May 11 - 14 -- Three Good "Other" Days and a Nice Windy Sail

Manu and Michelle are two French speaking gals who brought their French, aluminum sloop, "Teepee",  across the Atlantic. We met them on St Maarten at the end of 2010, and several times since then on other islands, in Florida, in upstate New York and New York City. They have stayed in our apartment and babysat our kitties. They have appeared several times in this blog.

Well, Manu's parents, Odette and Emanuel, were visiting NY, from their home in Montreal (by train)  and we had two lunches with them. The first was at Katz's Deli, a very crowded famous New York landmark noted for its lack of ambience, and the second was in an extremely exclusive, "by-appointment-only" dining establishment. Have you guessed it?  Yes, the cockpit of the s/v ILENE. I also drove them to several of the sights of my city that are outside of midtown and easier reached by car than public transportation.

I also attended the first of the nine performances of the charmingly pleasant one act play, A Pregnant Lunch, written and starring my beloved, not just a sailor (or a pretty face), Ilene. It is on a program of eight original one act plays being produced for nine nights, half a block off Broadway, by the Wednesday Repertory Company. of which Lene is a member. And who else was in the audience: Bennett, Harriet and Jenny from the Harlem, And others who have sailed with us: Lee from my book group and his wife, Patty, and Donna, Ilene's Financial Advisor and her husband Bob, all of whom have sailed with us.

While it rained all day on Saturday, this did not dampen the spirits of the Harlemites who turned out for the spring work party and a membership meeting. The work party was a bit over-staffed because it was necessarily limited primarily to indoor chores. I replaced light bulbs in the chandeliers, polished furniture, polished the bar's foot rail with brasso, replaced filters and, going outdoors, picked up bits of trash in the yard. Painting, electrical work and carpentry took place in the locker house. They always feed us and it is an opportunity to renew and make new friendships. Work on the new Gazebo, to replace the one blown away by hurricane Sandy has begun- bigger and stronger.

Between the work party and the meeting, I read in the City Island branch of the NY Public Library and there met a man who was featured in the Sunday Times: writer of haiku on driftwood at public spots around the island. He has published a book of them in his spare time after teaching in the NY public schools by day. I invited him for a sail, but his summer does not begin until we leave for Nova Scotia so maybe next year.  And the membership meeting showed that the club is moving forward and improving due to the efforts of our leaders.

Sunday's sail was with Marie Genevieve and her son Rafael, the family of Art, who is a member of my book group.

MG is a sailor from the lakes of Switzerland and off Cornwall, England and she and Rafi have been on ILENE before, and hopefully will do so again. Art, however, has sailed once and learned that it is not his cup of tea. We sailed for four hours, heading to the Throggs Neck Bridge under full main and small jib. But seeing gusts of up to 28 knots, I put a reef in the main before beginning to beat under it and the Whitestone Bridge, past Rikers Island and to the Queens power plant before turning for home on a long port broad reach. Outbound we fought the tide and while it was weakening, we enjoyed its push on the way home, peaking at 9.1 knots SOG. A highlight was passing a comparably sized sloop which was motoring. She put up her genoa as we closed. One problem was that the middle batten was backing its way out of the leech of the main, but this was fixed before we got to the mooring. (I may have to shorten this batten by an inch of sew a tack in the sail at the leech to keep it in place.) MG called her sister and chatted in French before putting me on. The sister had been on a winning sailboat in a transatlantic race. My crew was not put off by 25 degrees of heel. On the way back, after clearing under the last bridge, the wind came forward of the beam but lessened. We carried the same tack through the passage off Kings Point and did not tack over until we closed the north shore of Long Island. Then passing Stepping Stones Light on the way home, we got back to the mooring at two, when the rain was supposed to begin, but it did not come until three. With her bottom still clean, ILENE loves to go!