A Weekend Made for Sailing

Ilene was up in Great Barrington, MA with a bunch of girlfriends to attend the Berkshires Film Festival: like five films per day!  And I sailed with friends both days. Saturday it was with Sid, a fellow attorney, back in the bad old days; he is younger and still works. We talked about the folks we used to know.

Unfortunately his daughter was sick so we lost out on the company of both Sid's wife and daughter. They are winners of  ILENE "frequent sailor award" -- notice the shirt.
Sid works in the Pharma industry and is our primary supplier of sunblock. He also brought a delicious sandwich and cookies lunch, which we washed down with his nice Chardonnay.
We sailed near to the entrance to New Rochelle, but turned back before transiting the final part of the channel, because it would have required tacking upwind. Then we shot over to Sea Cliff in Hempstead Harbor, and on the return trip beat up through Hart Island Sound. There was enough wind so we never had need for the Genoa.

Back at the Club we had my first dinner under our new chef, who was Rutillio's assistant for the last three years. Rutillio deserves the new more year round job he has obtained but his recipes linger on. The menu has less choices than in the past, but whether you want fish, meat or pasta, you can have a choice.

Next day I sailed with five people, shown here on the launch on the way home. From the left, Joe, Cynthia, Leslie, Sheila and Barbara.

Joe, from two posts ago; his 23 foot boat will be released from the commercial yard where he kept it this past winter when other boats are moved out of the way. Cynthia made friends with me and Ilene about ten years ago at a Brooklyn College fund raiser. She put us up (and put up with us) for about a week at her lovely condo in Boca Raton, Florida this past winter. Leslie is Cynthia's friend and neighbor. Sheila has been friends with Ilene for about 40 + years and is an artist and photographer. And Barbara is an artist friend of Sheila. We plan to visit Barbara at her house in Maine this summer. The excursion started with Cynthia and grew like the house that Jack built. But ILENE can easily handle six.

The wind was strong and we used full main and small jib until, just off Hart Island on the way home, I noticed a sustained gust at 26.4 knots; observed this reading on the wind indicator and felt the boat 's heel. So we furled the head sail and used only main. We went straight out to about three miles short of the entrance to Oyster Bay, much on a beam reach, averaging about 8.5 knots. The way back took longer, close hauled with several tacks. Joe's smart phone said it was 88 degrees in the city. A lot cooler on the water in the wind. Some of the guests availed themselves of quilts and foulie tops. At one point, at about 20 degrees of heel, Sheila slid off the cockpit bench onto its floor; fortunately she was not hurt.
We were under way for more than five hours and in retrospect, it was a bit more than the female guests wanted. Another great day on the water.

On weekends there are more pleasure boats out there, with the power boaters making big wakes that make fir a rough ride, especially in the crowded channel south of Execution Rocks light house. But the winter has been so long and cold that many boats are not launched yet. Alas, they missed out on a great weekend of sailing.