sailing log: 2022-08-02

Tuesday afternoon’s are never ending?

we vacationed for another family vacation week up at Camp Arcadia and the weather cooperated nicely on Tuesday afternoon – with smaller rolling waves and decent winds to take advantage of out on the waters of Lake Michigan.

after sailing solo for a bit, I swung back towards shore and picked up our youngest son Iggy, but my pics of him were taken through a dry bag for my iPhone and ended up super blurry.

it also was a big day for our 14-yr old son – he took sailing lessons in Opti’s ( more than a couple years ago), but time/circumstance/weather hadn’t ever given him a chance yet to solo sail our Minifish or Sunfish. but this afternoon, he got some last-minute tips from T2 (our oldest), and just jumped right in the Minifish and started sailing.

I tried to stay at least in his general area (me sailing on the Sunfish), but I shouldn’t have worried about it – he did great, didn’t tip over or sail into anything, and got some great solo sailing experience. after a while, I let T2 sail the Sunfish – here he is on the Sunfish w/ Luke on the Minifish.

I’m really pleased with using my Garmin watch to track the sailing activities – just a couple clicks on the watch and it’s ready to track the sailing, and after I upload the activity to Garmin Connect, then I can change the “activity” to “sailing” and it changes to nautical miles and knots.

and here’s a blow-up view of the tracking route

it was a great afternoon on the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan!

greater Detroit 2022 Sunfish race schedule

the Greater Detroit Sunfish Club (GDSC) has released their 2022 Sunfish race schedule. you can check them out on their Facebook page.

• May 15th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)
• June 12th (new date!) – Watkins Lake
• July 2nd & 3rd -Independence Day camping weekend at Muskegon Lake State Park
• July 24th – U.P. Island Race (Les Cheneaux YC… details t.b.d.)
• August 21st – Watkins Lake
• September 3rd & 4th – Labor Day camping weekend at Higgins Lake
• September 17th & 18th -Clark Lake Regatta (Clark Lake Yacht Club)
• October 9th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)

all Sunday races typically start at 12:30pm [uno], with the camping/racing weekends starting earlier in the day to get extra races in over the weekend.

I said this last year (and the year before… and the year before… and the year before), and didn’t get a chance to sail with this group, but I’m again going to do my best to meet up with them for some sailing races this year.

more boats

still snow on the ground and the lakes are mostly frozen over here in Michigan, but spring is coming.

I technically already have 4 Sunfish-type boats… why would I need more?

erie open regatta

the Erie Open Regatta is coming up in a few weeks – June 5th and 6th at Erie Yacht Club in Erie, PA.

This Sunfish regatta may not be a District Championship or a World Qualifier, but come sail anyway at one of the nicest venues on the Great Lakes!

official notice of race is here.

greater Detroit 2021 Sunfish race schedule

the Greater Detroit Sunfish Club (GDSC) has released their 2021 Sunfish race schedule. you can also check them out on their Facebook page.

• May 16th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)
• June 6th – Watkins Lake
• June 26th & 27th -Independence Day camping weekend at Muskegon Lake State Park
• July 25th – U.P. Island Race (Les Cheneaux YC… details t.b.d.)
• September 4th & 5th – Labor Day camping weekend at Higgins Lake
• September 19th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)
• September 26th – Watkins Lake

all Sunday races start at 12:30pm [uno], with the camping/racing weekends starting earlier in the day to get extra races in over the weekend.

I said this last year (and the year before… and the year before… and the year before), and didn’t get a chance to sail with this group, but I’m again going to do my best to meet up with them for some sailing races this year.  with all the “stay at home” and corona virus issues still lingering around though… maybe not.

is it spring?

warm (45°F) and sunny February day in Michigan has me thinking sailing thoughts…. even though we just had ~18” of accumulated snow and a 3-week period when daily high temps didn’t even get above freezing.

I was scrolling through some old photos and found some great Sunfish sailing memories. these are from vacationing at Camp Arcadia on Lake Michigan, probably 2009 or so.

a common theme to the photos: I like taking people (adults and kids) for rides on my Sunfish so they can experience the thrill of it, even on some of the calmer wind days.