The new engine is on and mounted! I will be doing a full post on that story later when I can get some good pictures.

But first, last weekend (Sept 23-24):

Hukilau was on the small boat maintenance dock after the installation of the engine. The Yard had pulled the boat out of the water for the work. Because of Hurricane Jose (which fortunately was well off shore), we had winds of 30-40 mph, so the Yard took the sails off the boat while she was on the hard. So she was ready to move back to EN9, but the sails were not installed.

Dan was in for Rosh Hashona, and he "volunteered" to help put the sails back on on Saturday before heading back to NYC. Dan and I fired up the new engine and moved the boat back to our dock. Unfortunately, my Welcome mat had disappeared; I wonder if it blew off the dock in the high winds?

Patti and Dan and I then bent on the sails; the genny was a real pain. I have no idea how I used to do this by myself. Despite our best efforts (and me shortening the upper attachment point), we couldn't get the sail as high as I wanted it. The main was a lot easier, but we quickly found out that the Yard had forgotten to put the battens in the cabin, so I couldn't put them in. Ugh. I called the office, but they had already left for the day by then and wouldn't be back until Monday.

On Sunday, David and Diane came for a sail. Where Saturday had been too breezy to really sail (the winds were 15-20, gusting higher), the winds on Sunday were very light. Very, very light. We got to the boat around 2:30, and motored out to look for wind. It felt like a mid-summer day, with sunny skies and temps in the upper '80's. There was nothing in the harbor, so we went out into the Sound; little to nothing there either. Not to mention that the main looked funny without battens; the leech was curling! Thank goodness for David's patented "Madras" drinks.

After slamming around for about 10 minutes, we decided to motor in and pick up a mooring. Within a minute, Patti, David and I were in the water. It was cool, but still very refreshing. We swam, floated, lounged in the cockpit, drank and had snacks for a couple of hours. Returning to the dock, we then had dinner at Dockside. A great day.

In reviewing my logs for this summer, I see that although we've been out a number of times, I really haven't had that much sailing. Hopefully, Patti and I will get to go out again this Sunday; it's supposed to be a very nice day, albeit cooler, almost seasonal.