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It can be so calm in the evening! These are the moments I enjoy sailing at the most.

http://youtu.be/CJP4R6_0HQ4

Michel wrote:It can be so calm in the evening! These are the moments I enjoy sailing at the most.

http://youtu.be/CJP4R6_0HQ4

Thanks once again. I checked my logs over the week end and the last time I had my boat out was July 20, 2013. It has rained almost every day since then. Your videos remind me of what it can be like and I am heartened by them.

My god! One month? I remember a similar episode a few years ago. I could really start sailing only at the middle of August.
I hope it will get better soon in your region.
Where are you located BTW?...

Michel wrote:My god! One month? I remember a similar episode a few years ago. I could really start sailing only at the middle of August.
I hope it will get better soon in your region.
Where are you located BTW?...

I am about 50 miles East of Knoxville TN. I live in the thriving metropolis of Del Rio TN (me and 799 other folks). However, I keep my boat on Cherokee Lake in Jefferson City, TN. It is a TVA made lake approximately 60 miles long and two miles wide. Unlike you I don't have to worry about container ships or even that many 100 mph bass boats. Most of the boats on this lake (at least on my end of it) are pontoon boats and putter around not much faster than I can go.

The weather report right now is 85 degrees, 51% humidity and 0 percent chance of rain this Saturday. However, I trust weatherman about as much as I do politicians so I am hoping for a change they are correct.

That is good, you are not to far from the lake. Is that French Broad river sailable?...
Anyway, I wish you a lot of nice windy weather for the rest of the season.

Michel wrote:That is good, you are not to far from the lake. Is that French Broad river sailable?...
Anyway, I wish you a lot of nice windy weather for the rest of the season.

The French Broad River is hardly canoeable! Where I live I have seen deer standing in the middle of the stream. There are several "white water rafting" outfits between Asheville and Hot Springs North Carolina. When the dam is closed the French Broad becomes Lake Douglas, starting in White Pine TN. That runs from White Pine to Danridge TN and has almost no sailboats although its certainly deep enough for most of the lake. I am about 30 miles from White Pine but there is almost no water in the winter months. Cherokee Lake will drop about 40 feet at the dam during the winter (from 120 feet down to about 80 feet) so if you can brave the cold you can sail year round. It gets down to the lower teens (Fahrenheit) in Jan and Feb. Cherokee Lake runs from Bean Station TN to Jefferson City TN and is a result of damming the Holston River.

By the way the name French Broad has nothing to do with Parisian women. It was named to distinguish it from the other river in North Carolina which was controlled by the British, the English Broad River. Both of which I assume were wide bodies of water, at least for the times. The English Broad River and the French Broad River were parts of what was called the Broad River but the French Broad was controlled by the French in New France. I guess they lost that in the French and Indian War

Too bad! It would have been nice to go down the river to the big lake it flows into...Or from?...

I like those historic times of the French and indians war as you call it in your country. They have a big significance to both our countries. We still deal with the Brits but it is on a milder base now!

Michel wrote:Too bad! It would have been nice to go down the river to the big lake it flows into...Or from?...

I like those historic times of the French and indians war as you call it in your country. They have a big significance to both our countries. We still deal with the Brits but it is on a milder base now!

At one time (before the dams were built) logs and keel boats would float down the French Broad from Del Rio all the way to New Orleans. If you are old enough to remember Walt Disney's Mike Fink tales they were (extremely loosely) based on the boatmen who floated down the French Broad to Knoxville where they flowed into the Tennessee River and then into the Mississippi River. They would float the keel boats down to New Orleans and then sell the goods on board and bust up the boats and sell the lumber. They would then make their way back to Tennessee and North Carolina and start over again. They did the same with the Holston River which also flowed into the Tennessee River. Where I live today was originally the route over the mountain from Hartford to Del Rio. They would cut lumber in the forest and move them down a slough to Del Rio and float them down the French Broad. There is still one lumber company in the area but it uses rail now. The road followed the small stream from "Over Mountain" to Bull Mountain and what is now part of the Cherokee National Forest. There is one little settlement along the way from Del Rio named Nough (pronounced nuff) because when you got there you thought that was far nough. I love knowing the history of a place and what it took the settlers to move into a land like this and make something of it.

I don't know about those Walt Disney tales. Not that I am not old enough!... But I agree about having an interest in the history of the place we live in. It brings a sense to it and makes us think about time and continuity. We all leave some traces for the future. Like a wake from a boat.

Michel wrote:I don't know about those Walt Disney tales. Not that I am not old enough!... But I agree about having an interest in the history of the place we live in. It brings a sense to it and makes us think about time and continuity. We all leave some traces for the future. Like a wake from a boat.

And some of us make waves