September 9 - 16 -- Three Fun Day Sails On Three Boats

 Two wannabe sailing days during this period were thwarted by weather: the first too calm and the second too rainy. But September usually brings good winds (between the hurricanes) and this year has not been an exception. Each of the three days we went out to or past Execution Rocks and back. Each was on a different boat, all soon to be hauled at the Huguenot.  Each of the three voyages  were with reefed sails except for the first, on Ohana with Bennett and Rhoda.  Rhoda had planned to sail back from Croton with us on ILENE but that plan was foiled by the threat of rain. Lene did not join us because she was doing a good deed, visiting Harriet and her broken leg, and thereby freeing up nurse Bennett to sail with us. More wind had been forecast, but we had enough to move the boat at about five knots.

Next time it was with Lene, Linda

and Joel on ILENE. the longest sail of the three, to the Matinecock buoy (four miles past Execution Rocks) and back, 21 NM according to the Chartplotter's track function.

 Both outbound and back, with southerly winds. We needed only two tacks the way back -- off Hart Island and off the coast of Long Island. And this, alas, is the only trip on which I remembered to use the camera.  We passed this unusual junk, It has the form of a junk but looks like fiberglass, which spoils the illusion, in my eyes.  

Come to think of it we passed most everything that day, making up to eight knots for a while with small jib and reefed main.

And the third and last sail was with David and his (my new) sailing friend, Eduardo, both of the City Island YC, aboard Hidden Hand. David's jib having been torn up by the hurricane, he replaced it, with a spare sail pending repairing it this winter with his sewing machine. So we were under an 80% jib, smaller, and we  reefed the main and still got up to 6.5 knots. We beat back through Hart Island Sound, a pleasure working with stong eager men who know how to sail. Taking turns with one of us releasing while the other winched in and the third steered, our tacks were executed in crisp smooth mid-season racing form, getting the sail taut on the new leeward side as we completed the turn. I moved the jib cars back a bit for the upwind part of the journey.

And there are still a few sailing weeks left in 2020. But obtaining new boat insurance because ILENE's current insurer has decided to exit the marine market in the US, and getting a reservation for her at the Huguenot for this winter have taken many hours of paperwork and on the phone.