Tuesday morning, I had only a little going on on by jobsite.
A front was passing through, and uncharacturisticallly for September, it had been raining for several days. There was a thunderstorm at 6 am, but the weatherman promised clearing skies by 9 and 10 mph winds all day with 20% chance of rain and a high of 84. Sounds delicious!  I left  the house at 6:45. I stopped at a customer’s shop in Birkdale Village to adjust a shelf, then headed for the lake. I arrived at Beatties Ford about 9:20 to see white caps, and gray skies with a few breaks
for sun.

I launched about 10:45. The wind was blowing out of the SW 12-15 mph with gusts to 20 mph. Waves were 12” to 18”. One of those clouds sprinkled on me as I went out but that was all the rain that I saw. I was spilling some air because of the gusts. I tacked into the wind heading south toward the dam. Because I was spilling air, I could not point up very high and my progress was slow. A couple of the 20 mph puffs heeled the boat almost to the gunwale. There were very few boats on the lake. The cloud bans were crossing the lake so that it was difficult to discern between a puff coming in and cloud shadow. I saw one sailboat with a cabin from a distance crossing the lake a couple of times, but then it disappeared from my sight.

I was about 3 to 4 miles from the dock when a steady 20 mph wind came up from the SW. I was sailing on starboard tack on a close haul. I sheeted out the main and the jib until they were luffing. I kept the boat on close haul feathering into the wind to keep the wind from overpowering the sails. I also tighten the outhaul and the cunningham to reduce the power.  I kept the sheets cleated, but kept a hand on the sheets in case I need to luff one or the other to prevent capsizing. The sails chattered in the wind. I soon found out that this was no puff. The wind continued for 10 to 15 minutes, blowing me about 2 miles across this 3 mile wide section of lake. The waves increased to about  2 feet. I was approaching an island. I decided to sheet out the main and head back to the dock. I came about to a broad reach which pointed toward another island. So then I jibed, (or tried to!). I pulled the main in to lessen the force of the swinging boom. A puff hit and jerked the mainsheet out of my hand. The boat heeled and I was thrown to the deck. I lost the tiller and the boat spun around into the wind and settled. I then regained control and set a course across the lake toward the dock. Winds had calmed to about 12 mph but the 2’ waves lingered on. I sailed across the lake on a broad to a beam reach. I thought that the winds would be lighter
under the lee of the shore.

When I reached the windward side of the lake, the winds were steady at 12- 15. I thought that the wild ride was over. I decided to jibe and head back across the lake, still heading back toward the dock. I was wrong in my decision. About half way across the lake, the winds came back again. I rode out the wind in the same manner. As I closed in on the leeward side of the lake, I jibed and ran on a beam reach for the dock. The winds backed off again to around 10-12. I guess you didn’t  hear me mention any lulls. There were hardly any on the trip. One of 3-4 mph and a couple about 8 mph. I tried to figure out how I was going to keep from crashing when I landed. The wind shifted so that it was blowing almost straight out from the dock. Easy solution: I sailed in on a close haul then turned in straight down the side of the dock. I dropped my sails about 30’ out and glided straight in. I did have to grab the dock to stop the boat. I was traveling 3-4 mph when I arrived. A perfect landing! That’s 5 in a row! I landed about 12:30. I said thank you, Lord for the adventure and getting me back in safe. Once again the Javelin performed well in high winds.

The official weather report from the airport was maximum sustained winds of 16 mph with maximum gust of 21 mph. I never heard of a 15 minute long gust, but I was also not sailing at the airport. So much for the 9-10 mph prediction. This was just a little over a year from the 9/16/10 sail where we almost capsized.  The winds continued in this pattern for the rest of the day. I went home very sore from the fall and from battling the wind. Yes, I am ready to go again!

The summer has continued with temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s and little wind except during thunderstorms. For the last two weeks, the wind has been good on a Monday, when I had to work. From now until Labor Day, I am out of work. To my delight, The Weather Channel was at last predicting wind, not much, but 7-8 mph for Thursday afternoon. I had a morning appointment, then I headed straight for the lake. No one could go with me today. This would be my third attempt at single handing the boat.

I arrived at Beatties Ford on Lake Norman about 12:15 to see that wind was on the water blowing out of the SW. Flags indicated 8-10 mph. This meant that I would sail toward the dam. The wind was fairly strong by the time I launched at 1:30. I had a bit of trouble getting the boat pointed into the wind.

Once I released from the dock, I sailed out easily on starboard tack paralleling the point. I had to tack several times to keep the wind from driving me to shore. The sky was mostly clear and the water was deep blue with light white caps! I tacked up wind, working my way across the 2 – 3 mile wide stretch of the lake. The winds were getting stronger. The waves were 12 to 15 inches. I thought the wind speed to be about 15 mph with occasional lulls down to about 8 mph. The weather bureau later stated that the maximum sustained wind speed was 14 mph with maximum gust of 24 mph. The big gust came later. I sailed past several islands, hailing a couple of other much larger sailboats as we passed. The wind diminished to around 10 mph. We had occasional short lulls of 5 mph and under; just enough time for me to get something to eat or drink and take a few pictures. As I sailed toward the last island before the dam, I was hit with a strong puff of at least 20 mph. Water was up to the rail, and I turned the
boat into the wind to settle it. I sailed out to the middle of the lake and had another not so strong puff. I decided to turn it around and head to the dock. I came about and the winds calmed down. From there to the dock, winds were 8-12. I received a phone call from my customer stating that the gas company had failed to show up again. This will play a prominent part in “the rest of the story”. I planned my strategy for landing, since twice before, I have crashed my boat on the rocks trying to land at this dock with this wind angle. I came into the dock to windward on a port tack on pointing from a beam to a broad reach. I sailed past the end of the dock about 40 feet out,
then turned the boat sharply to windward, going into irons about 4 feet from the dock. I dropped my sails and the wind drove the boat to the dock on the starboard side. The mainsail hung up and I had to hang on to the dock as the wind tried to drive it to shore down the dock. I got the rope cleated then lowered the main. I was greeted on the dock by 2 grandmothers and there grandchildren, who told me I had the right hat on. They helped hold the boom until I was stable. I was wearing my NC State hat, by the way. I had successfully landed!

I thought the adventure was over. WRONG!
I went to get the trailer, multitasking, calling the gas company about their no show. As I backed up, I forgot about the trailer. The next thing I knew I heard a bang and a crunch. I had jack knifed my trailer, knocking a dint in the side of the truck. I straightend out the truck, and I thought, the trailer. I headed back toward the water, but something looked funny. I stopped short of the water to pull my cable out and discovered that the pipe tongue of the trailer had bent in a beautiful 60 degree arch. The trailer was tracking 3 – 4 feet to starboard! Now what. I called my wife to see if she could bring a sledge hammer. She was in Rock Hill with the grandchildren. I prayed Lord, I need some help on this one. A family that was watching handed me a trailer lock so that, if I had to leave the boat, it would not be stolen. Then the Lord answered my prayer. A large boat was launching. The truck that was pulling it had a sign saying “We repair boats”. I asked the man for a sledge hammer. He said that the sledge hammer would do no good. He recommended that I jack the trailer the other way and push the pipe straight with my bumper. I pulled into the parking lot and returned the lock to the family. They watched as I gently backed the truck against the trailer tongue over and over again until it was relatively straight. Now the tongue has
a slight Z shape. It is offset by a couple of inches. It performed well on the way home. ”And now you know the rest of the story”

John 3:8

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Thursday morning, I went again to Lake Norman, again to the Beatties Ford Access Area. Grace could not come because of VBS. I tried to find several people to come with me to no avail. I decided to single hand the boat for the first time. The wind was prediction was 7 mph by 9 am and increasing to 12 mph by noon then 10 mph for the rest of the day. Officially, that’s about what happened, but not where I was. Accu-weather recorded 10 mph at noon and 13 mph at 1:00 pm. The weather bureau recorded the highest wind speed at 15 mph with the highest gust at 22 mph. That is what I saw starting a 12:05 pm until I landed at almost 1:00 pm. The wind was shifty generally out of the ENE. The sky had puffy little clouds with temperatures of 65 to 90 degrees. A beautiful day!!!!!!!!!!

I took my time setting up, about an hour and ten minutes. I tried a new and better technique for launching. I tied off the bow by looping around the horn cleat at the dock. I let the boat drift with the wind. It was coming in from the lake at about 45 degrees to the dock and very light. This allowed me to let the jib flog and raise the mainsail in irons. Then I just pulled the boat end of the bow line. It slid off the horn cleat and I was under way.

The winds were so light that it took about 5 minutes to move about 25 feet. Then I picked up a lift and moved out into the channel. The dock was partially sheltered by a point to port. Once I came out from the shelter of the point the wind picked up. The winds were varying from almost calm to about 9 mph. This allowed me time to get everything organized and get oriented to single handing the boat. I had a lot of trouble, as usual, making progress up wind. Every time I tacked, there would be a wind shift of 2 or 3 points. It always seemed to be a header. I had very few lifts.

Finally I got a decent lay line to move toward Davidson Creek at the main channel. I decided to go up the main channel for the first time. I was running between a close haul and a beam most of the way. The winds had increased to about 10 mph with some higher gusts that caused me to hike out. I sailed past several islands and some expensive houses. The boat traffic was fairly light, but there were some large boats as well as jet skis. I sailed up near a bridge on Burton Road, then decided that I should head back. As I approached Davidson Creek the winds increased. About 12:05, I saw the first white caps. The waves were increasing as well. I had to tack out to the middle of the channel to get a lay line around the point. As I went on port tack. the wind really picked up. The waves were 18” high will higher swells due to large boat wakes. I was nearly a mile from land in any direction. I let the main out about ½ way sailing on close haul. I decided to come about  and sail for the dock on a broad reach. I let the sail all the way out. I jibed a couple of times with the waves increasing. I got caught in a couple of swells that caused the boat to heel severely to windward. Then the boat started to pitch from port aft to starboard forward.  I knew that this was dangerous and could cause a running capsize. With the sail all the way out I headed up to a beam reach. This stopped the rocking. I was now heading toward the dock.

I sailed into the dock area on the port side of the dock and then turned the boat into the wind. I dropped the main and sailed on the jib straight at the dock. The boat stalled about 10 feet from the dock. I paddled to the dock and threw the bow line around the cleat. A lady on the dock, with her 2 small children who were very interested in the sailboat, helped me tie off the stern.

The next challenge was to trailer the boat. Because of the heavy chop and wind, the boat was bobbing around like a cork. I submerged the end of the trailer in the water. I took the bow line and pulled the boat around to the first roller. Then I pulled the boat up with the winch. My rebuilt trailer, with the fitting tapered bunks, centered the boat and I came up easy. YES! I had successfully launched, sailed, landed, and trailered the boat single handed.

I broke down the rigging in about an hour and ten minutes, with a couple of phone calls for interruptions.  The trip home via Hwy 16 and I 485 was about an hour: much faster than the I 77 route.

It is a lot more fun to go with someone, but I am no longer bound to finding a crew when I want to sail. I was also amazed how fast and far I could go with a stiff breeze and 300 pounds less on board. I went from 3 people to 1 person. The trip was about 9 miles in less than 3 hours.

Saturday morning, Grace and I went again to Lake Norman, this time to the Pinnacle Access Area. Our guest for today was Alea. The wind with temperatures of 56 to 80 degrees. A beautiful day!!!!!!!!!!

Sailing turned out to be an adventure. We put the boat in the water at the dock with a 14 mph wind blowing directly into the land. We had large rocks to starboard and shallow muddy shore to port. We pointed the boat out into the wind and untied the boat. The jib was set to the wrong side and the boat spun around and quickly grounded broad side into the shallow muddy shore. All our efforts to free the boat failed. We lowered the sails, but the wind drove the boat against the shore. We paddled and pushed and poled in the mud to no avail. Grace got in the water and pulled the boat down the shore. We attached the anchor rope to the bow line. A fisherman pulled the boat to the end of the dock. He warned us that the wind was blowing hard out there. I responded by saying “Yes sir, that’s why we came! Then he used his boat to pull us out into the middle of the lake. After examining the pictures of the dock just before we launched, we would have had a hard time tacking out of the area judging from the wind angle and the objects on each side. The severe drought has caused the water level to be way down and narrowed the landing area significantly.

We sailed north under beam reach with winds from 9 to 12 mph. We sailed into a large cove and ate lunch with the wind pulling the anchor along. We had to tack out of the cove. Then we sailed north up the channel. The winds diminished to 5 to 7 with some absolute lulls. All of a sudden we saw a puff coming across the water out of the north. The puff hit us with 20 + mph winds which sustained for 2 to 3 minutes. There were (2) strong puffs within the gust that knocked the boat on the gunwale twice about 10 seconds apart. Each time I turned the boat into the wind to depower it. The second time I just pointed the boat into irons and let the puff pass. Then I turned the boat around and sailed with the wind toward the dock. The wind was swirling. It reminded me of Mountain Island. I was in front and to the side and behind then back to the front. No wind then lots of wind. Once on the way back we were hit with another strong puff. The water was up on the gunwale. I turned it into the wind to save the boat. We got a layline for the landing and sailed right up to the dock with out incident. Three potential knock downs in one day. What a day!!!!!

Our 9^th trip on the Javelin was FANTASTIC!!!!! We got out earlier on Saturday morning. We were on the water on Mountain Island Lake by 9:30. The winds were out of the north. There were (2) radically different predictions. One said 3 mph in the morning to 5-6 in the afternoon. The other said 11 mph in the morning trailing to 3 mph in the afternoon. Weather channel won. Winds were 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 13 mph, with gusts to 18 mph. What a ride!!!

We were up on the gunnels all morning. I am getting the technique of tacking and jibbing down, but I need more work. I have found it easier to cleat the mainsheet just before the tack and make the maneuver without the mainsheet in my hand. I have not been able to pass the tiller extender and the mainsheet behind my back, as the Start Sailing Right book says. We also seemed to have no trouble with the boat waves, and most boats gave us a wide birth.

Our guest for the day was Adam. After sailing up to the Neck Road Access power lines, we returned to the bay north of the lower ramp around 11:00

He and Grace went swimming while I caught up on my phone calls and ate lunch. I noticed that the bridge on the Charlotte side of the lake appeared a little higher than the other side. We decided to try to get under the bridge. We sailed within 100 yards and dropped the sails. We paddled slowly between the rocks at the shore and the first pylons. The boat cleared about 6 inches. We sailed under sharply diminishing winds along the Charlotte side because there were (3) sets of power lines that appeared to be higher on that side. We made it under all sets, though the middle set looked a little close.

We sailed to Mountain Island. The last 3 hundred yards were aided by paddle. We noticed a NO TRESSPASSING SIGN. A family already on shore read the sign to us saying that we were not to be there after dark. We landed on the North end of the island and followed a trail to the opposite side. There were many families landed and day camping on the island. There was an excellent view of the dam. We were looking for the American chestnut tree that I had been told about when I was at State. We hike all the way around the island making side trips to the center to try to find the tree. We met a man that said he had been visiting the island for 30 years and had never seen a chestnut tree. He told us about a chimney from a house used to house men that built the dam in 1924. We saw the rock chimney but there was no evidence left of the house.

We continued back to the boat. We had not seen the north tip of the island, so we headed north. About a hundred feet from the boat, I discovered a chestnut tree. It was about 15 feet tall. I was quite healthy. We searched the area and found no other trees or chestnut logs or stumps. We brought back some leaves and a sprig off the tree to root. I may some day return to try to find the original tree stump. We did see a blue heron on its nest in the top of a tall pine tree near by.

The return trip to the dock took 1 ½ hours. There was almost no wind. The weather data, attached, showed 1 mph wind from 3 pm on. Adam and Grace paddled all the way back, a 1.4 mile trip. I was great to be able to sit back and steer and let the galley slaves do the work. We had a big hassle trying to get the boat out of the water. The landing was so crowded. The total trip was about 10 miles, our longest to date.

On the way home we were suddenly pushed into the next lane by a car that did not see us changing lanes. He was close enough to the truck to reach out and touch him when I shouted and changed lanes. I am grateful that there was no vehicle in the left lane. I had no time to look, only react.

I took my boat out on Mountain Island Lake today, for the first time without a trainer. It was my second time ever in a sailboat. We made almost every mistake possible. We had to step the mast twice because we forgot to set the spreaders. We tried the same routine of setting the sails that we used with you but there was a stiff wind. The boat drifted back into the cove and the keel got stuck in the mud. When it was freed, we raised the mainsail. Grace was on the tiller. I went out to raise the jib. The wind was strong and Grace had a hard time controlling the boat. I finally got the jib up and discovered that it was upside down. I took the tiller and steadied the boat while Grace corrected the jib.

Once the jib was set, the boat took off fast. The wind was blowing from the south directly up the channel, and swirling. We ran downwind for a couple of miles. The boat was literally humming. We stopped in a small cove at the Charlotte City Water Works and the girls went swimming. Later we went up to the cove at Latta Plantation Park. We came out of jibe into a strong gust that nearly capsized us. I turned the boat into the wind and it righted. We went out with a prediction of 5-10 mph winds. I just got an official report from the weather bureau that the maximum sustained winds were 14 mph with gusts to 20 mph. When we got back into the main channel, there were light white caps. We ended up tacking all the way back up the lake in that wind. It was blowing directly up the cove but swirling. It took us about 3 hours to make it back. We dropped the jib and used the mainsail alone. On one tack, the wind changed direction, and we ended up back and the same place we had been at the beginning of the previous tack. One time, inside of 30 seconds, the wind shifted from close haul to broad reach, then after a minute back to close haul. When we reached the large mud bank on the Mecklenburg side, I was able to set a beam reach course to the landing. The wind died completely, one hundred yards from the landing. We paddled in. Then 20 feet from the dock, the wind picked up and almost rammed us into the ramp. Grace quickly dropped the mainsail.

My wife made me two wind socks about 8” long. We attached them to the shroud about 7’ above the deck. They helped a great deal.

I need to figure out how to reef the mainsail. I understand that these winds might be a bit much for a novice. I agree. We made it however. It was exciting. My daughter and her friend in the boat were a bit frightened.

Thank you for your help. Sailing has been a life long dream for me. It was my 54^th birthday.