Todays Problem

You don't have to be a weather man to know which way the wind blows. Maybe you remember this verse from a song in the sixties. I always liked it, because it seemed to say a lot about many things. However, when it comes to sailboats it is also true. After sailing for twenty years I usually have a pretty good idea which way the wind is blowing, but in the sailing game it is nice to know exactly where the wind is blowing. So this means someone has to go up the mast on my boat and install a wind indicator. The ideal person has to be small, and mechanically inclined. I could go up myself, but bending the mast or tipping the boat over are not things I want to see happen.

In the past the crew has hoisted The Commander up there, but this year she seems reluctant to go. Sitting on the trailer the top of the mast is about sixty feet in the air. People at the dock used to ask me how I got her to go up the mast. I told them I usually hoisted a banana up first. The Commander was not pleased with that comment. My new option is to try Charlie from up the street. Sometime today we may give this a try.

The new wind vane is necessary because birds ruined the old one. Birds like to sit on them. It was not unusual to find pheasant wings or other parts on the deck of my boat. Owls would sit on the top of the mast and drop leftovers on my boat. In the process they bent and destroyed the wind vane.