Lindy Thibodaux

It’s the New Math.

Thanks for the last 2 sunset photos, Fran W., and thanks to everyone else who added photos here— what a beautiful end to the day!

Off the top of my head: A boat none of us were familiar with, including a tiller and virtually no instruments, a near-miss getting out of the marina, a brief but memorable almost running aground episode (first time I could actually see the riverbed), Sunday races going on all around us, not 1 but 2 big barges, generally more traffic to contend with than usual on the river, and to top it all off, an outboard motor which randomly turned itself off, then back on, wouldn’t stay down in the water or respond to throttle inputs— which necessitated calling ISC out to guide us back into the marina under partial sail. Never, never a dull moment! I suspect this will only be #1 in an ongoing series: The Kitchen-Sink Sails. You heard it here first!

No exaggeration— along with beautiful blue skies and spinnakered (is that a word?) racing boats as a picturesque backdrop, we saw wind from the south, then northeast, then west-southwest, followed by north, northeast, and east, possibly more that I’ve forgotten in all that excitement. It was like a giant, delicious wind buffet today. So much fun!

Okay, I’ll say a little more: Beautiful weather with changeable wind that ranged from NNE to WSW, and occasionally disappeared entirely while apparently making up its mind where it would come from next. Wonderful way to spend a late-summer Friday afternoon, especially in such good company.

Hard to believe Wednesday Night Sails are already coming to an end for 2026… The Moving Trees: I had heard a few skippers mention this trick to (I think??) figure out another boat’s position and speed relative to our own boat— you have to pretend the other boat is not moving, then focus on the trees on land beyond that boat. If the trees appear to be moving to the right or left (or not moving at all), that gets interpreted as… well, that’s where the mystery still continues for me. But at least now I’ve picked up the point about visualizing things differently— it’s challenging to picture a moving thing (the other boat) as not moving, while simultaneously seeing stationary things (trees) as in motion. Not easy! Like thinking about negative space. I will be practicing this…

Our skipper, Fran, brought along her 2 daughters, we spotted ospreys and the first sea lion we’ve seen since late spring, and the Blue Angels flew over us —twice!— in formation en route to an air show. A thrilling day that also happened to include beautiful weather and near-perfect wind!

Not necessarily in that order. Details to come.