Holiday weekends

[Figment]

So how did we all find our entertainments this long weekend?

Saturday I had a race around Fisher's Island. A stiff north breeze made it a fun reach-reach. A bit boring from tactical and crew-work viewpoints, but entertaining. Only upon hoisting the jib in prestart did I realize that the port primary winch drum was freewheeling. We got to double our pleasure on this one because the RC botched the start sequence and we got to do it twice, and then rehab the winch while sailing the first leg on port tack.
If only we had a camera aboard. One man sitting on the rail straddling the winch chanting "hands like a cat, quick like a cat" (in case any parts tried to leap overboard) while another worked the actual disassembly, and another on standby with paper towels and oil, all with perfect "sea legs" as the boat reached through 2' chop.

Sunday was a stupid family event but then yesterday we went out for a nice daysail. The boat behaves SO well with the No.3 and a reef. Over the crest and into the trough, sliding a bit to leeward on the backside but then taking it right back on the face of the next. All the while feeling that we must be just a little bit crazy, as we seem to be the only boat flying more than a "steadying" sail.
Those Benehuntalinas dieseling to windward at 6 knots under bare poles don't know what they're missing!

[bcooke]

Work

[jollyboat]

I spent most of the weekend on the boat. Eating, along with tremendous consumption of libations (ice cold Pabst) Some how sanding the cabin top hand rails led to a screwdriver, which the led to my unscrewing the companionway hatch slide. The underside of the hatch was peeling and flaking and the sliding rails had long lost varnish and had turned gray.
With my grinder, chopsaw, table saw, cans of epoxy, paint remover, palm sander, multiple trips to the marine hardware store, back and forth from my house to the boat I was able to reinstall the sliding hatch yesterday with new sliding "bearing sticks" installed onto the slider and have the mahogany rails laid up with a couple coats of varnish - that is the good news - the bad news is that somewhere in the saw dust a dimension changed somewhere and the newly installed hatch is a little sticky. I think the solution will be found on the business end of my mini-grinder.
I also finally found some time to remove the last two stancion bases and bow pulpit and epoxy fill the holes. Very please with the slow but fun progress on the boat. Saturday evening was spent aboard with a huge spread of food under oil lamps and Tiki-Torches.

[dasein668]

Saturday: yard work, desperately needed.

Sunday: Sail to Little Chebeague for lunch. Invited my parents. Had a nice light air beat in 5-7 knot southerly on the way out. Anchored in Chandler's cove and had a nice lunch, during which time the wind built. A. Lot. Had a screaming.. no, really... a-S C R E A M I N G!!!-LIKE-I-NEED-TO-USE-ALL-CAPS-NOW beam-broad reach back to Falmouth. Then family dinner at my parents'.

Monday: Brewed beer. Porter.

[Tim]

No boat.

Lots of work around the "compound", as some would call it.

[catamount]

Finally got back to work on my boat project, after not touching it for the whole month of August....

[Hirilondë]

Saturday my wife and I sailed from Stonington to the Dumplings at the west end of Fishers Island and back. Single reefed main and partially reefed genny. We flew all the way in the 15-25 kt. winds. I guess we saw you out there Mike, but not close enough to recognize. Saw all the same motoring boats as well, what a way to waste a fantastic day.

[Figment]

Yeah, next time keep an eye out for a blue-hulled Redwing 30 that's showing the others a thing or three!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my anchor jumped-ship while we were out frolicking in the waves on Monday. Pity, it was a genuine Danforth and those are getting harder to come by, but at least it didn't scratch the paint on its way down. If anyone has a spare midsize danforth laying around....

[Tim]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my anchor jumped-ship while we were out frolicking in the waves on Monday.

Way to go, Ace! hehe

Personally, I'd consider losing that to be fortuitous good riddance, but if you want I think I might have a gen-u-ine Danforth kicking around here that could fit the bill. I'll look into it.

[Duncan]

Sunday was warm and breezy (15-20). The Westwind loves that wind range - full main and the working jib, and she was in the groove.

The best part was a stern chase - bigger boat on the same tack, and I passed him, coming from half a mile back ;)

[Ric in Richmond]

What I did on my labor day vacation:

The Family and I left Yankee Point late Friday and anchored under the stars in Carters Creek, only a couple of miles away.

Slept on deck and was only awakended by a huge bright moon.

Saturday we went down the Rappahanock and hung a right on the Chesapeake. 15-20 from the N-NE. Nice rollers, made great time, but had to hand steer so no rest from the A/P.

Made it to Yorktown by 5 or so. Tied up at Riverwalk, but slept at a friends house where they fed us fried scallops and soft shell crabs and we slept in a comfy bed instead of the rolling floating docks at river walk. It was greatly appreciated and I was much less sore after tiller wrestling all day the day before.

Belgian waflles in the AM and then we headed north. Threaded the needle along the north side of the york river to cut over to mobjack bay since it cut a couple miles off the route and we didn't have much wind. Soon it filled in enough to sail and we were passing wolf trap light with a flood tide pushing us up the bay.

Made it to Fishing bay and anchored along the south shore due to the stiffer breeze expected.

Slept on deck with my youngest, his first time, and again awakened only with the brilliant moon and stars.

In the morning we spotted dolphins as we pulled out and were soon surrounded. Dolphins surged out of the water port and starboard and eye'd us over. Some jumped clear of the water and made resounding splashes. There must have been 30 or so and they followed along with us a mile or two.

My youngest was overheard saying "NOW THIS IS LIFE"....and he is only 7. Choked me up!


Wind soon died out and we motorsailed back to Yankee point.

All in all a great weekend.

[Summersdawn]

Took my Dad and Son out cruising this weekend. Left the dock shortly after work on Friday, and got home Monday just before my wife had dinner ready (now that's timing!).

Had a blast, hopefully will get a few more weekends in before it starts getting too cold at night.

[Jason K]

We had a great time over Labor Day as well.

We took a trip to the Tchefuncte River, which is a busy and popular spot on holidays and most weekends. The town of Madisonville is on the river, so there are good places to tie up and walk to first class restaurants or to bands playing along the bank. The river is also nice to motor up as it's wide and very scenic. There is a powerboat/jet-ski infestation though.

We sailed there on Sunday with the intention of spending the night, but abandoned that as it was simply too hot. We did enjoy the parties along the river though before heading back to the house late Sunday night. We left the boat tied up along the public dock.

Monday we came back. The sailing was uneventful, though it was fun to double-hand with the wife, who is just starting to really get into sailing. She's really getting good at grinding the #1 in. :)

On Sunday, we "raced" another J/30 to a bridge bascule that marked the halfway point to the river. It was pretty light and he had a crew mutiny when his wife and kids decided to head back and just drive to the river. The breeze filled in nicely just after we went through the bridge and we beat them to the river by more than two hours. The eight mile beat to the bridge took 3.5 hours. The eight mile run to the river took less than an hour and a half.

Sunday was about the same. We had to beat to the bridge and then we ran DDW back to the bayou where I keep the boat. On the run, we set the sails wing and wing and just enjoyed the ride. A storm built just over the land and the breeze picked up and went a little bit forward for the last three miles. We abandoned wing and wing and broad reached at well over 7 knots. We got the boat put away and back home before the rain, which was nice.

I have a few photos from the weekend. I'll put them up tonight.

[David VanDenburgh]

Our plans for a weekend sail to a harbor about 20nm away were spoiled by illness as, one after the other, we all manifested the same bug. By Monday morning the four of us were well enough to head out for a few hours. We had a lovely sail in 10-12 knot winds and enjoyed some unexpected visitors. At one point three goldfinches (?) hopped about the boat searching for handouts. My four-year-old son was in heaven.

It wasn't the trip we'd planned for, but it turned out great.



David

[Summersdawn]

It wasn't the trip we'd planned for, but it turned out great.

Sometimes those work out to be the best trips.

[Jason K]

Here are a few photos from the Labor Day weekend trip to the Tchefuncte River: