The Ninnescah Sailing Association in Wichita, Kansas celebrated Summer Sailstice with a social gathering ahead of the annual blessing of the fleet to kick off what can only be a great summer of sailing.
Nestled on the western shore of Cheney Reservoir, the 51-year-old association boasts over 200 members, many of who witnessed the day’s excitement, which included wind and rain, some pretty fast Hobie sailing, and a full-moon sandbar grounding.
Allen Johnson shared the highlights with us:
The Ninnescah Sailing Association started the day off at 1:00 with a social just before our annual blessing of the fleet. We have a ceremony to remember our sailors who have gone on to better waters during the last year as well as other years past. Then we sail our boats past our pastors, Larry G & Ray K, (anchored in the cover on Ray's Voyager 26, Little Lady) in the club for a boat blessing and then sail out for a couple of hours.
"I was on my Hobie 17SC, Intoxicat and was out at the boat before Reverend Larry had his vestments on. Had to circle around and come back to be officially blessed. Ray says that Larry barely got half of the blessing out before I was off and gone."
"Noticed there were rain showers in the area, so I went back to our Islander 28, Wild Hare, to close up the hatches and then headed back out on the Hobie again. About half way to the dam, saw the several other catamarans were out of wind, so I turned around to head back in. Looking back over my shoulder, there's a wind line coming over the dam and first one then another and another of the cats caught the breeze and were off flying, just before the downpour. I went from zero to flying a hull in about 15 seconds. Woohoo!
"The downpour was upon us before any of the cats got on shore, so everyone dropped their sails in the downpour and were discussing the wind in the pouring rain. I don't think I've seen a rain like that in about ten years.
"After the downpour, the club had a wine and appetizer social where some very good beverages were consumed along with great appetizers.
Happy sailors congratulating each other on a day well sailed.
"Since it's a (almost) full moon, there's a full moon sail with the Wild Hare as the chase boat at sunset. But since there were still rain clouds and storms, the Hare crew decided to wait a bit. All the storms dissipated by about 9:00 though so we went off for a full moon sail anyway. Some how, the captain was watching the moon too much with our newest club member (he had just joined this week) driving, when we got rather too close to the sunken island off the club. Oops.
"Well, with some well placed crew members hanging off the side and judicious use of the engine, we got the Hare off the bar without too much trouble and were safely back in harbor to watch the moon continue its progress across the sky by 12:30 or so.
"All in all, a great day for sailing in Kansas."
It sounds like it was a fun day with plenty of fodder for some good sailing yarns! Hopefully the rest of the summer will produce favorable winds, only light occassional rains, and a deficit of groundings.