Monday morning musings

This is going to be a busy week as I’m heading to New York City for nine days on Thursday.  So, I spent as much time as possible this weekend on the water, partly because I like being on the water and partly because it was so dang hot (temperatures in the mid-90s with high humidity and heat index well over a 100.

A team working hard to make the most of what little wind
was available as they ran against the tide 

 On Saturday, I did my duty on the committee boat for our local sail club.  I was glad to be on that boat as I could sit in the shade as it was hot and humid and the wind was almost non-existent.  We had set up a triangle with what seemed to be an upwind start (running at a favorable angle across the tide), followed by a long downwind against the tide, and then back on a reach with the tide.   The reason for the course was to make as much of the race visible from the shore where “Harborfest” was happening.  Normally, we don’t worry about spectators.   On a normal day, the course we had set up would have been completed by the winning boat in 20 minutes.   It took them twice that long and the last two boats to cross took way over an hour.   After the first race, several boats headed in.  We shortened the course for the second race (down and back) and it was still slow.  Other’s dropped out and we were left with just two boats who still wanted to sail, but when the wind completely died, we called it a day, picked up the buoys marking the course, and headed in.

Heading toward open ocean

Normally, when it is hot like this, the sea breeze picks up in the afternoon, which it did on Saturday (as we were enjoying a beer on the porch by the marina).  So yesterday, three of us when out for a pleasure sail at 3:30, hoping to catch the breeze and sure enough, it didn’t disappoint us.  We sailed out (against the tide but with a decent breeze) to the ocean and then back with the spinnaker into the basin behind Wilmington Island, and back to the marina.  It was relaxing and enjoyable.

On another matter…  I am curious if my blog titles play a role in enticing you to read what I say?  I learned of a new program and decided to analyze my last ten posts and found that when it comes to titles, I’m not exactly hitting them out of the park.  Here are my scores according to CoScheduler’s Headline Analyzer.  

HEADLINE HISTORY (with numerical score)

26Going to Ground         

52Paddling Open Water to Ossabaw Island

61The Man with Six Typewriters

26The River Home

52Talking about the weather a few other things with some photos added for good measure...

53and interview with Chrys Fey

64Don't think that I've forgotten: Cambodia's lost rock and roll

64Things that I don't understand, a rant by Nevada Jack

60Things that I don't understand

41Paddling to Daufusaki Island

Almost all of my blogs received a letter grade of B+.  Today's title received a C- and a score of 15!  (I  had previously considered using "A hot weekend on the water and pondering blog titles" which received a rating number of 65, but I thought that to be too long).  How do you chose a blog title?  What kind of title catches your attention?  Did you get to do anything fun this weekend?