Rum Race 08/08/12

Rum Race 08/08/12

What an incredibly beautiful evening on Lake Monroe for the Rum Race! Three new sailboats attended, unfortunately I was negligent in acquiring the names of the owner of the Mud Hen and the Saroca but our own Ron Semans was ready with his recently acquired Hunter 235. Based on the recorded scores of the past three years, nearly seventy different boats have attended the Wednesday night Rum Race, and five hundred and forty different scores have been entered. Most importantly, we continue to attract even more sailors. I forget exactly where it was but I looked up, and there on the wall someone had written “For a good time, go sailing on Lake Monroe Wednesday nights”. It is difficult to argue with that.

The wind was a little more irregular that some people might appreciate, but personally I love to watch Palm trees bent double while small animals fly through the air and SUVs glide sideways across the parking lot. All of this exciting activity was framed in grey and blue with several shades of green. The forecast was updated at the very last minute from “winds at 4mph from the SW” to “sustained gusts of 50 mph with small hail”. In spite of this, those most dedicated sat in the parking lot, hoping for a break. As it happened, it was the magnificent and awe-inspiring light show that tilted the scales from insanely exciting to reluctantly safe. Continuous lightning, cloud to ground, and spider webbing, of intensities from mild and distant to near and bright and loud seemed determined to dissuade us from our intention. Immediate and profound answers to the recurring question, What do you think? appeared in front of you, very bright and emphatically loud. During the third or fourth torrential downpour the migration toward Wolfy’s began. In an effort to determine the possible alternative methods for awarding the Malibu, suggestions included; timing a beer consummation, multiple versions of drawing the poker chips, and my personal favorite guessing your own average Rum Race time for the past year.

Someone, one of the more reasonable types, obviously, suggested that we should simply postpone the drawing and draw twice for the Malibu next week. I suggested that was such a great idea that we should celebrate by drawing for a third bottle next week also. Not sure how well that will be received by the sponsor, but of this you can be sure, we go sailing (usually), we have a lot of fun, and you are invited.

We fully expect next week to be great weather, because Show Me will return and she obviously took the Lake Monroe weather bubble with her to the keys this week. -wb-

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