2022 “Fun Season” Wrapup and a Bonus

First the bonus: a second sail on Lennie’s wooden gaff rigged sloop, “Kocha” with his friend Hal, on November 2! November is normally characterized by raw cold damp weather, but we enjoyed sunshine at near 70 degrees; I should call it a blessing rather than a bonus!  The only drawback: no wind as can be seen behind Hal. The 5 to ten predicted were only five and when we got out of Mamaroneck  Harbor it died completely. But a lovely float with follow boaters who talked about their boats and their adventures.

THE WRAPUP

The perennial question I ask is: How much sailing did we get in this summer? And while the answer is always “Not Enough”, this summer it was less than usual. The fun season is defined as the period from launch date to haul date inclusive. This year with launch on May 5 and hauling on September 8 the fun season was only 145 days long. The fact that three sail dates, on two different friends’ wooden boats (including the bonus) occurred after the haul date, just sweetened the pot a bit. 

A late launch this year because I thought why rush, we will have plenty of time on the Canadian cruise, except it got cancelled, shortened the season. An early haul out because the winter storage site had to get all boats out of the water early to perform a dredging operation before spring cut off the end of the season. And a cruise ship adventure in the Arctic waters of the Svarlbard Archipelago in June and a Covid attack and relapse in July took a big bite out the middle of the season. The best way to rack up large numbers of sailing (and live-aboard while cruising) days is by cruising. This year all told I had four excursions that qualified: a day that begins and/or ends at a location away from Eastchester Bay.  But all four cruises were short ones:  the one-day one-way passage to Fairfield CT on Saltatempo, the solo two day excursion to Rye Playland with folks on boats of the City Island YC,  and two other short cruises, mostly in Long Island Sound: the first - the eight days with “Gypsy Jake” to Hamburg Cove, and the second, eleven days without any other boats to Block Island.  All four of these cruises aggregated only 22 cruising days, far less than in summers with cruises lasting months. A few other  weeks when we would have racked up some days living aboard with the kittys were scrubbed due to the extraordinarily brutal heat this summer.

The first bottom line is that there were only 67 boating related days this summer, a woefully low percentage of use. But I put in thirteen mid-season work days on the boat at our mooring — no sailing and no living aboard. And there was one water related museum day with Winslow Homer at The Met, another serving as the Committee boat for Club racing and a third living aboard at the mooring without sailing. These aggregate 16 and when subtracted, leave only 52 actual sailing days. So in addition to the 22 cruising days I had only 30 day-trip sails. Ten of those 30 were with the Old Salts (eight of them on ILENE and two aboard “Ohana”. So there were 20 non-Salts day sails.

And of the 52 sailing days only 41 were aboard ILENE. The other eleven were on five other friends’ boats, as a guest. Four were with Bennett on Ohana, three with Andrew on Saltatempo, two with Lennie on a Kocka and one each with Dave on Lady Kat and with David on Hidden Hand. So ILENE got underway only 41 times this summer, 39 actually with the two lay days in Block Island knocked off the total.

There were about twenty five different people who sailed with me on ILENE as Salts, some of who also sailed with me on non-Salt days as well. My beloved mate, Lene was on the two longer cruises — 19 days — and five other days with me and various friends, so only 24 days for her all summer. She sailed with me and nine of her friends, two of them, Tom and Marie, twice. And I sailed ILENE four times with no Salts and without my mate, with eight other friends. So altogether a whole lot of folks, but no record.

And for the record, according to ILENE’s GPS computer, her 39 days took us only 682 nautical miles and put only 70 hours on the Yanmar, though about eight of those hours were in neutral, on the mooring, to charge her refrigeration. So only about 27.5 NM  per outing.

A short sweet season. Also, as of October 29, ILENE is fully protected against the winter’s cold and winds. Nothing to do except a whole lot of repairs during which shore power will keep her batteries charged. And next year a summer cruise to Newfoundland for three or four months is promised.

I really have to stop crying in my beer. I’m extremely grateful to have a seaworthy boat, a mate who likes to accompany me, good health and the time, after retirement, to sail. Thank you, God!