Just to update the HardWay results, another four boats finished the course late in the afternoon. A few of the stragglers that this group shepherded home were running under bare poles. So with seven boats completing the 2021 HardWay, it is officially in the books. Congratulations to the finishers, as well to those who gave it their best shot. We all learned something last Monday, no doubt. Official stats coming from NEIYA soon.

On the long windward bash from Parker to Welsh, this writer was contemplating those light air days where we live and die by the telltales, chasing the elusive gusts and breaking out in a sweat from so much running. That’s just about what we had on Lake Chickawaukee this morning. A DN is a great boat for dozing in the sun waiting for wind. But after lunch the sea breeze kicked in. There were white caps on Penobscot Bay, and Chickie felt the force. The ice stayed hard well into the afternoon in spite of temps in the fifties so we did fast laps up and down the lake in thin gloves and open coats. We’d have set up marks but most of the boats had had enough by then and missed the best of it.

We made a pilgrimage to Robert’s Beach, site of countless campfires and pots of beans. Lloyd came down to chat. He was considering coming out of retirement for a sail or two next season. Seeing his old sail number still in service tugged at his heartstrings, he said.

Bill Bunting, Bob MacEwen and Joel Tompkins came down with their boats but decided just to sit in the sun and take it all in instead of setting up. It was a fine day for that, too.

But come Friday, it looks like we’ll get a shot at Lake St. George. That fire breathing dragon in the sky has yet to slay good old George, and Friday promises buckets of wind; a good thing on a convoluted lake like this one. Stand by for confirmation tomorrow.