Well today was our first true frostbite day of the season. The temperature was ok while the sun was out but during the second race, the sunshine went away and everything started freezing. All my knots were frozen when we got on shore and all my control lines needed some extra help to release while racing. The main sheet got icy and continually shed small ice chips from the block with every trim.
Thanks to John and Min for running races on the worst day for RC this year! They were able to get 4 races off before getting too cold (and the wind died so we were all happy to go in). We had a mostly west wind that was very shifty but not terribly gusty. The first two races seemed to have a nice breeze around 12 knots with some occasional puffs but the shifts mostly were persistent which made for calmer sailing and few capsizes. Then the wind started to drop off and had really come down by the end of race 4 and our sail in. The water was much lower than normal with all the wind earlier in the week blowing it out of the river.
My day started rough with a reminder to make sure you dump the water from your mast step at the end of sailing. I put my sail up and noticed that my mast was about 3 inches higher than needed. Luckily Tom loaned me his sponge on a stick (something I am buying tonight) and a water bottle to get hot water from the marina office bathroom to pour in to melt the ice. Otherwise the most important advice from today was watching the wind shifts and using them since they were more persistent. As for boat things, mostly just deal with the ice and help lines move.
We will see what the cold temperatures this week provide us to see if sailing next weekend will be possible but let’s all hope for no ice!
Farley