Lake Martin September 06: This is not a tale of trials and destruction. If you are looking to read a story of truck and trailer problems, launching fiascos, high winds and huge waves, storms and rain, or broken equipment, you will not find it here and might as well look elsewhere in the newsletter for more interesting articles by Jeff or Michael. Sorry Michael, I cannot seem to find all those fancy words you come up with when you write for the Rudder. We arrived on Friday evening, all two of us. John & Sherry had launched “Time Warp” already by the time I arrived at about 9 PM. (EST) Sherry cooked up some hotdogs while I prepared for launching. We had a hotdog supper on “Time Warp” while the ramp was still busy with late arrivals. By 10 PM I was back raising the mast and by 11 PM we were both floating and motoring to the back of the cove to anchor. There was a breeze in the morning while we slept late and even some wind as we departed the marina and headed out. By 10:30 the wind had dropped to a whisper and we were ghosting along at 1.5 – 2 Kts. It was 13:00 when we both were too hot, we were not moving and gave up, started our motors, and selected a nice anchorage to swim. It was nice spot on the South side of Wood Island. We swam for a while then had cocktail hour on “Time Warp”. By 18:15 it was time to cook supper and wouldn’t you know it, by 20:00 the wind was picking up blowing directly into our cove and the anchorage was getting rough. We weighed anchors around 20:30 and motored out to seek a more sheltered. We found a smooth protected shore a 1.5 miles away and settled in for the night. By 2 AM the wind had clocked around to where we were again swinging on the anchors in about 8Kts of wind. With a nice 5-8 Kt wind we sailed out the next morning hoping to get down the lake close to the Acapulco Rock. Once again by 10 – 10:30 the wind was again fading and by 12:00 we were looking for lunch anchorage. We found a nice place near two small islands after passing Sam Black Is. We swam some with John telling stories, & jokes, some funny and some scary, then lunched onboard “Time Warp” till about 14:00. (Ask John about the cigarettes & carpet sometime when you want to hear a good story) The wind had come up to maybe 5 Kts., so we decided to try to sail back to Sandy Creek area to arrive by 17:00. It was not more than an hour, with absolutely no wind, very hot, and lots of waves from the many power boater, we cranked up our motors and motored back up the lake. It was probably 5-6 miles of motoring but we arrived at a place that I will say is one of the prettiest sections of the lake. With the wind coming up to sometimes 6Kts and then back to almost 0, we sailed a bit around the islands in Sandy Creek then started looking for an anchorage about 18:00. By 18:30 we had found what I would say is a perfect anchorage: Deep enough, secluded enough and yet not far off the main part of the lake. It was a very quiet place and plans were made to try to use the morning winds to get back to Wind Creek the next morning. We motored out to the main channel the next morning, just after 7 AM with a nice 5-8 Kt wind. Cool temps and the nice wind made for the best sailing we had all weekend. We sailed past Young Is, Wood Is, and then up the river almost to Wind Creek before the wind slowly died and by 10:30 we were both motoring into the marine to pull out. The loading of the boats went pretty smooth with only one of us getting wet by a misstep on the ramp but no injuries, just got wet. By about 12:30 I was pulling out of Wind Creek with John and Sherry about 10 minutes ahead of me. It was a smooth trip home for me with only the summer heat and no AC in the truck to live with. Bob Horan