Fathers Day First Sail of the Year
23 June 2020
Mike Stern
We finally, finally, finally got out for a sail on Sunday, June 21, Father's Day. The initial weather reports were for hot and humid, chance of thunderstorms and light winds. It was hot, and it was humid, but the thunderstorms were not in the picture.
We stopped off at Ray and Mikes to get a couple of sandwiches and then made our way to the boat by about 12. It was our first time leaving the dock this season, and the three of us rehearsed our departure routine. All went well, except even with the wheel turned hard right, the boat backed to the left. Oh well, we reversed out of the fairway and then out into the river. The winds were light, but I had some hope that the wind would pick up as the flags we saw on the way in were snapping in a good breeze.
Once out into the Sound, we raised the sails. All was well. Except for one thing: the lazy jacks. I had tied the forward ends together under the boom, and Patti had mistakenly untied them to get the sail cover off; she did retie them, but told me (twice) that she didn't do it right. But I was so hyped to get going that I didn't think to check. Bad move. I noticed that the port set weren't where they were supposed to be. Then I saw the upper portion swinging around the shroud, and the bottom lines in a pile on the deck. Damn.
After some colorful language, I decided to not let that ruin the day. Winds were light as we headed south, but picked up pretty soon. Not a lot, but enough to make the sail a pleasure. Eventually, we turned east to take advantage of the shifting breezes. Lily wanted to steer while we were sailing, so I happily gave her the helm. She enjoyed keeping the boat in the groove, eventually pushing us up to almost 6 knots of speed!
We sailed out to within about a mile or so of Faulkner's Island before turning around. Although the wind was just as strong and we were sailing through the water just as fast, we were only making about 3.5 knots because the tide was running out.
Lily did some Soduku while Patti napped a bit while I steered as we all enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. We were meeting Mom and Dad, Dave, Jill, Maddy and Caleb for Father's Day, so we didn't have time to pick up a mooring a do a little swimming (which would have been great; the water was unusually warm), but it was still a great time.
Docking was completely uneventful, just the way I like it.
I called the Marina the next day and asked them to fix the Lazy Jack as I can't reach it.