Happy(?) Halloween

In honor of All Hallows' Eve, here's the winner of this year's poetry contest. We hope you "like" it.

Five Fingers of Justice

When the chilly nighttime hours grow,
And powerful nor'westers blow,
Comes knocking at the Hoofer door,
A scratching from the hallway floor.

In beer-laced bliss the doorknob turns
Wherefor a wasted brain discerns,
Pale moonbeams reveal a shape:
A rat, a squirrel, a tiny ape?

Abruptly it scampers into the light,
Ashore to avenge its owner's plight.
Five fingers leade a yellow stump,
Detached from heart, from soul and pump.

At ankle height it coils, then leaps,
Trailing severed end where blood still seeps!
Fast upon the skipper of the boat,
The arm crawls nimbly toward the throat.

Its headless, cat-like corpse alive,
It grabs the Adam's with all five.
A frozen watch reads days gone by;
Now it's time to scream, and die.

With justice served on their mistake,
It crawls back to the cold, dark lake,
The palm and fingertips embossed
With echos of twelve summers lost.

Keelboat Lift-Out 2017

Lift-out is tomorrow, Sat Oct 28! We need as much help as possible, so if you're available, be at the lakefront at 8 AM. Why so early? Because, ah, whoever scheduled it is an early riser?

Work hours will be available if you need them. Or you can come down just to watch big sailboats fly thru the air! We guarantee a good time for all (BYOB please).

The question no one wants to ask is: Will this be the final lift-out at Hoofers? We hope not, but the out of control politics along with recent events has cast a dark cloud over HSC.

Finally, there's new info here on the status of Soma.

Crunch time

As another sailing season draws to a close, our attention strays to Wisconsin's other love: football. As most in Packer Nation already know, QB Aaron Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings and may be lost for the season. Last year we predicted that Green Bay would never again make it to a Super Bowl with Rodgers at QB, and they won't--but oddly enough, that doesn't mean the Pack can't still make it to the big show this year.

After the game, Coach McCarthy said what he had to say: that Brett Hundley will be the guy going forward. At least through next week, that is. Hundley looked serviceable filling in for the injured Rodgers but is unproven. In six days we'll know for sure (and a few of us already know) whether he'll be the starter for the rest of 2017. Beat the Saints and he probably is. Get embarrassed, and GM Ted Thompson picks up the phone.

Who will he call first?

Tony Romo. A native of Burlington, WI, the injury-prone Romo, 37, played 14 years for Dallas, never winning a Super Bowl. Would he fare better in Green Bay behind an injury riddled offensive line? Probably not, and Romo, now a broadcaster with CBS, probably says no.

Colin Kaepernick. Led the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013, but four years later, the mobile Kaepernick, 29, is out of football because management didn't like his use of the national anthem as a platform to protest police abuse.

Brett Favre. Favre led the Vikings to the NFC Championship game in 2009 at age 40 but got beat up by cheap shots from New Orleans players motivated by illegal bounties. Then he played hurt in 2010, and then "retired". At 48, is he too old to play? George Blanda played quarterback at age 48, although Steve DeBerg is the oldest ever to start a game, at 44. Will Favre rewrite that stat as he's done with so many others? If he were a mere mortal, the answer would probably be no. But,...

Incredibly, two of the above--Romo and Kaepernick--grew up in Wisconsin as Packers fans--watching Favre! Clearly there is a convergence here, and one of these three will be wearing green and gold (again) come Week 9.

The Packers are, after all, a business, and the product they had to offer just got hit by a truck.

We are polar bears

As we await the accident report and resist spreading rumors (and there are many), some thoughts on other dangers. Lake Mendota is warm enough for swimming through late September, but now it's starting to get cold again. Mark Gillespie posted a link to a very good article about what happens to the body when you jump into cold water.

In the tragedy two years ago, a Saudi student drowned off the O'Day on June 6 after jumping into cold water. The water temp that day was between 60 and 65º--colder than it is today. And that was at the surface; two meters down it can be much colder. This page shows the water column temperature over the past week. The graph (also above) is hard to read, evidently created by engineers, but the data are there.

Here is a handier list of current temps in the water column. Always keep in mind that the water is warmer in fall than in spring. I'd rather fall into the water in December than in April. It's warmer right now than it was on June 6, 2015. There is thermal stratification, but currents and upwellings can bring icy water to the surface, especially in spring when it's had all winter to cool off. That is apparently what happened to Mohammed Bagabir--he went into shock when he hit sub-50º water. It was windy that day, and wind creates currents.

Also, precious seconds may have been lost because the horseshoe was clipped to the boat--a big no-no. People sometimes clip on the horseshoe thinking that otherwise it might bounce off and you could lose it or have to do a MOB pickup. Arrgh. But all skippers (except dinghy) should welcome every chance to do a man overboard drill. Students: we recommend throwing a flotable overboard at random times during your keelboat lessons. If the skipper complains or retaliates in any way, it means he sucks at MOB pickups. Or, jump off the boat yourself (with your lifejacket of course)! Actually, don't do this with the spinnaker up without permission--that's an annoyance--but upwind, go for it!

When I'm skippering a lesson or cruise and someone jumps overboard to swim, I reflexively throw (or have someone throw) the horseshoe or a lifejacket, and I know other skippers who do the same. Michaela Rabas didn't do this because, um,.... Some hesitate because then you have at least two objects in the water, which is a pain if you suck at MOBs, but it's common sense. If you aren't itching to throw multiple floating objects into the water at all times, you probably need work on your MOBs. This is a good time of year to practice them.