This past weekend was Father's Day. The forecast called for a nice Saturday morning, increasing clouds, then rain at night, with Sunday being a total washout. So, we planned to do a family sail on Saturday morning.

Dan was in Philly visiting Serena, but he came back on Saturday morning (instead of his planned Saturday night return). I picked him up at the station around 10:45 and we went to the boat. I fixed up the new fenders (looking sharp) and we waited for Patti and Lily. Lily had a dentist appointment, and they didn't get to the boat until about noon.

By then, the sunshine was mostly gone, and it was breezy; very breezy. Patti and Lily kept remarking on the clouds, which while overcast, didn't look particularly threatening to me. It was also cool. Everyone but me put on sweatshirts.

Out we went, unfurling the genny only in the outer harbor. Patti and Dan tried to handle the jib sheets but really couldn't do it. I helped and we leapt ahead, doing more than 5 knots, heading almost straight south.

The wind was blowing a good 15 knots, and the waves were kicking up a bit. We got an occasional dash of water into the cockpit. We were flying! Great sailing. But Patti was getting nervous and asked to go back after only about 10 minutes. So we tacked back and even reduced the size of the genny. We eventually started the engine to power us back; we rolled quite a bit without the steadying of the sail.

Docking was uneventful. Dan and I had eaten our lunch (I made sandwiches) before Patti and Lily got there, but the girls were hungry, so we all retired to a picnic table and ate. After about a half hour, the weather was clearly getting worse, so we decided to leave. By the time we were in the cars, the rain hit. Ugh.

Sunday morning was gray and rainy, but the sun broke out by 11 or so, and even though it was hot and humid, it was sunny and breezy. Oh well, there's always next year.