Long story, but here goes. I was watching a show on History about parallel universes. Turns out there are probably many parallel universes where we live pretty much the same lives, though they might be just a little different. I'd been thinking of going to the Lake (given a few semi encouraging forecasts, though the direction SE-S wasn't very good.) But instead of heading out I watched the TV show.
Once I finally made it to Vann's Tav, it did look like there was enough wind to at least sail the Serenity, there was a wind line maybe .5 mile out. Now chances are that in some parallel universe somewhere, I actually did find some wind at VT yesterday - BUT NOT IN THIS ONE. By the time I rigged, the wind line had receded and I couldn't even make it out more than 30 feet. Which is good, because if I had I would have never made it back. (All this was highly amusing to the civilians who were watching. I'm sure there is a just parallel universe somewhere where they got a flat tire, or something.) The annoyning thing was I could still see a wind line pretty far out.
So in the end, I quit, but Gene and I had been talking about new sailing spots. I decided to check out Mountain View which is just on the east side of Brown Bridge road. Has a good S exposure. Turns out its just north of Sunrise Cove, but a bit closer (for those of us on the GA 400 side of things.) This is where it gets freaky - there was wind. (Which brings me to the parellel universe point. In some universes, I probably sail at this spot most the time, and only go to Vann's Tav on rare occassions. This spot does seem to have more wind in this universe, though you never know since you can't be in two places at once.) So despite not wanting to get skunked twice in one day I rigged up again and sailed for about 2 hours. First on the Serenity on a 7.4, then on the Free Formula. The later could have used an 8.5, but was still planning about half the time. So this looks like a pretty interesting spot. Very good S direction, and its interesting that yesterday G-ville was reporting SE, yet the wind was pretty much on-shore. Since VT is not that great on S, this may be a spot to look at for those rare days when its due south, or when VT is stuck in some windless parallel universe.
What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.
I'm looking for Mountain View on Google Map. Is it the peninsula extending SW into the Lake from the East side of Browns Bridge? There is a road down the middle labeled - Old 141.
Barrett
New spot? I used to sail from there when I first started out, it being just down the road from my lake house.
There is a bit of a slot from the north but usually I was trying to get down further on the lake and would have to limp between the islands. Mind you this was years ago when I first started short boarding..
You can also sail the small bay behind Sunrise cove on an east, too.
Mind the boat traffic during the busy season as this is the only passage between the "upper" and "lower" halves of Lanier.
Also, once upon a time, a family that lived between the park and the bridge used to windsurf and would keep a couple of sails rigged on their dock.
Glad you had a good time.
When I was putting together the ultimately overadventurous plans for circumnavigating the lake last year for charity (which I'll bore everyone trying to sell you all on the idea again this year), mountain view actually came up tops for launching up north if we needed to start up there in yonder mountains. Looked like a sweet little spot if the conditions are right. I could easily see it turning into a bottleneck for power boats though - there's a lot of machines at Gainesville marina just around the corner (oh how they laughed at me when I asked about launching from there. I still have the marks from the thrown vegetables on my car somewhere.)