The Weather Sucks in Ohio

[rfrance0718]

Rough start to our season. We normally put our docks in the first Saturday in April or the last in March. Since that  was Easter Weekend they opted for the 6th. Since we had rain almost every day the water was higher than our dock connecting points on the sea wall and we postponed a week.

HS practice should have started 2 weeks ago. I finally had practices 2 days this week but with a limited number of boats. It's hard to launch without docks to tie up to.

I'm sitting at the club right now and the resavoir is rising again and it's raining hard all of the way up the valley that feeds the basin. There is rain scheduled almost every day for the next 10! The lake is the color of coffee with cream and is full of huge trees, debris, and dead fish.

I scheduled a Laser Regatta for Saturday and haven't canceled yet since without the high water, we should be able to get the docks in by 11:00. This is probably in jeapardy. Have I moaned and complained enough? Oh and it's supposed to be blowing about 17 mph Saturday which is the upper end for the crane to opperate safely. 

[Riley Smith]

We had a big blob that came through MS/ South LA yesterday. Thunder, lightning, tornadoes, flash flooding, the works. I'm sure the river is rising as I write because it rained in the whole drainage basin. It got REALLY dark a couple of times and rained several inches. My SIL is a cop in town and got soaking wet helping flooded motorists. I forgot to look at how much it rained but it was a lot. A lot of folks didn't send their kids to school and many places were closed for business. Pretty nice today but very windy with an advisory. I'm sure our water is brown also, although I haven't been close. Too many honey-dos  and grandchildren!

[Captain Kidd]

Rain just ending here. Been wanting to sail but gonna blow high teens to 20 today, who knows about gusts. I didn't sew a third reef in my sail so I'll wait. Tomorrow is promising with 8-10 forecasted.

[Wolverine]

Yesterday we had torrential downpours and winds approaching 45mph.  Weird I didn't see a single boat out on the river. 🤔

[Norm L.]

All this drought to torrent makes things on the Mississippi interesting for commercial traffic.
We go from saltwater intrusion 60 miles up from the Mississippi delta to barge fleets breaking loose and tows hitting bridges and dams.
Huckleberry Finn doesn't have a chance to reach Ohio.

Our rain gauge is calibrated to 7" and has another inch to the top. It was brimming Thursday morning, so we had at least 8" of rain between about 4 am and 4 pm.
Happily, our rescue, Bella, has become more comfortable with thunder in the two years we have had her. She still doesn't like it but is happy to cuddle a bit and no longer shake in terror.

Tornadoes are very rare here, but we had three in what is supposed to be just hurricane country, where at least you get a several day warning. One poor guy had his boat at a yard to get it prepped for the season and it ended up on its side, blown off the trailer.

[Riley Smith]

I'm foraying to the beachfront this day to do battle with the lawn. Previously, the belt broke, the deck U-bolt got wrecked, and all manner of mechanical things came undone. The old John Deere is a trooper though, and I feel I can have her going in short order. The mechanical things (and storm too) caused a setback in the spring chores, with not one but THREE trips 30 miles for parts. Half the shop is going today because, you know, tools. And once the old thing is going, there's the rest of the lawn to do and no doubt some added chores from the storm the other day. And of course there will be a debris line from THAT too, not to mention a burn pile.
Yes, I can see the water but I can't get there!
I may say to hell with all this after dark, and fish under Hal's lights, although at present I have too much in the truck for the ROD to go along.And Mr. Bean would have to starve until in the morning which he sorta needs instead of mooching me for milk bones. Although. with the amount of fresh water coming down, the only hope might be a tabby come down from upriver. Can you say chicken bone?)
 Anyway, it's more funner on the beach and I'll get to see something different for a time. Even if it is hay from the mowing. Someday soon there will be an adventure out there....

[Spot]

Nice weather here in MN the last few days, and two more before some rain sets in.

No on-water boating activities. Uncovered and sat in the Southwind 21 a bit yesterday and scuttled the PDR the day before, which was quite worse for wear due to my poor materials (non-marine ply), finishing (raw epoxy), and storage (never tarped) decisions over its lifetime. Repairs did not seem time- and cost-feasible compared to a new build. Plan is to replace the PDR with a 1.5 sheet plan from Hannu's Boatyard. I am hoping it is completed and ready to serve as my tender for this year's Apostle Islands trip with the local C22 group.

I have one more water toy (a leaky replica of a 14-foot 1930's paddleboard built strip planked from repurposed wood) and some misc. C-Scow parts to move along before I will allow myself to start the Hannu build so there is a net house cleaning/fleet reduction in effect. The new boat will(!) be painted and will(!) be tarped or stored in a better fashion.

[Wolverine]

75° and sunny with a S/W wind of 8-10 knots.  Too bad I'll be inside the Compac 19 grinding fiberglass and not out sailing. Tomorrow will be close to 80°.  I'll scrub down the Seidelman for our clubs commissioning day and blessing of the boats Tuesday.  I still have a lot of work to complete on the Compac to have her ready for the Florida 120.

[noelH]

Need the rain.  Even with our early April Lake Effect dump or ~40cm of extremely wet "sierra cement".  Took about a week for things to go very crunchy dry.  Two days in the +17C and RH in the low 20%'s. Add nice F4 breeze and one spark = forest fire.

Should transfer the boat stuff into Vela, but seasonal boat storage and launch permit official start day is May 1st.  Tomorrow the marina crew will be launching the first boats.  Commercial boats have priority on the schedule. Couple seasons ago they let me launch on April 30th.  Might see if I can push it a little earlier this year.  Westerly are warm days like today.  Easterly are bone chilling too cold. Guessing the surface water temperature is still just above freezing. Onshore days stay in the 30'sF, but feel colder with the damp air.

May Lake Superior sailing is... The sweat drips while setting up to launch. By the time you are a mile offshore you have a layer of fleece, gloves, hat on.  Then a few moments later you add windproof outerwear and hope you are not shaded by the sail.

[Spot]

Cold and wet in SE Minnesota today, perfect weather for Lapsang Souchong (pine smoke dried) tea. Finished scuttling/recycling the metal bits (rudder, leeboards) from a C-Scow I have been keeping but ignoring for 30 some years. The aluminum is the scrap bin at work and the bronze will be cast into something nautical I hope.

[rfrance0718]

OK, things have improved. We managed 2 practices last week. Ugly looking and no docks, so we only launched 4 420s and a Whaler each day. On Saturday we had 15 mph winds with gusts in the 20s. We sailed in a qualifier for the regional finals at our sister club across town. We sent 2 teams who represented well. They sailed 16 races per division, so 32 total with the heavy air all day. The top 3 teams qualified and our one team made the cut, coming back from 12 points down in the afternoon session. Heavy air has never been their strength, but they keep improving. Our second team was further back, but had their moments.

Meanwhile, back at our club, the water waas still too high to lift in the docks, but they rescheduled for Sunday morning, and we finally got it done. Monday night was beautiful and we had a full practice and last night we had our first Laser series. We had 5 races in medium air, sunny, 10 boats on the water. Life is good again.