Autumnal day-sailing: Last Five of 2013

Tuesday I sailed with my stock broker from JP Morgan-Chase and his wife, RJ and Angela. A lovely young couple, first time sailors, they learned to steer.

I picked them up on the upper east side and dropped them off there at the end of the day.  She will be entering CUNY grad school in Sociology soon.  They are pescatarians, a word I had not known before: They eat animals that come from the sea, but not those on land or ones that fly. We put up sails but, as shown in the photo above, there was very little wind. The initial plan to sail toward Manhattan but it was changed because there would be even less wind in the relatively narrow passage between The Bronx and Queens. Next choice was Mamaroneck, where my guests had worked. We motored through the passage off the US Merchant Marine Academy and deeply into the harbor, with the main up. Normally I would not sail into such a crowded harbor with sails up but no wind.  We got very close to my friend Len's lovely 1938 wooden sloop, "Mary Loring," tied fore and aft on her two moorings. She was painted blue since last I sailed on her and looking pretty. Notice, left to right, her wooden boom gallows, the vent for her coal burning stove, the wooden running light mounts on her shrouds and the boom of her staysail.

The wind picked up a bit on the way home but when it finally got really good we had to continue to motor-sail to meet my time deadline for the theater, though we did tack up Hart Island Sound to the mooring. We were out there for more than seven hours. Next time, hopefully RJ and Angela will get the full thrill of sailing experience.

Wednesday, after lunch,  I had two rides on two different Catalinas. First we sailed on Morty’s “Easy Living”, a 31 footer. We went out into Eastchester Bay and back. Morty had to get back early. We were under main and Genoa, with the later partially reefed.  In addition to me and Morty, Mike, Sandy, and Rhoda comprised the crew. Back on the mooring, all but Morty transferred by launch to Mike and Sandy’s “Pas de Deux,” a 27 footer, and retraced our wake, this time though with genoa only. Altogether we were out on the water from shortly before two until 4:30.

Saturday Lene joined me on ILENE with four other ladies. Christine and Heather drove to the Club to meet us and we picked up MJ and Sarah near our home and drove them. 

Christine, Heather, Lene, MJ and Sarah in the launch, on the way back to land,

We sailed from about 12:15 to 4:30, in very light air. We had full sails up on a beamy port reach, and drove deeply into Little Neck Bay. I acted as an unpaid charter captain, doing all of the sailing while the girls talked with each other, only disturbing them occasionally to gain access to the winches. When the wind died in Littleneck Bay, we furled and dropped the sails, locked the rudder hard over, and drifted while Sarah and I went for a delightful swim in the big unheated pool.

The sun had come out by then, and in early October the water was cold, but not at all painful like in Maine.  The bad thing was I discovered that between the time that we took off the dink in mid-September and this swim, someone had hit us, hard, in the stern, breaking the swim ladder, which will have to be replaced, and taking a chunk out of the gelcoat of the aft end of the swim platform, perhaps 2” by 3”. This will be an expensive repair. They left no note. People are so irresponsible; it is quite maddening! Why, though, darn it, is ILENE such a magnet for irresponsible boaters; her third hit since early 2011. Oh well, no one was injured. After drying off, I put up the main again and after a few tenths of a mile at .5 knots, turned on the motor, and motored at good speed to the NY State Maritime School’s training ship, west of the Throgs Neck Bridge, and then more slowly back to the mooring.

Sunday, more ladies: This time Lene was joined by Sheila, Susan and a different Christine. There was more wind but also a misting fog during most of the four hours we sailed, which put a damper on the day and shortened it. Winds were between five and ten knots. Our first tack took us close to the last curve of the Throgs Neck Bridge. Then out to the North side of Execution rocks, after which we fell off toward the New Rochelle Islands before the last tack which brought us home through Hart Island Sound on various broad reaches. It was only four pm, too early for dinner but we had wine or tea or coffee and some desert in the Club, where we met the J-24 racers and other friends.
Monday was the fifth sail of the week and the last of 2013, because I will be away, out of town, in Massachusetts and Oregon for most of the rest of October. Peter joined me. He is one of the three men who had helped me during the eight day romp from Hampton VA to Tortola in the Virgins back in November 2010. We sailed for almost three hours in big wind, out of the south. Winds averaged about 27 knots with lulls at 15 and gusts to 34. We had double reefed the main and with the small jib we were heeled at 35 degrees, close hauled, into winds from the South. We made speeds of 6 to 7.5 knots. Exciting! We beat down to the Throgs Neck Bridge with the plan to find less wind in the relatively narrower passage toward New York City. Another advantage of this westerly course was beamy reaches.  But the wind was rounding us up occasionally, until the Whitestone Bridge where we turned back. We had very broad reaches from the Throgs Neck Bridge back to the Club, during which we passed through a short but heavy rain of small drops. But alas, more damage back at the mooring. When we picked up the starboard bridle, we led it over the top of the lower stainless tube of the starboard side of the bow pulpit. The boat's bow then was  pitched sharply upward and the force of a wave; the stainless tube was bent downward into a shallow "V" instead of horizontal. We had sailed slightly less than three hours but we had had enough. Half of lunch was brown bagged from home on the Clubhouse porch (dining room closed on Mondays) followed by soup and coffee at the CI Diner. Sad to end such a great sailing season on such a discouraging note.