn into the wind. I eventually turned downwind enough to get a little clearance and turned upwind as I arrived at the ramp. What a fiasco, I hope someone was watching the silly boaters at the ramp today. It was a good thing that the area was clear of other boaters. Shortly after, lots of power boaters were trying to dock and I had some fun watching there antics in this wind.

The sailing was great - Very exciting. The only disappointment was when I realized the wind had relived me of my Center for Wooden Boat Burgee. I didn't think a 1/2 inch dowel would just snap off.

I've wanted to take Missy sailing for quite a while. She has never been on a sailboat, but use to like to go wind surfing with me years ago. I'm glad she had a little break from med school. The day started out with very little wind. Even the lasers racing near the harbor were not moving much. This made for a good day to let Missy take over the helm and learn to sail. It really did work well in that the wind picked up nicely, but did not blow too hard. She did most of the sailing. It was interesting that even at about 8 kts of wind the surface of the lake never showed a ripple. We didn't have a lot of time, but we did have a very enjoyable time.

As it turned out very little wind was available any time we tried to take the boat out. There were lots of fun camping activities for the whole family, but we still all got to go out and motor around the beach area. The best wind developed on Monday after all left for home. I was able to talk Rachel into staying, so we had a great time sailing and playing together on the beach.

I got there fairly early and started to set up. The winds were horrible from the south and really kicking up some mean waves. The early birds with the ski boat found the only reasonable water up the east channel toward Rock Cliff. There were a few boaters up there trying to ski, but water temps were pretty bad. After getting the boat mostly rigged, I had second thoughts and decided it would be to dangerous to take the boat out alone and probably more dangerous to take anyone out with me.

We all went up the east channel with the power boat and had a little picnic and did a little skiing and tubing. Sorry, no pictures available.

My hope was that I might see some of the shrimpers I had heard about but never seen. After a bit of a sail in this light wind I could see that they were in fact 2 Brine Shrimp egg harvesters. This is the start of the about 4 month season. I got a pretty good picture of the eggs that I sailed through. These eggs are extremely small - about 50 would fit on the head of a pin. The Great Salt Lake is on of the few places on earth where these eggs (they are really cysts, but I like to call them eggs) can be commercially collected. The salt water makes all this possible. First of all the high salt content provides a habitat for the brine shrimp, and secondly the high salinity level causes the eggs to be lighter than the water and they float. There were 3 boats working together. Two pull a long floating "chain" of floats to gather the eggs one was collecting the floats. I assume the largest boat was the collector boat. This is really quite an operation, all regulated by the state and requiring licenses. They even use spotter planes to get them to the egg slicks before other companies. I found this site for one of the shrimping companies: SaltLakeShoreline. I'm told that the eggs are more expensive than gold, and are sent to fish farms and hobbyists all over the world. You may have even had some yourself. They sometimes sell the eggs in magazines under the name of Sea Monkeys.

I got out about 7- 10 miles and the run home was very enjoyable - Very peaceful and relaxing. Notice the last picture - the boom is far to starboard, the lake is smooth and yet there is quite a noticible wake following the boat. Not much wind, but enough for some great sailing.