Our last two nights sleeping aboard this season, with transport of selves and kitties to our apartment on Friday the 14th. So the cruise is over but day sailing continues. But no less than four sail dates were cancelled during the week due to threatened rain (Nanda), fog and no wind (Old Salts though we did enjoy lunch), being stood up (by the organizer of the Veteran's sail) and the fouth day, totally fouled up by the remains of Hurricane Florence. But I did have two good sails.
The first was with the members of the New York Map Society. I joined last year. They are fellow map enthusiasts though most are collectors and some are artists and scientists. I'm just a user of charts and they interest me. The annual dues are very low and they have interesting programs mostly on East 27th Street. I had offered a boat ride to the Society and thought to sail with two shifts of up to six folks per shift. But we had only nine souls for the lunch at the Harlem, (the Society paid for it), of which only four joined me aboard I
LENE. Sadly the four sailors did not include Andrew, the Secretary and energetic driving force of the Society, whose specific interest is Lithuanian maps! He did come for the lunch. But both the President, Steve, who took the wheel for a while
and Sy, who was one of the founders of the Society, were among the intrepid four who sailed. We motored for a while due to light wind, but then the wind came up and we got to speeds over six knots, giving the folks a hint of the thrill of sailing.
And three of the four sailors live in lower Manhattan so I was able to give them a ride home in our car.
The only other sail during this week was with Rhoda aboard "Jazz Sail" her Catalina 27. I arrived at her boat (with a sandwich to share) before she did and had it ready to go when she got there. We headed off but were back within five minutes when a rather heavy rain caught us. After lunch in the cabin the rain stopped and we got off for about three hours for a trip around Hart Island. Nice fall wind, plenty for that light boat. I noticed and photographed the top of her mast and aft end of her boom. Both show bare pole for the the last 12 to 18 inches; in other words, there is room on the spars for a larger mainsail. Hmmm?
On the other hand the headsail is a genny which with 1) the short radius of the winch handle (its shortness needed to avoid the lifelines) and 2) the absence of a self tailing top on the winch meaning only one hand is available for turning the handle, meant that grinding in was a tough workout for me; doable for a big guy like me, but I wonder how Rhoda manages.
Rhoda also invited me to a performance of a reading of the play "Teddy and the River" a telling of Teddy Roosevelt's life threatening 1912 voyage of discovery on the Amazon, after his Presidency and his run as a Bull Moose. This was staged at the National Arts Club, half a mile from our apartment and it was a well written play and a well acted performance. Thanks for a lovely day, Rhoda.
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