DC at the Dam, 9/15&16, 7.0/135L

[kenonstott]

It seemed spooky to be sailing again right where our HobieCat was smashed to pieces by a powerboat. Also while standing right where the head ranger told me he wasn’t going to cite either me or the boat captain because Coastguard rules don’t apply on Utah lakes and you just aren’t supposed to hit each other. It has always been startling how much more boater safety training was conducted in Arizona and South Carolina than in Utah. I do notice now that there is a Boater Education card required for anyone under 18. Does anyone know if they enforce it or are they still 100% focused on making sure boats have the Property fee tags?

Well, I digress. For DC Saturday seemed like the perfect sesh. Full on 7.0 windlines combined with lulls that still had enough punch to keep motoring along until the next windline. Josh swung by right after I started on a 10.0 and a formula board. I thought for a second I could rig my 9.0 but then I caught some more great windlines and was all smiles. There was even a HobieCat balsting around with identical Tequila Sunrise sails comparable to the ones on our replacement boat. It brought back some great memories. Sunday I had planned on Sulfur but needed to be back before 5:00 and decided that wasn’t going to work so headed to DC again. It was just the opposite of Saturday; dead when I got there at noon, finally a few breezes at 1:30 suckered me out, then probably caught 10 barely 7.0 windlines in an hour and a half of sailing. I would have rigged the 9.0 but the lulls were a flat 0; I couldn’t even detect which way the breeze was blowing and I usually ended up plunking in the water before the next breeze. I would have never kept the 9.0 up in the air and trying to uphaul it would have been brutal. Oh well. Provo canyon has to be the best scenery I sail in including the Gorge. Both trips I just wanted to slow down and soak in the site of jagged mountains and changing leaves. And both trips together used less gas than one trip to Sulfur. Still not bad considering I had written the weekend off as a no-wind period.