Sailing and Recording it
We went for a sail today. The marina has changed a lot in the last two weeks. The buoys marking the channel, though still in place, are no longer valid. We know this from running aground repeatedly the last few times we have been out. Instead, we now have amazing channel markers on both sides of the channel.
Channel Markers along the Great Salt Lake channel to the deep water. Image is taken from a sailboat that can be seen in several of the images.
This is a huge improvement; it will make getting in and out of the marina so much safer for a lot of the boats. Previously, we only had the red buoys out, and we just knew that between there and the shore, at some point, it was too shallow. Additionally, the last east and west channel markers are out a bit deeper. This made a big difference from where we had slid on the bottom the previous few times we went out.
We had 7 knots of wind out of the North going out. 7 knots doesn't sound like a lot, but the North winds here kick up the waves pretty quickly due to the fetch. We bounced a lot in the waves, headed out to the deep water markers. We have been in worse, but it was a bit rough.
Once we were out deeper, we had Warren take over as sudo captain. He told us what he wanted done, and we did it. It didn't take us long to get the sails up and get moving. We headed North, so we had to tack up into the wind. Luckily, with such a massive lake, this wasn't an issue at all. We got about 3 miles up the lake, but that took us about 7 miles of sailing to do as we tacked back and forth.
Warren stayed below most of the time, playing on his phone. He joined us in sprints and tried taking a nap at one point.
Meanwhile, Nikki and I setup my camera and worked on practicing filming outselves talking. We each gave 5 reasons why we thought sailing on the Great Salt Lake was so amazing. I had prepared two different ways to do this. I wrote a script out, and followed it ok, but didn't really like that approach.
What I liked a lot more was my outline. I listed my reasons and some sub-points I wanted to cover, and went over them. This felt a lot more natural and authentic. I think I'll do some more recording of myself practicing each of the methods, and how they work better or worse.
Warren also joined us a bit for this. He is a bit camera shy, but he says he wants to be a youtuber, so he needs practice on that. He went over three reasons why he liked sailing on the Great Salt Lake. I thought what he chose was really interesting.
- He likes the motion. He likes the gentle bouncing and that bit of rolling we do.
- He likes the silence. We live in the suburbs, and are surrounded by sounds, cars passing, tvs playing. Of course, the boat isn't silent, but every sound on a sailing sailboat has a place. There's a reason for every single thing you hear.
- He loves the swimming. This was his last reason, and the one he started to feel more natural on. He went over what not to do when swimming in the Great Salt Lake, and why he liked it.
After my camera battery died, we headed back in. We were headed straight down wind, so Nikki tried out acting as a whisker pole with moderate success. Eventually, when we were close to the deep water markers, the wind had died enough, so we put down the sails.
Once I had the outboard going, I put Warren in charge. I stayed up with him, helping him keep on track. Nikki headed below to start cleaning up. This tends to make getting back to the dock and in the car a lot quicker.
Various images of sailing on the Great Salt Lake.
Warren was feeling pretty good about helming, so I let him guide us all the way in and dock us. He felt really important doing this, and I think it built a lot of confidence for him. He did an excellent job of it as well. I was really proud of him.
