It's not Cedar Key but...

[Captain Kidd]

It's not Cedar Key but... I did get to a rendezvous Friday and Saturday (one of these days I hope to get to Cedar Key and sail with CB and Urchin II).

There are a couple sailors who belong to the well known DCA (Dinghy Cruising Association), Adam Rhinehart from Winder, GA and Don Silsbe from Tryon, SC, who are organizing a southeast chapter of the DCA. They held their 2nd rendezvous Fri-Sunday on Lake Lanier. As most of you know, I do not typically sail on Sundays except on a very rare occasion; but this was close enough, a mere 100 miles away, that I felt like I could make the gathering on Friday and Saturday. Besides, my wife was out of town - hehe (cats away - mice will play).

So I loaded up  and cut out on Friday morning with an ETA of 1:30 p.m. Don's ETA was the same. The elephant in the room was an ugly forecast: line of showers after line of showers. Intrepid as we are, we decided to go ahead with the rendezvous.

On the way I got caught in a downpour. I stopped underneath a funeral home portico for a bit to see if it would pass.

This was taken about 1:00. The blue dot is our destination.

You cannot view this attachment.

I decided, sheesh, this is a boat made to live in the water, just go. So I continued. Don, who was coming from the north barely saw a sprinkle. By the time I arrived at the ramp, the rain was about done (for the time).

Don had had time to launch since he didn't stop. I arrived just as he was finishing and launched immediately. He towed me around a couple points to a beach where the guys had reserved a campsite.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

Here's a map of Old Federal Campground. We had site 61 reserved. The ramp is near site #1.

You cannot view this attachment.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we got everything set up. The sky looked safe enough, so we decided to go for a sail. We originally had plans to make some stops on the lake, hit some shoreside restaurants, sleep aboard, etc; but with the fronts coming through opted to stay close to camp. The wind was favorable for some good sailing. Don took some pics of me and I took some of him.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

That's my Calendar Islands Yawl 16 and his Core Sound 17, Windependent. Don's a retired engineer and "semi-pro" boat builder. He didn't build this CS though. He found a good deal online and restored this one. He's 2/3 through the project. A very nice boat.

At 15'6" and 17' respectively, we carry almost the exact same amount of sail. We kept up with each other stride for stride.

While we were out, the sky got angrier. When the lightning started, we headed for shore.

You cannot view this attachment.

Little did we know, a tornado hit the lake about the same time we were out. The local tv station reported it. Here's a screen shot from their FB page.

You cannot view this attachment.

Adam, who sadly was not able to come due to contracting strep throat, reported to us that the tornado was about 10 miles north of us. Whew! That's still a little scary.

Bill, a third member of our party showed up about 7:30. He joined our camp, but decided to launch the next morning.

Shortly after dark the wind picked up and we went to our tents about 9:45. We were only 50 yards from the bathhouse and I had every intention of going there should anything serious develop. Here's the radar about 10:00 which is when the rain started.

You cannot view this attachment.

The rain was a bit intense but only lasted about 30 minutes. I sat up in my beach chair and read 'til 11:00. Hit the sack and rested better than I usually do in a tent.

We were up at 7-ish. We knocked around waiting for some wind. Don took his boat back around to the ramp, Bill launched his little Holder dinghy, which he picked up and was refurbishing, and they returned to the beach.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

I loaded up my boat since I was going to be leaving at some point in the day. We attempted to sail but there wasn't much wind at all. I decided to take out and to my surprise the other two did as well.

I drove through a little rain on the way home. Everything was wet so I left my boat uncovered. Later that evening another gully-washer came through. My boat wound up with 3"+ of water in the bottom!

You cannot view this attachment.

Sunday afternoon I took the plug out. It took 15 minutes to drain it. It wasn't until Monday that I was able to dry everything out, get everything put away and cover the boat.

It was nice to be out though and meet some fellow sailors. If I ever retire, I plan to do some more rendezvous.