| aPRIL 14, 2006 |
Date: April 14, 2006
Location: New Orleans, LA
Lake Pontchartrain
Crew: Jason King
Theresa Cassagne
Aaron Weidenhaft
Chris Bolen
Wind: Southwest at 10, becoming
Southerly
Seas: Light
General weather: 75 degrees and
clear skies
Notes: This was a very nice twilight
sail. We left the dock a few minutes
before six and headed out to calm
water and a decent breeze.
We headed due east, staying within a
couple miles of the south shore, lazily
following the track of a typical
Wednesday night race - from the A
racing buoy around J and back again.
Our path out to J was a winding one as
we were more focused on relaxing and
enjoying a couple drinks.
The ride back, though, was fast. We
had flat water and a consistent 10 or
so knots of southerly wind. So it was a
quick broad reach back to the harbor
as night fell.
We hit 6.5 knots over ground by the
GPS as we hit some of the "Bayou
Breeze." That comes from the bayous
that run through the city and empty
into the lake. The funnelled wind
creates a Venturi effect and the puffs it
creates out on the lake can make for a
minute or so of exciting sailing when
the wind is southerly.
I have not installed the new nav lights,
so we had to hold a spotlight on the
sails instead. The spotlight came in
handy as we docked and tied up as
well. That is one DARK marina. I plan
to put a couple of those solar garden
lights onto the pilings of my slip, as
there doesn't appear to be any effort
to light the marina anytime soon.
Location: New Orleans, LA
Lake Pontchartrain
Crew: Jason King
Theresa Cassagne
Aaron Weidenhaft
Chris Bolen
Wind: Southwest at 10, becoming
Southerly
Seas: Light
General weather: 75 degrees and
clear skies
Notes: This was a very nice twilight
sail. We left the dock a few minutes
before six and headed out to calm
water and a decent breeze.
We headed due east, staying within a
couple miles of the south shore, lazily
following the track of a typical
Wednesday night race - from the A
racing buoy around J and back again.
Our path out to J was a winding one as
we were more focused on relaxing and
enjoying a couple drinks.
The ride back, though, was fast. We
had flat water and a consistent 10 or
so knots of southerly wind. So it was a
quick broad reach back to the harbor
as night fell.
We hit 6.5 knots over ground by the
GPS as we hit some of the "Bayou
Breeze." That comes from the bayous
that run through the city and empty
into the lake. The funnelled wind
creates a Venturi effect and the puffs it
creates out on the lake can make for a
minute or so of exciting sailing when
the wind is southerly.
I have not installed the new nav lights,
so we had to hold a spotlight on the
sails instead. The spotlight came in
handy as we docked and tied up as
well. That is one DARK marina. I plan
to put a couple of those solar garden
lights onto the pilings of my slip, as
there doesn't appear to be any effort
to light the marina anytime soon.
