Labor Day Weekend: Bugs and Beer
06 September 2016
Patti and I went sailing on Friday evening with David and Diane; or at least we tried to. Hurricane Hermine was on the way, or at least the outskirts of the storm were predicted to brush the New England coast. Patti and Diane were worried there would be too much wind. Actually, the storm was three days away at the time, and the winds were very light. Very, very light. We had almost no wind at all. Some "gusts" of breeze may have hit 5-8 mph, but for the most part, almost nada. The result: lots of bugs out on the water. And not no-see-ums or mosquitos: biting flies. I've never seen so many flies. And they attacked ankles, feet and legs. It was too much for all of us, so after about a half hour, we headed back in, then to dinner at Nellie Green's. My dish (ribs) was quite good, but I think everyone else was a bit disappointed. But at least the weather was delightful. No bugs at Nellie's.
On Saturday, Dave, Jill, Caleb and Caleb's friend came down to Branford to spend the weekend while Mom and Dad are in Iceland/Greenland. Jill has been wanting to go sailing for awhile, and I was happy to oblige. We got to the boat around 2:30 or so. Skies were cloudy, and unlike Friday, the winds were good. We raised sail (a reef in the main, and about half the genny rolled out), and headed a bit west of south. Seas were a bit lumpy with waves maybe 1-3 feet. Patti was uncomfortable, but we were moving very well with only a little heeling. And aside from the time I made Jill steer while I reset the brightness on the chartplotter, she was happy to be aboard.
After about 45 minutes of sailing, we headed back in because Patti was feeling a bit ill and she was clearly not happy with the "ominous" skies, the proximity (in her mind at least) of the hurricane, the winds and seas. Hey, if it ain't fun, it ain't fun.
On the way back in, someone mentioned Stony Creek Brewery, and that we could dock there. So up river, past the marina we went. It had been years since I had gone up river (there were no prior tracks past Bruce and Johnson's on the chart plotter), so it was new for me too. There was lots of space at the dock in front of the Brewery, so docking there wasn't a problem for me. We quickly tied up, and got beers and a couple of soft pretzels. We spent some time trying to figure out a way to get pre-cooked lobsters for Jill's dinner, but since it would have required Dave to run to Bud's from the Brewery (there was no way to get back to the marina and then to Bud's before it closed), we decided just to go to Caron's and get some steaks and fish. One smashed six pack later (can't take Dave anywhere), we did just that.
A great sailing weekend.