Sept 25 to October 6 -- Five Nice Sails in Summery Conditions

Usually by this time of year the air is cold and the winds strong. Reefing time. But none of the five excursions reported on were white knuckle sails. We never used the genoa but no need for reefs and easy sailing. Long sleeve shirts but not heavy winter coats.

1. Rhoda and Lloyd joined me for a sail to Execution Rocks. Both going and returning we went through Hart Island Sound, an unusual occurrence. We ran through outbound and  beat back on the return. Lloyd, who is the less sailing oriented partner of the couple, had the helm sixty percent of the time and all the way back. I think that for him, this may have been the most enjoyable sail of his life; I hope so.

2. I joined Bennett and his friend Jeff on Ohana in a Club race. Slow going, including a 90 minute delay while there was no wind as seen on the surface behind Jeff.

Due to Covid, instead of the traditional beer party on the Club's deck after the race, each boat was provided with a goody bag containing a bottle of wine and a lot of snacks. We had a pleasant day despite being completely out of the race from the start. The course was shortened due to light wind and involved going from the start at the Cuban Ledge buoy to the green can just before the Whitestone Bridge and back. Bennett had removed his dink to lighten the load, but not his dodger and bimini. And we forget to appoint a stopwatch equipped starter so we had only a general idea of when the start would occur. The other boats ranged from avid racers to those who race a few times a year. But they all crossed the starting line within a few seconds after the gun, trimmed and going full speed. We had a slower start and during the first few tacks we taught Jeff, who had raced sunfish several decades ago in his youth, how to release a loaded winch. But the biggest problem was that Ohaha's jib is too small for such a race compared with the genoas on the other boats. We had a great time sailing together but while all the other half dozen boats finished, on corrected time, within between 60 and 100 minutes, our sail lasted 160

3. Lene joined me and our friends, Sid and Jan, for a sail in winds that kept us in the five knot range. We went to the moored boats at the south end of Little Neck Bay and then out through Kings Point Channel and continued all the way to Larchmont on the same tack. On the return we had one tack on the south side of Execution Rocks and a couple more to home. We would normally have had dinner with our friends of 30 years or so, but we had to retrieve Cruiser from the Vet's office where his final remaining 14 teeth were extracted. Our orange tabby is literally a toothless tiger, poor guy, and had pain for the next few days which we sought to relieve. But once his perpetual toothache is removed, he will have a happier life.

4. With David, the Club's House and Locker Chairman (left), and Phil and Diane, a couple of brand spanking new social (non-boat owning) members who I had met and worked with at the Club Work Party that Dave had organized and led for three hours in the morning on the dock after sailing. My tasks included pulling monstrous weeds in the storage area we call "The Farm", enough to fill a dumpster!, and then consolidating toxic wastes from the hundred or so small containers of waste oil, diesel, paints, polishes etc. into a few large ones to facilitate transportation of the stuff to the County's hazardous waste disposal depot in Valhalla New York. We work for the benefit of the Club, for the fellowship and for the "free lunch" that the Club provides us worker bees. Very light winds so my crew did not experience the thrill of ILENE at eight knots. Phil used to sail and Dave has his own boat and those two shared the helm.

5. Lene (her second outing of the five), our friend Jeff and nephew Mendy joined me. Jeff had never sailed west toward the City and with wind from the NNE and tide timing adequate, we gybed (a very perfectly controlled gybe if I do say so myself) on the way to the Throggs Neck Bridge and then a starboard reach to the turning basin just to the east of The Brothers and long tacks, about five of them, beating back out to the Sound. We had favorable tide outbound which diminished when we beat back into it. The only excitement was the crash of a seaplane announced by the Coast Guard as a POM POM via VHF channel 16. The location was announced: between the Throggs Neck and Whitestone Bridges, where we were heading on the way back. We thought we might have been able to render assistance.  But we saw a cluster of boats with lights flashing off the Queens shore and heard the Coast Guard ask the police to keep pleasure boats away so they could do their rescue work. Later came the Coast Guard's all clear of the POM POM. We were just a bit too far away to be able to render assistance. The NY Times reported next day that two or three people died after the plane hit a concrete pier.   

ILENE now has a tentative hauling date during the period October 12-16.