MacGregorSailors.com

dlandersson wrote:Photoshop yourselves in

Done. Thanks!

I never thought I would say this, but thank goodness you have a blue . A white one would have been invisible

Rwy

Okay, so why an I here?

Because you're from SoCal, and like cold weather?

I was out sailing yesterday, and it was warm and windy. I missed that gale force blast* by about 2 minutes. Good thing I had the big OB, as opposed to a little 9.9.

I got to the dock and got most of the lines on when the boat suddenly heeled to about 10 degrees. I got the last line on and hid inside with the companionway hatch board in and the sliding hatch shut under the dodger while the rain was hitting me broadside and heeling the boat. 15 minutes before that, I was anchored on the edge of the bay, and the baby Fortress FX-7 was dragging a little even in the gusty-but-not-bad wind up to that point.

A little further and the anchor would have been just dangling, as the bay has super steep sides and is something like 75 ft deep very close to shore. But with the gusts, I didn't want to anchor near a lee shore, though the anchor would have had a deep bite and not dragged.

*We had gale force winds yesterday late afternoon, with gusts recorded at 80 mph, and 100,000 without power. It's down to about 3,000 without power at the moment, 18 hours after that blast. Three guys in a little power boat were fishing near me, and were still there as far as I could tell when I was almost at the marina. Hope they made it ok.

Yeah, that does not really happen out here. Right now we are in the Santana season (October) and the winds blow hot out of the east. October is the only month when a Santana will blow for several days at a time and makes everything dry and makes stuff burn up in fires. Sailing is usually OK in the October Santana though - it's the March, April, or May Santana that will give you a wild ride - they can hit 40 knots and make 16 foot swells - still okay for sailing but a bit of a nail biter. To sail those you use a reefed main and pretty much nuttun else. It's also the coldest we get during that time: 55 degrees during the day ( BBBRrrrRRrr! that's cold!) Got down to 45 one day in March - I thought it was the end of the world!

What's the white stuff in the picture?

We get a lot of it. About 100" per season, same as Buffalo to the west. Syracuse, just 1-1/2 hrs east, averages 120". And Tug Hill area, off the east end of Lake Ontario, averages more than 200", with a record of 467" in one winter season!!! That was in the 1970's. Some houses have a second front door, on the second floor. A guy I worked with years ago that grew up somewhere in Canada told me about his aunt who had two front doors, with snow shoes hanging on the wall.

In case I thought I had it rough here.

Though it is 5 months of mostly gray skies.

And no sailing.

I go to Manhattan on occasion, but that's not really the same thing. New York people are bifurcated - there are the "New York" people that I meet in Manhattan - but they are very different from the New York people I meet that are from Buffalo and Syracuse and Rochester.

The folks I have met from Manhattan are truly city folk - very brusk and fast and hard to get along with - (sort of like Los Angeles people only "New York" people are way more honest than Los Angeles people - in "New York" if someone does not like you they will tell you right up front - in Los Angeles you don't know if someone does not like you - (until they screw you over)).

Then there are the New York people I met - they seem to me to be more like Midwesterners - very calm, and pretty friendly.

The state of New York is like the state of California - it's bifurcated - I think that New York AND California should be split in two like North Carolina and South Carolina. It would be much better for the entire USA if the two states were divided in two. Completely different people live in the upper and lower parts of both states - it's not fair to many of the people that live there.

Is it the weather that makes people gravitate from one end of the state to the other? Are there more sailors in the north or the south?

I was working on my boat yesterday at my condo slip 27C temp. & beautiful blue skies I have now started to make my Radar Arch forming a template from 1" gray plastic electrical conduit which has an 1 1/4" O/D so it,s equal to the 1 1/4" S/S tubing it will b finally made from
Still debating if I,ll leave the boat in the water over winter but most likely have to pull her out to install the radar Arch as I don,t feel like giving away my tools & s/s hardware away to davie Jones Locker
raining today tho
J

Tomfoolery wrote:

ULLR wrote:Here's a pic from last years floatilla.

Wow. That actually looks like a Christmas card. If that were me and the admiral, it would be, too.

Ouch

That pic hurts....

Too cold Tom

I'm still in the slip, have to be out by Oct 31, Marina rules

G

Taking a break Thurs-Sun. Plan to sail Lake Rathbun, and Red Rock Lake, IA reservoirs. Each has between 8 and 12 mi. respectively of open water. After sailing in circles for two days on each I get bored head out. Still better than no sailing. Some day maybe I be able to sail where I can see my rudders.

You mean they dont heat the water around your boats in the marina???

Thats a very poor service, all this taking boats in and out for the winter is unheard of elsewhere around the world

Maybe move somewhere warmer to avoid that issue or just wait for global warming

beene wrote:

Tomfoolery wrote:

ULLR wrote:Here's a pic from last years floatilla.

Wow. That actually looks like a Christmas card. If that were me and the admiral, it would be, too.

Ouch

That pic hurts....

Too cold Tom

I'm still in the slip, have to be out by Oct 31, Marina rules

G

BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

I think I would need a stove for that weather! And to think that the admiral thinks October sailing is crazy..

beene wrote:

Tomfoolery wrote:

ULLR wrote:Here's a pic from last years floatilla.

Wow. That actually looks like a Christmas card. If that were me and the admiral, it would be, too.

Ouch

That pic hurts....

Too cold Tom

I'm still in the slip, have to be out by Oct 31, Marina rules

G

Mine stays open until November 15, though I'll probably pull it a little sooner. Winterizing in a snow storm is a drag.

In fact, my FIL still tells the story about when I asked him to help me fold up my Aquarius on its trailer when he came up from Florida for Thanksgiving with us, and he said something like 'no problem, as long as it's not snowing.' Of course, the snow was blowing sideways by the time we got to the marina (in Braddock Bay back then). For a snow bird, that's not fun ha ha.

It's a running joke now.