After working all night last Friday, then taking a nap, we dragged the sailboat up to Lake Pleasant and got in a couple of hours on the water. We launched at the north boat ramp and sailed into a pretty strong breeze blowing out of the southeast. As we made our way out into the lake, the breeze gradually decreased to a point where we were almost becalmed. As we returned back to the west side of the lake, the breeze picked back up. Its a bit weird to have 25 mph winds in one part of the lake and almost nothing on the other side. Anyway, I took along the GPS and tracked most of the run. We averaged 4.8 knots and had a peak speed of 8 knots. I thought the result was interesting because the theoretical boat speed for an Enterprise class boat is 4.83 Knots, given a 13ft waterline.
The other interesting thing was the course we sailed when overlaid on Google Earth:
I really had no idea we actually crossed land 6 times. It didn't seem at all rough like you would expect when a boat slides across the ground. The lake is pretty high right now and certainly higher than it was in the last Google image. Looking at the track overlaid on a topo map, we only touched the water once and spent the rest of the time on dry land.
As a side note, the boat is fifty years old this year. It was built in Santa Barbara, CA back in 1960. It was purchased by my Dad in about 1966. I bought it from him in 1972 and have had it ever since. Dad dubbed it the "Hari Kiri", or "Hairy Carry", depending on how you want to spell it, which still seems a bit overstated. Although it is a lively boat in a good breeze, I wouldn't exactly call it living on the edge.
