Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Lake Monomonac, pretty good ice, which was a mild surprise because on the way up I passed a number of ponds with puddles on them. But the ice on Monomonac was mostly hard, and according to the fishermen ranged from 4"-7". Parked at Kit's place and did a pretty comprehensive tour of the lake, skipping the parts where the ice looked questionable. Lower back got a bit more tired than it did last week.

C • Have you gotten your skate ... 2

Then it was time to try sailing. The manual for this sail thing that I bought says "SK8 works best whenever the wind is blowing." (Duh) Unfortunately, the wind wasn't really blowing. Just the slightest hint of air movement from time to time, but mostly dead calm. Probably not a bad way for me to get started, though. I was out for a while, generally moving no faster than a slow walk, but at least I was successful enough to not be drifting downwind. I did a bunch of passes back and forth near the Santa Maria, then headed north on a beam reach on a port tack. (I think.) There were a few brief moments when the breeze picked up enough that I was sort of cruising along, probably never as fast as I normally skate, but at least faster than walking. And I managed to get most of the way back, though I did eventually lose patience and do some skating near the end. Part of the problem was also that between the hazy sunshine and the high temperature (the thermometer in the car said 54F when I got back to it), the ice was getting mushy on top. So it wasn't epic, but I got enough of a sense of how it works to try again in slightly stronger wind.