I'm posting these updates a little late (11/28), but I like to keep track of my sails so it's better late then never.

Today was one of my best sails I have ever had; I just wish I could have shared the experience with others! I decided to take advantage of the excellent weather and sail right after work, but everyone else I knew was either still working or on their way to visit family for Thanksgiving. I could not have asked for better weather for late November on the Chesapeake Bay. The winds started out at 10 knots the first hour, then increasing to 15-17 knots the rest of the sail with a temperature around 60F and mostly sunny. Heading out, the bay was pretty smooth, waves were minimal. I took a heading that was on a beam reach to broad reach. I noticed how little I needed to move my tiller to keep my course, so I locked the tiller stay and took some pictures and videos, including going up on the deck. The tiller stay works well in calm seas on when either on a beam reach or going down wind.




I took a course North to NE, past Thomas Point Lighthouse and over towards Kent Island. I reached the other side of the bay in about two hours and headed back. The winds have since increased, as well as the waves. It wasn't choppy, but there were some rollers of maybe 2-3'. I had one very large wave which crashed across the deck and into the cockpit. I got a bit wet. I was often sailing 5-6+ knots over ground, maxed at 7. I was having way too much fun out there! I have always wanted to take some photos as I sail into the sunset and today was perfect!

I took tons of photos of the sunset, over 60 actually. With the sky changing every minute, the winds picking up, the boat is heeling over 30+ degrees, I'm steering with my feet as I'm trying to take pictures and the boat is pounding through increasing waves. Some came out of focus, some had bad placement, but there were several excellent photos. Below are a few of my favorites.





My favorite:




Here is a short video clip I took:


I arrived back to my marina just after dark. I wanted to do some night sailing this year on my boat and finally did for about the last hour. Here is my cockpit. Next time I will put my GPS into night vision mode where it inverts the colors, making it mostly dark.


I did quite a bit of sailing at night out in the Atlantic in April and then convinced Dave we needed to do a night sail on the bay after a long day of working hard on my boat in May. I made it back to my marina and docked perfectly. Total trip was 18.1 nm, max speed of 7.04 knots over ground, avg 4.7 and out for just less than 4 hours. Here is my GPS chart plot:


This was probably the last really good sail I'm going to get out of the season. It will be hard to beat this experience with the perfect winds, mild temperature, and then coming back sailing into such a beautiful sunset.