Wow it was Hot Sunday!!!

[MoonSailer]

Sunday was very hot and I kept hopeing for a thunderstorm. Saturday afternoon TS's came through and generated some good wind for a few hours. Sunday looked like it might be a repeat. So I motored out and across the lake to check out a cove and to run the engine. A guy at a party told me that he and some friends had killed a large gator that he thought was making eyes at some kids. Gators are too sneaky to come in direct on the surface. This gator had probably been fed and was looking for some scrapes. But anyway the gator got shot!!!! Anyway it was an unremarkable cove except for it's beauty.
So it is heating up and I decide to motor out in the center of the lake and go for a swim. About that time a little wind comes up out of the southwest and it is getting stronger. Eternally hopefull I hoist the sails and drift a few miles down the lake. The wind dies and then comes back stronger from the east and some clouds are building. Now I get to sail!!!!!!!!!.....NOT. The wind dies. It is 3:30 and I am looking at a 2 hour drive home so I put the boat on autopilot and start the motor and drop sails as we go up the lake. AAAH for the wind we had back in the spring!!!! How are other southeast sailers dealing with the dog days of summer??? I did notice that I was the only sailboat desperate enough to try and sail. On the other hand being out on the boat even in the heat and lack of wind beats many activities. Though scuba would have been cooler.

[Pamlicotraveler]

So how far away were you from the Gator that had been shot? Don't Gators have families...brothers and sisters and parents etc that would be real pissed that one of us humans shot their family member?

[ronspiker]

Well Sailing here in North Texas is pretty much the same in the summer. We usually have a BIG high sitting over us so there is almost no wind in the summer. Your best sailing here in the summer is at dusk, the wind will normally pick up a little as the sun sets.

[MoonSailer]

Actually I went to the cove looking for a place to anchor some future night. Also just curious about the gator's choice of coves. Gators are pretty much solitary and big gators will eat little gators. Here on Wheeler lake there are not too many gators as the locals kill them every chance they get. They killed one last year up on the Elk river. They considered it a threat but my guess is that it was eating fish heads etc where fishernmen where cleaning their catch and throwing the remains back into the lake. I read about a simular problem in Arkansas where the wildlife people finally outlawed throwing food into the water. face it it is a lot easier to eat catfish left overs floating around the boat ramp than it is to catch live fish. It is kind of like bears getting used to filthy campers leaving food lying around their camp sites. I wish the Alabama Wildlife resources people would start protecting gators here on Wheeler Lake. I think that the danger they pose to people is greatly overblown. You are in much more danger from a large dog or a Cotton mouth water snake. Of course Darwin predicted that idiots that go swimming at night with large gators will be removed from the gene pool. Even then they are much more likely to drown than to be attacked by a gator!!!!