I took Friday Aug 31 off to make this a four day weekend. Today, I went to the boat for a solo sail. The forcast called for sunny skies, temps in around 90, and breezes from 10-12 knots, increasing in the afternoon.

So I went to the boat as early as I could to take advantage of the nice winds before they got too strong. There was a nice breeze blowing at the dock, but I decided to leave the main unreefed. As I headed out, the breeze was blowing directly upriver, making it plain to me that I would probably have to throw the reef in as I was raising sail. It was full high tide, so I cut the corner near the Little Mermaid on the way out, and then raised sail, putting in the reef on the main, and letting out only 100% of the genny. As I was heading out into the Sound, I passed a 25 foot sailboat coming in. He gestured to me that it was rough out there. I thought it was just the usual confused seas near the Mermaids.

Turns out it wasn't. The seas out in the Sound were running 2-5 feet, with some nice white caps. I headed straight out south towards the Reef. I was getting bashed around pretty good, and heeling over quite a bit too. I dialed in the genny even more, but that only twisted my furler line bracket and convinced me that after about 45 minutes of sailing, it was time to go back in. After all, they were predicting even stronger winds later.

As I was climbing back into the cockpit from furling the main, I stepped on a banana peel that I had left on the seat. Surprisingly, it was actually quite slippery. How cliche.

I made it back to the dock in one piece, and actually docked quite easily. I put the boat back in order, had lunch, then relaxed and read for an hour or so. I then had the luxury of scrubbing the deck as I saw fit. Nice.

Patti is talking about going on the boat tomorrow or maybe the beach. Either works for me.