Saturday was the CABBS event at the Sandusky Sailing Club.
The weather reports were calling for cool, cloudy and rain starting around 2pm and thunderstorms later on. Not necessarily a great day to be out on the water.
My helmsman BIG and I launched around 1245 (without getting wet!) and were out on the water by 1300.
The wind was blowing 12 knots from the SSE so we plotted our course to stay within a range (distance and heading) to return easily when the weather got dirty. That meant cruising a north-south line from the Sandusky Sailing Club to Cedar Point. And back. And forth. And back. And forth again.
It's about 1.5 miles from the SSC to the marina at Cedar Point, so we probably got 5 or more miles of water past our keel over the day.
During one of those times back to the SSC, we spotted a buoy near the entrance to their harbor (AKA "Sadler Sailing Basin").
Not wanting to miss anything, we sailed closer and there upon it, in teeny-tiny lettering, it pronounced that we were floating over a "ROCK".
Well, that's one way to advertise it.
At 1400, (since we'd been monitoring the weather reports by radio) we decided we'd used up just about all the good weather available, turned around, waved good-bye to Cedar Point and headed south again.
At 1410, the first rain squall hit us and we put on our foul-weather gear.
At the same time, the wind died. Out came the canoe paddle. BIG helmed and learned to steer small, countering the force of my paddling and adjusting for the bit of wind we did get on occasion.
At 1420, the chase boat arrived and offered a tow. We'd decided that since we had another 40 minutes before things got dirty, we'd continue to paddle and sail and see what would come. I checked in with the land crew on channel 72, let them know we were headed in and continued to paddle.
The wind picked up a bit, I quit paddling and we were at the dock by 1445. Since we the wind was weak and the rain was (apparently) over, we decided to leave Krazy Kat in the water until 1730 when we would pull out. In case the weather improved and we could go back out before then.
So we hung out at the marina/harbor, checking out our hosts' bigger boat and watching the kayaks paddle around. Then we hauled Krazy Kat out (Still managing to keep dry feet! A dry launch and retrieval, both in one day! A new record for us!!!) during one of the bigger rain showers and went in for dinner at 1800.
Krazy Kat is a Phil Bolger design, sometimes called a Tinycat or the Bobcat design. It's similar to a Beetle Cat. I built her from 2003 to 2007 out of marine grade plywood and mahogany porch flooring. And a whole bunch of stainless fasteners.
The cleats, blocks, mast, tiller, mooring cleat, rudder, heck everything is handmade. Well, I bought the anchor and all the sheets. Victorian Outfitters made the sail from a Sailrite kit.
She sails great and can be seen frequently (but not frequently enough) in her home waters of Lake Erie near the Intercity Yacht Club (East Entrance) and sometimes La Due Reservoir.
