I laid to the mechanical wind (oars) to get to the other side of Wiper Cove. I wanted some early morning sun to take some slides of the Aloha in hopes to get one in WoodenBoat. I rowed around the marina for a while hoping the wind might come up. There were a number of pelicans and fishermen around the bay. The wind came up enough for me to lazily sail around as the photo shows.

Eventually I rowed out of the marina where I finally got enough wind to do a little sailing. When around noon the wind died, I rowed to a Eagle Beach where had lunch, and took some digital photos. When the wind came back I sailed around the eastern end of the lake chasing pelicans and having a pretty peaceful time of it.

I tried some new things: heaving to, anchoring and sailing under just the jib. All went well enough. When time came to leave I was ready. A layer of clouds was moving in and it was getting cool. The boat retrieval was a bit unnerving since the ramp traffic was getting a bit heavy. Trying to dock under oars and jib was a little awkward but other that having a power boater crowd in front of me it was about as expected. Maneuvering is a bit tricky but with low wind isn't too bad. Retrieval: 15:30.

There was basically no wind so we rowed out of the marina to see what might develop. There was only little wind for about an hour. I explained sailing to Stewart for that time then as the wind picked up a little he took the helm. We eventually decided to try to make the Geneva Steel factory that we could see at a distance. The sailing was easy a nice starboard reach. Stewart did just fine & I relaxed quite well watching the harbor grow smaller in the distance. The winds were so light that we brought lunch and ate in the cockpit. I stood on the main sheet and Stewie steered with his elbow.

We could see what turned out to be the Lindon boat ramp. We sailed to the far end of it to check it out. As we got to where we planned to reverse our direction the wind just about disappeared. It only lasted a short time & we decided to break out the oars until it returned. We computed that we would have about time to row back to get Stewart to his job before we came this far. We had a good row back since the lake became glass and there was no wind at all. It took us about an hour. I checked it on a map when I got home and figured it was a bit over 2 miles. It really wasn't too bad, and Stewart improved his rowing abilities quite a bit.

One thing learned was that sitting on the lee side in light airs really does improve the ability of the boat to sail. It not only seemed to point better but seemed to pick up speed as well.

Weather on the GSL apparently has its own characteristics different than valley weather - the wind was blowing from the north all day. After getting my feel for things here and sailing west for a while I decided to try up to Saltaire. It was a close reach and after trying it for a while I decided to try for Antelope Island for lunch. It's about 8 miles so it might be a late lunch. The tacking went slowly. 

Compass: Having never used a compass on a boat before, I thought it was mostly for fog or long distance navigation. Not expecting such conditions in Utah I figured it would be mostly a decoration.  I found the compass quite useful. It was good to note the direction of luffing when coming about. You could also use the compass to suggest a heading for tacking. I imagine it's not as useful as a hand bearing compass, but it also came in handy for picking out the bearing of objects on shore. I'm glad I put one on Aloha

Steering Clutch: The winds were very consistent on the upwind part of my trip. After a few hours of tacking I got tired of holding wheel and main sheet. I found that after locking the wheel down, I could steer by how much line I gave the boom. The winds were so consistent I even cleated the main sheet for about a half hour and keep the same heading for that long. The steering clutch is great for singlehanding. In Photo 3 you can see the boat sailing its self with my chart in my chart table. I felt like Joshua Slokum, even though I didn't leave the cockpit.

Running: After 3 hours of trying to make Indian Bay for lunch it seemed I was about 1/2 to 1 mile away, and I decided to head back since I had to be home by 6. I turned to boat about and headed to the marina. After trying to fly wing-n-wing for a while, eat my lunch and take pictures, I found going directly with the wind too much trouble. Wing-n-wing was fun but doesn't work too well with the self tending jib. I also had a couple of accidental gybes. Thank goodness for a small boat. You can just grab the boom with your hand and put it where you want. - No problem. I decided to head off wind slightly, that made everything lots easier. Running was a Hoot. What a pleasant point of sail. There were a couple of times where I was becalmed, but most of the time it was a slow but easy push to the marina. It took about 1.5 hour to return. I cleated things down a sat backwards occasionally adjusting the steering with my foot to keep one mountain directly behind me. The only problem was keeping awake. I'm sure in the sun I could have just dozed off. I didn't have to worry about boats, the only one I had seen was on the first part of the tack and he had disappeared hours ago.

I dropped the main and ran in on jib alone. The marina entrance looks a bit ominous, boulders 10 feet higher than the water and a 90º turn in the middle of it. Boats typically motor through here and in the marina, so all you can see of another boat is a mast moving about. Sailing through there was no problem, but I had to row in the marina since the breakwater displaces the wind. It takes a bit longer to pull out and clean up here since it's best to rinse everything off afterwards. For a free launch facility and being so close to home I've got to sail here more often. All in all a great day. I actually sailed in 3 countys today - Salt Lake, Tooele, and Davis.

Weather: Since there was a cold front arriving the forecast was for south winds 25-35 mph. I hoped that the middle of the lake might be like the south arm with winds moderated by the natural lake winds. It wasn't to be. Jean not liking water or boats much was a bit nervous. After getting the boat launched I decided to try reefing the main and sail a around the marina by myself. Not having tried the boat in strong winds myself, I was a bit nervous as well. Capsizing a dingy or catamaran does not worry me but Aloha does. The sailing was fun, the cockpit quite a bit more hectic than it has been though. Both tacking and gybing required me to shift to the windward side much more quickly and I seemed to be getting hit in the head by the boom. I could see that this was going to be a challenge for Jean. When I noticed that I had lost one of the shourds I decided to come back to the dock. I discovered that the nut holding the bottom of the deadeye had come loose. The bolt was not obviously around. I knew in this wind this would end our little adventure, so we loaded Aloha on the trailer.

Rescue: While we were cleaning up we noticed some people running about and the park rangers starting up their rescue boat. Later we spoke with a couple that was here with a group. The couples had canoes and were rowing about the island. The wind was so strong that most had to fight back to shore. One canoe was unable to get back and was brought back by the rescue boat. They had drifted quite a ways out. It's a good thing they were with others because the shore in the direction they were going is at least 10 miles away.

Picnic: We pulled the boat over to the closest beach and had an enjoyable picnic. The second picture above shows the unique sand at the beach. It is called oolite and made over a long time from calcium carbonate from wave action. It is built up in concentric layers, as opposed to normal sand that is a decomposition of rock.  I is almost perfectly round, or sometimes oval and very fine. On a tilted flat surface it will roll.

I learned that it is best to have a few extra bolts and nuts for quick repairs. I thought those nylock nuts didn't come loose. Oh well, I think Jean enjoyed the day better getting to the beach in the car anyway. Our little sail down Antelope Island will have to wait for a calmer day.

When I arrived I was given a course sheet with headings and distances. The course was a 5 pointed star with the race Committee boat in the center. There were 8 legs (with a total of a little over 11 miles) counting leg 5 and 6 in the same direction (5 being the race end in case of low wind). I told them that I didn't think there were PHRF ratings for a Weekender. Since I wasn't concerned about my time, they didn't worry about the rating. My only concern was that with the light winds I probably couldn't make the starting gate by 1100 with my oars since it was located about 2 miles out. Ric Simmons with Irish Mist from the race committee gave me a tow.

Start: The race start was about the only time I saw many boats up close. There were 23 boats in the race and all were beating toward the starting line. The winds were light and after the start all but 2 boats seemed to disappear fairly quickly. Highspeed a Macgregor (26?- one of those water ballasted motor sailers) and myself were about comparable speeds. The first leg seemed very long watching most of the boats flying spinnakers on the 2nd leg.

The other legs progressed fairly well with the wind freshining on the way. Highspeed & Aloha were the only boats hanging back very far. I would seem to catch up with Highspeed while he adjusted sail, but other than that she seemed to stay ahead of me. I only passed her once, rounding the buoy between leg 4 & 5. (I think he steered outside to have a better look at Aloha)

Finish: Most boats finished around the 3 hour mark. I was 5 hrs. 40 minutes, a long time to sit in Aloha without a break (porta-poti especially), however I did eat half my lunch on one leg. The race committee boat decided to pull up anchor as we were on leg 7, so no official time for me was posted. On the last leg the wind had grown to a pretty nice reach. I made that mile in about 10 minutes. That meant I only had 2 miles to return to the marina. The next mile went by in about 10 minutes as well then the wind shifted. The breeze was was coming straight across the marina and was freshining a bit too much. I had to spill a lot of wind, and made the last mile in about 1 hour. This sort of beating is not much fun. The chop was getting pretty bad and the salt spray was covering all of Aloha and me. I couldn't see through my glasses but needed them to keep the burning salt water out of my eyes. 

It was my intention to tack right up to the mouth of the marina, drop the main sail and row in under the wind shadow, maybe using the jib a little. Well that didn't work as planned. With jib alone I couldn't tack and there was no noticable shadow. The wind was so strong that by the time I had the both sails down I wasn't very close to the entrance. I tried to row but couldn't seem to make any headway or even keep the boat straight into the wind. Things were looking a bit bleak.  I was afraid I would have to raise sail, reef and try to sail through the mouth, not a pleasant thought since it is narrow with walls made of  large boulders and the entrance makes a 90º turn in the middle. I've never seen anybody sail through there even in reasonable wind conditions. It was then that I got a call on the VHF from Irish Mist offering assistance. Well, I took up Ric Simmons on his offer. It was a Godsend. He had evidently walked over to the edge of the marina just to check on me. Thank goodness. I think I had better reconsider getting a motor of some sort. 

Other things learned: I lost the use of my steering clutch about 2/3 of the way through the race. I didn't realize how much I really used it until it wasn't there. I don't know what happened to it yet, but in strong winds it is hard to sail for very long without removing your hand from either the main sheet or wheel. My mainsheet hand was getting killed but every time I took my hand off the wheel the boat would head up into the wind.
Bouys: They are hard to see at a distance, but steering magnetically works really pretty well. Also, there is something about approaching a buoy  in a race that makes it hard to get around. When you are coming close the wind will inevitably shift and make it hard to get around. It didn't seem to matter if I headed right toward it, or gave my self good clearance, it usually became difficult. Racing: Kind of fun, but I think cruising is more my temperment.

The winds were what I expected: quite variable, mostly mountain breezes.  They were reasonable but a bit gusty. The day was just great, the sailing was beautiful, just what I always thought sailing here would be like. This kind of sailing is very relaxing. Near the shore,  I could hear the meadow larks singing along with the sounds all the various water foul and other birds.  I sailed around the lake and discovered another sailboat. A small dingy with a sail. I suspect the guy didn't know how to sail, he was on the lee shore and rowing while sailing around.  After sailing around the lake for a couple hours I decided to anchor and have lunch. The wind pretty much disappeared and the ski boats started to arrive. They were chopping the lake up and without any wind I decided to call it quits. It was a wonderful sail while it lasted.

Rudder: I found that I could sail reasonably well with the rudder part way up or even all the way up. There were quite a few patches of weeds in the lake that wrapped around the rudder, by not keeping the rudder down all the way I the weeds wouldn't stay on the rudder. Front hatch: I think mounting the front hatch so that it opens front up (backwards to the Stevensons) may not be the best arrangement. I find the foredeck is very small and when singlehanding can be quite tippy when I get all my weight up front. This makes access to the forepeak quite precarious and may be better if the hatch were reversed. It is better this way for access on the trailer and my intent of having better fresh air flow is really only a concern while camping.

Space: With 2 tall people in the boat with me I was concerned that there wouldn't be space in the cockpit if we did have wind. I think the boat does best with 1-2 adults. Topping lift: With rowing in the crowded cocpit we decided to drop the main, attach the boom and gaff with a bungee and raise the boom with the peak halyard. It makes a great topping lift. Rudder tie-down: The weekender uses a rope knotted at both ends to pull the rudder up or down. One knot came loose which meant that the rudder would not go down. I was surprised that the handling of the boat was not adversely affected.

Weight below: For a while Jonathan went below and the handling changed quite a bit. The bow seemed to have a better entry into the waves - not quite as much banging and noise. This was the first time I sat up on the top rail. It works well, except at a heel visibility to leeward is quite bad. The leeward rail still didn't go under. I thought the scuppers that I put in would be more useful that they are, I guess that I just need more wind.

Winds were decent on the east side of the island, but the further I got around the island the stiller it got. Passing Egg Island was pretty slow going. I was amazed how much less wind was required by a catamaran that came over to check me out. I almost tried beaching in Bridger Bay (picture above), but decided it might be difficult sailing out. As I returned many of the boats from the CocaCola Cup passed me. Above is the first in: Slingshot.

The new motor made getting in and out of the marina a whole lot easier. I really like motoring around with it. I'm ready to retire the oars. I don't like having the motor on the transom when sailing though. The main sheet gets tangled in the motor. When I get the electrical wiring done it should be easier to take the motor off. I just have to figure a place to put it while sailing.

I never expected to do any fishing in Aloha, but my uncle Ramon has become quite the dedicated fisherman. We did some trolling while we were out, both with a bobber & worm and a spinner. Unfortunately we didn't get any bites. (Maybe that is really fortunate.) Russ had a number of questions about the boat and its construction. I found out after our trip that he is a cabinet maker and I would have liked to have talked more seriously about wood work. Fred and Brad wanted to do some sailing for themselves, and I always like to let others take the helm. Being a commercial pilot gave Brad a good feel for how to set the sails. He picked up real fast on the telltales. The kids were probably the most fun. Taking them in a real Pirate ship was quit a kick.

Once I figured out how to do a beach start with an onshore breeze it became real easy to get started. The trick is to get the rudder and sail set and let your passenger hold them steady while you shove off and jump in the cockpit as the boat takes off. Otherwise, it just drifts back and you never get off the beach. I think I'm going to put a jam cleat on the boom so I can do the same thing when soloing.

The new telltales I put on the jib and main are interesting. I really haven't taken the time to quite figure them out, but they are starting to make sense. I think I may be to much of a fair weather sailor to be too interested though. I seldom look at the sails or worry about their trim. I guess a little more racing would help.

This is really a fisherman's hangout. There were only 2 other sailboats on the lake, one of them motored after me to get a picture. (It's nice to be admired.) My docking turned into a real fiasco and brought me back to humility. The wind had freshened and was coming directly from the ramp. I wanted to sail in, but when it got a little harried near the end I thought I could release the sheets and motor the last 20 feet. That was the start of the trouble. I'm not sure if the wind shifted or what but the main was still providing quite a bit of power and taking me around the wrong side of the dock. I couldn't control the main since it was sheeted out and all I could do was try and sail away, but I couldn't get reasonable headway either and ended in some weeds. I dropped the sails and motored back. I've got to be more careful with the motor and sails. They don't work together. I'm not use to having a motor and would rather sail if I can. I suppose I should do like most other sailboats and drop sails way out and motor around. That seems the Yachtmans thing to do, but it doesn't seem the sailors thing to do. Well the damage to my rudder (being hit by the motor) and a hole in my jib (sustained by letting it flog to much) will probably teach me something, but right yet, I don't know what it is except I've got some repairs to make.

Either I am getting to be a better sailor or the additional weight of the battery in the forepeak really does make a difference.

The surprising part was that the problem was the cable had actually worn through. I have found that there is quite a force on the rudder and under strong winds I have to bear down on the wheel to maintain a heading. The reason I went with the cable was to reduce maintenance. I'll have to rethink this setup.
 

Deer Creek is one of the prime sailing and windsurfing lakes in Utah. The winds today proved it, however for my own knowledge I wish I knew just how hard they were blowing. None of the Mesowest sites give me any data. There were 1-1.5' waves with some whitecaps. The boat even seemed to tack well today. I was able to tack up to the dam in only about 6 tacks. I shot this picture as the Heber Creeper passed over the spillway. The run back was exhilarating. I've never seen white spray off the bow on a run, and riding over the waves was fun. Aloha's wake created quite a following swell. It was fun.

I learned that you have to be quite careful when getting close to shore in these winds. Once I waited too long to tack and couldn't get enough clearance to get around. I decided to beach and push off, but that was more difficult than I imagined. The sails would drive me in to the shore, and using my oar to push with I couldn't get push off far enough to come about. I actually broke off the oar tip.

These winds are fun to sail, but a lot of work as well. I didn't get a chance to do anything but give both hands to the boat. One to the main and one to the wheel. No time to put on sunscreen, take pics, eat lunch etc. 

There were 7-8 sailboats out today. The USU sailing class was here and I ran into another Stevenson boat. Chris was here on his 3rd sail in his Minicup. He built it mostly out of what he could scrounge. In these winds he was out sailing me. I was able to take him around the marina before the wind disappeared.

I finally got around to hoisting the Ensign. I haven't done so since my first launch and it takes just enough preplanning that I don't seem to get around to it. With all the flags flying the last week I really wanted to show colors. It was fun, but I need to find a better way to tie it off.

The wind was reasonable and northerly and once I tacked out of the main bay I would be able to reach quite a way down the lake. I passed the 2 lone fishermen. It was a nice sail to Painted Rock where I tied up in the above picture. There was a bit of time before sunset so I set off further down the lake. After reaching a set of buoys indicating boats should not enter I returned to Painted Rock. The sun was setting so this looked like my nights stay. Since there was no one anywhere I could stay tied up to the courtesy dock - how convienient. Dinner of some MREs (unheated - I still have to get a good stove for this kind of stuff) was acceptable. There was a lot of fish activity. Both walleye jumping and carp making noises on the surface of the lake ( I could even hear them on the far side of the lake). Watching the sunset as the wind died to nothing and then later as the stars came out from the dock was really a joy. I don't recall ever seeing stars in a lake before, but the stars were so bright and the lake so calm I could even see the milky way in the lake.

I retired to the cabin fairly early (nothing else much to do). It was quite cozy (I'm not sure how well 2 would work in here). About midnight I heard a dripping noise. In checking around the wind had started up and small waves were hitting the bottom of the boat and making the sound. For the next 1/2 hour I listened as the wind picked up. The waves must have been the right angle or something because the boat did not rock but the sound was like a drum on the bottom of the boat. It actually made me laugh it was so loud. Eventually I got back to sleep, but after a couple hours I was awakened again with relative quiet and the boat rocking quite well. I decided to move the boat to the lee side of the dock. I expected the wind to come from the north still.

The morning was quite chilly. I wanted to get back to a phone to call Jean. The winds were quite strong and almost perfect for a run back. I decided to head out and watch the sunrise from the boat. It was a great sail back, most of the way that is, since the wind dissapeared about the time I entered the main bay. The rest of the day was quite calm even though I attempted to sail. It was a nice day, and I want to try this overnight thing again. Really a lot of fun.

There are a few things I still want to do: see the petroglyphs at Painted Rock, sail down further on the lake (when the water level is higher) and try night sailing with the nav lights (I did turn them on during the night & the appear to work quite well).