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The June That Wasn't:  2009

June is one of those months in Maine where the weather can be almost anything.  While summer in Maine can be, and usually is, a glorious--if short--time, June often ends up being less than ideal, as the typical summer weather patterns don't usually form with any coalescence until July.

Over the years, Mainers have endured some lousy weather in June.  This year, however, stands out as one of the worst in memory.  For weeks, a series of upper-level lows and offshore storms have stalled, immobile, in such positions as to keep Maine and northern New England in a perpetual weather funk:  fog, drizzle, occasional periods of heavier, steadier rain, and then more of the same.  The stalled pattern in and of itself isn't unusual, nor is the fog or rain. But usually, in between these periods there are at least reasonable stretches of clear weather.

What made this year so unpleasant is the fact that there were very few actually nice days during June; I think I could count them, literally, on one hand.  Day in and day out of persistent fog and grayness simply precluded any realistic and enjoyable use of the boat.  Somehow, I managed two sails (in addition to the weekend delivery sail at the end of May) during the month:  one of them was fortuitously squeezed into a rare 24-hour window of beautiful weather that was sandwiched between long periods of heavy rain, and the other was on the first weekend of the month before things had started to truly deteriorate.  Of course, the few truly nice day we did have ended up falling on work days.

I made it up to the boat a couple other times for non-sailing visits; whether I planned on sailing those days or not, I ended up not going out, either because of lack of wind, or unanticipated fog on the water, or both.  At least I was on the boat, but I wasn't getting any sailing time in. 

Last year, I was extremely busy at work, which limited my time on the water; this year, I had more flexibility in my work schedule, but the weather was interfering.  Oh well.

Website note:  I decided after last year that I would no longer post regular sailing logs here.  So you won't be reading about daysails and other non-noteworthy events.  Maybe I'll post some pictures from cruising and sailing as the season goes on.  The usual focus on maintenance and upgrade projects will of course continue, as always, on this site.
July Wasn't Much Better...

After enduring a tough June, we hoped that July would bring an improvement to the weather.  Typically, July and August bring pleasant summer weather--after all, we wait all winter long for a couple special months in the summer.

Unfortunately, the weather pattern this year continued to remain unsettled through most of the month.  There was plenty of fog and many rainy days.  Our plans for a long weekend over the 4th were reduced when bad weather interfered; we managed to spend the afternoon of the 4th aboard, and overnight, with an excellent sailing day on the 5th, but the weather seemed more like Labor day--cool, crisp, and breezy.  Nice, but not July-like.  But this one day was only a brief break in the seemingly never-ending upper level trough and series of low pressure systems that passed along the trough:  we had high temperatures only in the 50s for a few days after the 4th.  Dreary.

I had one simply perfect daysailing day when I played hooky from work one Friday (and I'm glad I did).  We had a disjointed one-week cruise in mid-July--disjointed because Heidi couldn't get away from work as planned on Friday, so although I went to the boat on time, I needed to return the next Tuesday to pick her up.  Then, poor weather intervened and conspired to keep us on the mooring at Buck's Harbor for the remainder of the week--startlingly silly, really.  It was relaxing, but not really a cruise in any way, shape, or form.

What will August bring?  Who knows.  Expecting more of the same seems the only safe thing to do, and perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised instead.
 

Glissando, Pearson  Triton #381
www.triton381.com 

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