ODOM 4 JULY 30, 2006
The WX was not too promising the day before the regatta and it followed through to Sunday. When Howard Rasmussen, University Place, WA picked me(Joe Brohan also UP) up, the WX did not promise to be much better than the day before. We arrived at Noel’s for skippers’ breakfast. Also there were Chappy Chapman, N Tacoma, WA, and Jerry Snowbird Muridge, N Tacoma, WA. We arrived at the lake, after breakfast, at about 9AM. When we arrived Bob Corbett, Milton, WA was there. As we were setting up the course and cleaning off the dock, who should show up but Joe D’Amico, Sequim, WA! That’s no small matter since it’s 60 miles one way. Thanx for coming, Joe! It’s always great having you and Jack Ronda, Sequim sail with us. Needless to say it’s a challenge!
Chappy C proceeded to set out marks. He set up a triangular course. Thanx, guy! The winds were from the S and SW 5-8mph with gusts to 16mph. The water surface was really getting broken up with a nice chop considering the small size of Surprise Lake. Great ODOM WX!!! The sky was overcast with broken clouds. Since we had such good winds we sailed a triangular course with sausage. The starting gun went off at 10:30AM.
There was a lot of good sailing and many very tight finishes as reflected by the points. More on that later. What did happen of note was that Chappy C was zapped by Mr Murphy. His rudder servo went out on him again. This had happened on a previous occasion due to water in the servo. At that time it was figured that the water pick up was thru a hatch misfit and thru the fairleads. However, this time a closer inspection revealed that the deck was lifting from the starboard gunwale rail. Chappy had about 2 cups of "shifting ballast weight" in his boat. Ugh! Not good. Guess Chappy C ‘s got some work ahead of him!
While all of our sailing was going on, all of a sudden, we hear the familiar eagle screech and then our club mascot put on a show for us. We saw our 6’ wingspan Bald Eagle swoop down and snag a fish. This is not conducive to keep one’s attention on the business at hand when you see something like that. We’re so lucky to be living here in the Great Northwest.
We did not get away "scott free" with that overcast WX. About a half hour before the finish of the regatta we had some fairly heavy sprinkles; just enough to make it interesting.
We had sailed 11 heats by 12 noon when we stopped the regatta. Jerry M brought in the marks, locked up the boat and put the gear away. Thanx, Jerry. After packing everything away we headed for the Tav for a bite to eat and figure the placing. As to the placing, I had mentioned that there was some tight racing and the points showed it. There was only a 1 point spread between 3rd, 4th, and 5th ergo some of the very tight finishes that we had. Some were only inches apart.
We all headed for homeport at about 3PM. And so ended a great day of sailing on challenging Surprise Lake with all of its moods and surprises. Surpise Lake is not a misnomer!
Joe Brohan
NOTE NOTE NOTE Tuesday Aug. 8 EC12 Points Nite and Sunday Aug. 20 ODOM 5