Well, this has been an eventful summer. It will be remembered mostly because I discovered that I needed open heart surgery right after our last sail. August 21, a day that I will never be able to forget.

I won't go into the details here because the main thrust is that for a second straight summer, my physical condition killed a sailing season. As soon as I could, I called the marina and told them to pull the boat, and I checked off all of the boxes on the form to have them put her to bed for the winter, including pulling the sails.

I went today to see if they had put the shrink wrap cover on. They had. It looks like a good job: the zipper door is at the stern, with the ladder ideally positioned for access. Well done.

Winter/spring projects list to come.

I'm really having trouble keeping this up to date. A couple of weeks ago, we were joined for a Sunday sail by Jack and Cheryl from next door. The weather for the whole week had been spectacular; the humidity had finally broken and it was clear, sunny, warm and comfortable. We told them to bring their bathing suits and we could jump off the boat if it got too hot.

I left a bit early to pick up four sandwiches from Stop and Go for lunch, and get the boat ready. Patti came about 15 minutes later with Jack and Cheryl.

I didn't let us glide back enough leaving the dock so we brushed against the piling on the way out, but no big deal. We waited to raise sail until we were out of the harbor completely, and took off to the southwest.

The conditions were just about perfect, and we made our way out almost to New Haven. Cheryl was unusually quiet, and I thought she might be sea sick, but she ate with the rest of us.

But Patti finally asked her how she was feeling and she fessed up to not feeling great. We had already turned around to go back to the harbor to swim, but we now made it a priority to get back to the dock.

Jack seemed to really enjoy the sailing. He had never been before and kept saying how he could see why I loved it.

We got back to the dock about three hours after we had left. The Mahers took their car back home so Cheryl could recover. Patti and I stayed and went for a swim in the pool.

Jack said as we were motoring in that he sometimes forgets what a great town Branford is, and that it was especially cool to see it from the water.

Life is good.

Yesterday we took Deb out for a sail. She came up for the big baby shower on Saturday, and we were all ready for something different. Talia is at camp, and Deb has some time for herself for the first time in years.

The weather: sunny, 80's. The breeze is not too strong. As we arrived at the boat, Dennis and Laura were leaving. Dennis said that he saw the picture of Hukilau that I took from the water on Sailing Anarchy! The internet makes this a very small world.

Sheila was there and helped us leave the dock, which was very nice of her. We didn't raise the sails until we got out of the harbor completely; that made it a lot easier. Winds were from the southwest, and we lit out on starboard tack, passing the Branford reef marker to starboard. After sailing along beautifully for over an hour, we turned around and sailed back to the harbor. While we were furling the sails, we had a bit of excitement. I noticed that the port bow line had fallen overboard, and I wanted to pull it in before starting the engine. I knew the line wasn't long enough to reach the prop, but I wanted to bring it in out of an abondence of caution. Well, turns out I was wrong about how much mischief that line could cause. Both Deb and Patti tried to pull the line in, and they said it was stuck. On what could it possible be stuck? I quickly discovered it was caught on the rudder as the wheel no longer turned. Ugh. I was contemplating how I was going to jump in and free the line when it freed itself somehow. With the wheel free, we furled the sails with no further ado and headed into the harbor.

Note to self: make sure that line is secured when we sail!

Once in the harbor, we picked up a mooring, and jumped in. I inflated one of the pool chairs, and Deb and I took turns in it. It was soooo nice just floating about.

The return was uneventful. Lenny's for dinner; we had to wait for a table but had a drink and some calamari at the outside bar. All in all, a very Branford kind of day.