End of May already!

Despite the rainy weather, we've had a busy couple of weeks.

Our first proposal charter was cut a little short due to area thunderstorms. It was still a successful trip, with a smiling engaged couple returning to our dock.



We've experienced some weather extremes. One weekend our instructors dressed like this to go out:



The following weekend was sunny and warm, with a busy dock along with the weather:



Then finally, we had this week's northern winds:



Yikes!

We're hoping this rough start to the 2011 season will be made up to us with some beautiful fall sailing weather. In the meantime, we are gearing up for a busy summer season.

Join us this weekend in Waukegan to check out our new facility and meet our Director of Operations, Waukegan Jim Sauser. He'll be at our new slips on C Dock in the North Harbor from 11 am - 2 pm introducing people to Chicago Sailing.

Or, join us for some sailing in Chicago this weekend. We're serving a special Memorial Day brunch on Monday morning!

Those scary weather predictions...

The sailing season in Chicago, thus far, has been a tad bit wet to say the least. We're ready for some summer weather. Or even just some appropriate for late-May weather!

In the meantime though, we're going to dissect the upcoming weather predictions for Chicago. Check out the current 5-day forecast on Weather.com.



Yeah, not looking so great. And those thunderstorm symbols are rather off-putting. But wait a minute, look at that chance of rain percentage at the bottom of each day! Despite a symbol for Thunderstorms, the actual chance of rain is 30% for Sunday.

The Chicago Sailing staff pays close attention to multiple normal weather reporting websites and we also check out wind forecasting websites. Check out Windfinder.com's forecast for Sunday...



Not looking so bad after all! If the rain holds off (which at 70% odds, is a pretty good bet), we'll have 15 - 25 knot winds out of the south-west. Perfect sailing conditions!

So, read a little more into the weather predictions. At first glance it might look like there are some awful sailing conditions ahead, when in fact the reported prediction is just the worst-case scenario.

When you're short-handed...

Even the boss has to lend a hand!

The forestay on our J/24 broke and it seems like these things always seem to occur at the wrong moment. Jayme and Todd, our crack fleet management team, both had pre-scheduled duties away from the dock. So Alan lent a hand and took care of it.

Of course they chose just when it got cloudy to head up the mast, they must have known I was going to snap a picture of the work!



Some of you may have seen Chicago Sailing featured with Living Social on Tuesday. We sold 1,000 certificates for our Introduction to Sailing class. That translates to 250 boats full of landlubbers that we're going to convert into sailors! We are spreading out all of these classes so that we maintain plenty of availability for our regular rentals and charters.