Deb and Talia came up to spend a few days with Mom and Dad (social distancing of course), and they wanted to go sailing. So on Monday evening, Lily, Patti and I went to the boat to meet them.

In order to alleviate any type of crowding, Patti didn't come sailing with us, and we wore masks before we got moving. Again, we had trouble leaving the dock, with the stern swinging left more so than it ever did before. While leaving, we stopped and the bow swung to the right, hitting Roger's boat. No damage to either of us, but that wasn't fun.

I had no idea why that happened until I looked in the water and saw the clouds of churned mud. I think the keel got stuck (it was dead low tide) and we pivoted on it. No more low tide outings, thanks.

We wound up backing out into the river, then out to the Sound. Conditions were good; I was afraid there might be too much wind, but with the help on the dock as we were leaving, we were fine.

I left the reef in the sail from our trip on Saturday, and we rolled out about 2/3rds of the genny. Lily was a big help; she is enthusiastic about learning to sail. A few years late, but very welcome nonetheless.

We sailed almost directly south. Winds would sometimes gust to maybe 15 knots, but were mostly steady at about 12. With the reefed main, the traveler set to leeward and the smaller jib, we were comfortable, sailing around 4 or 5 knots. When there were gusts, we would heel at greater than 20 degrees, making Lily a bit uncomfortable. Surprisingly, Talia made no complaints and seemed to be enjoying herself.

We sailed on until about 6:20, when we headed back so we could be at the dock by about 7. We struck the sails outside the harbor, then motored in. Patti met us at the dock, and we had no problems; Lily fended us off Roger's boat and Patti handled the lines. Talia learned to flemish the dock coils, and we were off to Mom and Dad's for a take out dinner from Lenny's.

Our first non-family guests this summer. I hear the Levines and the Levadas are also game.

One important note: when I went to start the engine before striking the sails, battery 2 (the battery we used to start the boat at the dock) did not have enough juice to turn the engine over. Switching to battery 1 did the trick. I really didn't want to have to use my emergency starter pack. I don't know why battery 2 was so low; the charger had been plugged in and keeping it topped off, and we didn't use the auto pilot much at all during our short sail.

I think I really need new batteries.