Last sail with the Admiral this year . . .

[sinnettc]

Weather wonks were wrong again. Expected wind to build to 10ish mph so I put up the 135. A front came through and before long It was blowing 15 with stronger gusts! Lee lowers, which I tightened up 2 weeks ago were foppy, and so were the uppers! So, it was an exciting, and even damp on occasion, romp up and down the lake for our last sail of the season. I may get in one more on Tuesday, then the boat has to come out. They open the dam on the 1st and the level will drop 4 inches a day!

 

[shnool]

Given the fact that you were wondering if you'd even get the boat in this year... I'd call that a successful sailing season.

 

[jerrymlewis]

Our lake is already so low that no one can launch - unless you can do so without any dock.

 

[HERSH]

What lake is that? Looks like one of those in Northern California.

Hershey

 

[dave_ren]

No, it's not in NorCal because it still has water!!! No jealousy here...

 

[jerrymlewis]

As the picture caption states: Scotts Flat Lake near Nevada City, CA in the Sierra Nevada mountains at 4,000 ft elevation, between Lake Tahoe and Sacramento. Usually about 120 ft deep, but now about 40' low and still going lower as they keep the fish alive downstream. We're exactly mid-point between Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Buttes (world's smallest mountain range, a single peak).

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.2787677 ... a=!3m1!1e3

 

[jerrymlewis]

Those two docks are on cables that allows them to travel up/down as the lake level goes up/down from their full position (at bottom of the photo which is the top of the ramp where it changes from concrete to asphalt) to the end-of-usefulness-as-docks at their current location.

 

[MrSkeet]

Chris,
Coincidentally, Yesterday (last day of summer according to the wall calendar) had more wind than I wanted. One of my weather sources predicted stout wind yet leaving my mooring in salem harbor, no wind whistled in the rigging so I left with full main and a little roller furling jib. Once outside and past coney island (isn't that a hoot, coney island on MA's north shore), white caps were every where (I'm guessing 15 knots) and I'm close hauled/reaching to cocktail cove inside of big misery island. One gust had the lee rail low enough to let a little atlantic into the cockpit. Ducking into the cove, I couldn't find my sister's boat so I had my last beer on the way back. Funny, the wind was pretty much on the nose on the way out; was on the nose on the way back, go figure.
My haul out date is October 9 and I'm hoping for eight or ten more sails.
Wooster

 

[sinnettc]

Yes, we had a great season when I was concerned we wouldn't get enough rain to start. Didn't get out as much as we wanted but we never do.

Holy Cow, Jerry, that lake is low! Of course ours is only 26 feet deep at the dam, so -40 feet would be a problem. I presume those boats anchored off the end of the ramp are out of luck? Or does the ramp extend a bit more below the docks.

Wooster, yesterday was one of the few times I wished I had roller furling instead of racing foil hank on jibs! Glad you had a good sail too, though. Enjoy the remainder of the season.

 

[jerrymlewis]

The ramp extends quite further down into the lake, but its very muddy there as the lake hasn't been this low in the 25 years I've sailed on it (moved here in 1989 from Columbia, MD outside D.C.). All those boats will need to be out of the water by October 1 and will have to get out without any dock to assist guiding onto trailers - they'll have to sail (or motor) onto their trailers.

There's been rumours we might get rain later this week, the first in five months (our dry season is usually March to September but our rainy season last year was light on precipitation). Hopefully el nino will help this winter be a wet one - and soon, as there is heavy smoke all over northern California this week from the King fire between South Lake Tahoe and Sacramento.

 

[jerrymlewis]

Smokey skies all over northern California from the King fire that is almost 80,000 acres

 

[jerrymlewis]

The Fannette Island race on Lake Tahoe scheduled this coming weekend has been cancelled due to low water levels in Lake Tahoe - you cannot launch or get out of the marinas if you draw more than a couple feet of water (ramps are out of the water and the spots with lifts/cranes have no water in their channels to the main lake), even though the lake is still over a thousand feet deep, but a dozen or more feet lower than normal.

 

[sinnettc]

Yech. We had some smoke earlier this year but it wasn't that thick.

 

[HERSH]

Well, we have 3 more Sunday races at Chelsea Yacht Club. ( Hudson River)
On the 24th we had our last Wednesday evening race.


As you can see from the photo above, our races on Wednesdays have an abundance of wind NOT!

Weather looks great for this weekend. Probably go out for a sail on Saturday -- then race on Sunday.

I like this retirement.

National Geographic had an article this month on the dry weather in the west. I hope you guys get some serious rain soon.

Hershey

 

[jerrymlewis]

northern California had its first measurable rainfall since April this past week with an inch in some places on Wednesday night into Thursday afternoon. The King fire has not grown since then, so maybe firefighters have been able to build lines around it and the rain and cooler nights have helped this one from spreading all the way to Lake Tahoe (about 25 miles to the northeast from the fire's northern most point). Skies have cleared bunches and there's some rain in the long range forecast. All western lake sailors are praying for el nino and a wet winter. We need these high Sierra lakes filled!

 

[jerrymlewis]

A couple more pictures from the lower-than-I've-ever-seen Scotts Flat Lake near Nevada City, CA (home of the Gold Country Yacht Club, almost up to 100 families).

One pic is of the new land that has emerged. The other is the mooring balls, where boats are usually kept, sitting on the mud.

But it did rain an inch last week and more should be coming, although weather (currently in the 60s) is expected to hit 90s by this weekend, too hot for October).