Yesterday, June 29, I finally went out for a sail. We were supposed to meet Dave and Jill on Saturday for an afternoon/evening sail, then watch the Branford fireworks from the dock. But the weather didn't cooperate. It rained Saturday and Sunday (the rain date), so no sailing and no fireworks. They haven't announced when the fireworks will be rescheduled.

So I mananged to leave work a little early on Monday and go for a solo sail. I actually remembered to look at my watch as I was leaving the dock: I left the dock at 5:30 precisely. And even more suprising, I managed to remember to look at my watch after the sails were raised and I shut off the engine: 5:55. That really surprised me. Twenty five minutes to motor out to the outer harbor and raise the sails. That's a lot longer than I thought.

The weather was beautiful: big puffy clouds, but a little cool. Probably only in the lower 70s. And the flags were snapping as I was motoring out. The wind was coming directly up river, making it seem even stronger. I was contemplating only unrolling some of the genny, but I really wanted to sail, so I hoisted the main (the reef was still in from the last two times I went out), and rolled out about a 90% jib.

I headed out the eastern pass, with the wind from the southwest. The wind was less than 15 knots, but not much less; maybe 12 knots. I was sailing along between 4 and 5 knots almost directly south, aiming to pass the Reef marker to the east.

I was cruising! It was great. One very annoying thing: the chartplotter was showing deep water in a navy, almost black, color. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to change the color back to normal. The color had changed when Lily accidentally bumped the unit before. I thought that turning it off and on would have reset it, but no such luck. So there I am, on a magnificent day, sailing along and obsessing about the chartplotter instead of enjoying myself. Ugh. I'm an idiot.

There was a large tug moving east about a mile ahead of me, towing a very large barge. I noticed (when not fiddling with the chartplotter) that we were likely on a collision course, both of us moving at about 5 knots. However, I figured his course would take him well to the south of the Reef marker and that I would be able to sail past the Reef marker and still have plenty of time to turn and avoid him. However, it became apparent that the tug was sailing north (inside) of the marker and that I would not be able to get south. When I got within 200 yards of the tug, I tacked west, to a new heading that took me towards the Cow and Calf.

I finally got fed up with the chartplotter and reset it to "default" settings. That was supposed to also remove all of my history and waypoints. But the reset didn't impact my waypoints; it only reset the colors to the correct shades. A couple of clicks to access the Navionics chip, and Bob was my uncle. I was then able to completely enjoy the sail.

At about 7, I decided to head back in. I broad reached back into the harbor, started the engine and took down the sails. By the time I hit the dock, the wind had died down to very little. No problems docking.

Some words about the grab rails: I finally got a call from Ed: they estimate it would be an 8 hour job (really two guys for four hours). At $90/hour, that ain't happenin'. So Ed is going to remachine the threads on the existing bolts for me, and I am going to rebed them myself, with some help I hope.

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