On Saturday, October 10, Patti and I went out for the last sail of the season. We have parent's weekend at GW next weekend, and will probably be in DC again the following weekend to help her move (boy, is that a different story), so this seemed to be the last chance.

I had planned to go out after work on the Friday before with Jerry, but the weather did not cooperate. With the sun setting so early, that would have meant leaving work no later than 4, and that didn't seem to be happening anyway. Besides, it rained most of the day, with absolute downpours starting about 5.

Saturday was beautful: low 60's and sunny. We had a reef in the main from the last sail that I never shook out, so we were prepared. The wind was gusting right up the river as we left, making it seem very breezy. Out in the harbor, we saw a helicopter buzzing around. At first, we thought it was someone trying to land on the big estate on the hill, but as we got closer, he was clearly buzzing the boats as they entered and left the harbor. I finally saw it was Boatpix! We hoped they would come close to us and get our picture, (even if the sails weren't up); I don't know if they did. I filled out the online form, so we'll see.

We unrolled some of the genny and headed out the east side of the channel to the Sound. We had less than the full genny out to keep the heeling to a minimum. We sailed southeast, out to almost the Reef before we turned around and came back. Lily called us while we were out there, and we had a nice chat with her.

It really was an out and back sail of about an hour and a half; the plot line of our course showed almost a direct reciprocal course. Patti snapped this picture of me on the way back in.

It was almost 4:30 by the time we got back to the dock and put the boat away. Another season over.....