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2004
Sailing Digest |
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This is a new feature for 2004. On
this page, I will detail, to an extent, a sort of daily vessel log,
including brief outings, maintenance, and short sailing
descriptions. I intend this to be a way to keep track of my
sailing and maintenance days, in a format that will be easy to maintain
and read. From time to time, as conditions dictate, I will
continue to post more detailed sailing and cruising logs, but I thought
it would be interesting for you--and me--to see, come the end of the
season, how many days I made it out to the boat, and what I did on those
days. We'll see how it all goes! All times listed in the
entries are approximate.
Newest
entries are at the top of the page. Refresh this page to ensure
that you receive the newest information.
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Click here to go to the beginning of
the 2004 digest in May, 2004, and work your way forward; each month's
entries are located on a separate page. You can click on the links
just below to go directly to any month's page.
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May
2004 Digest | June 2004 Digest | July 2004 Digest
| August 2004
Digest | September-October 2004 Digest
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 October
4, 2004 | Haulout
Full log posted.
Click
here to read it.
Yes, Glissando's
spending the winter outside this year; Dasein is in the shop.
Yes, I'm a prince among men.
On board: 0700-1315
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October 3, 2004 | Dismantling the Boat
With haulout only a day away, I reluctantly stripped the boat of sails and
excess rigging in preparation. It was a gorgeous afternoon.
On board: 1300-1600
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October 1, 2004 | Sail on Secret Water, an
Allied Seabreeze 35
Gorgeous day and great sail with Art Hall.
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September 30, 2004 | Sail
Full log posted. Click here to read it.
On Board: 1100-1600
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September 29, 2004 | Shoreside Boat Check
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September 26, 2004 | Sail
Picture-perfect September weather. Absolutely gorgeous day, but with
light winds. I managed to circumnavigate Sturdivant Island in a
dying WNW breeze, taking about 2 hours to go the 5.3nm. All breeze
seemed to be thermal-based and generated near the shore; no seabreeze had
formed by the time I departed in mid-afternoon.
The bay was quite busy with lots of folks
out for their last weekends of the season. We have one more week...
On board: 1130-1430
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September 23, 2004 | Sail (11nm)
Another perfect day. I left the mooring in northeasterly winds of
about 12 knots and enjoyed an extremely pleasant sail, with winds mostly
in the 10-12 knot range, but occasionally dipping as low as about 4 and as
high as 17, but never dying completely. The winds in the bay were
spotty, though, so I chose my direction carefully. Later in the day,
the winds shifted around to a light southeasterly seabreeze of around 10
knots. Boatspeeds were mostly in the 3-4 knot range, occasionally
higher.
I have no intentions of this being the last
sail of the year, but if it were, I would be happy. It was just so
pleasant and relaxing. After several pleasant, warm, sunny hours, I
returned to the mooring under sail.
On board: 1030-1415
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September 20, 2004 | Sail
Excellent sail today, on a beautiful, typical September day.
Winds were northwest at 12-15 knots, with gusts to around 20 for the most
part, but the between-gust winds were fairly steady (with some
exceptions. I saw no need for a reef, and indeed, for most of the
duration of the sail, had no need for one.
 I
sailed northeast past Basket Island and in between Cousins and Chebeague,
reveling in the crisp late-summer air and cloudless skies. For a
while, I debated heading through the narrow pass between Littlejohns and
Chebeague (narrow in actual channel, thanks to a long ledge stringing
westward from Chebeague; wide otherwise), but this is traditionally an
extremely fluky place through which to sail, as one must hug the
Littlejohn shore to get around the nun marking the western end of the
ledge. I could see that it was flat in there, so I decided against
the frustration inherent in sailing through, and gybed around instead to
head down towards Portland.
Past the southern end of Clapboard,
the wind picked up, and was soon gusting well into the 20s. I
enjoyed a screaming close reach at 7 knots; the boat was clearly
thriving. Outstanding! Eventually, I headed up closer to the
western shores so that I could then tack back northward towards the
anchorage and home. With the winds gusting as high as ever this day,
I had to pay attention, but it was fun. I could easily feather the
boat well up towards the eye of the gusts to keep her on her feet.
Near the anchorage, the wind kept lifting and lifting me, so as I
approached the outer ring of boats I cracked off and eased the sails
somewhat. After one particularly strong gust, the wind suddenly
shifted about 30 degrees forward, slamming the boat to a stop as the jib
(let off a bit) backwinded; the boat straightened so abruptly I was fairly
thrown against the once-windward coaming. Presently, I got the boat
moving again, as the wind immediately shifted back to its more prevalent
direction. Funky stuff!
With gusts frequently around 25 knots, I
decided against sailing back to the mooring.
On board: 1100-1430
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September 14, 2004 | Sail (of sorts)
It was a perfect, glorious September day. Some plans and
expectations I had for the day were dashed when I failed to get some parts
I needed for a boat project I was working on, so I headed, naturally, for
the boat at about 0900. There was a light but pleasant northeast
breeze, about 8 knots. I got underway immediately and enjoyed
several minutes of pleasant sailing. Shortly, however, the wind
became lighter and lighter, and soon had died completely.
After drifting around for a while, I decided the wind wasn't about
to come up again, at least not immediately, so, dejectedly, I motored back
to the mooring. I never made it outside of Clapboard island, but at
least I had been out there. Of course, that afternoon the wind
picked up nicely, but by then I was in Wiscasset looking at an old Bounty
II.
On the way in in the launch, right outside
the PYC docks, the very tame--and very confused--Beluga whale named Poco
showed up! Poco has been swimming the coast all season, making
friends with boaters all over with his antics.
On board: 0900-1100
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September 13, 2004 | Brief Boat Check
After a whole week in which I didn't set foot
on the boat (a rarity), I had to go out and check her. It was a
beautiful evening, calm, bright, and golden. The boat was fine.
On board: 1800-1830
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September 6, 2004 | Sail (9nm)
Labor day. It was busy on the water, with everyone seeming to be
out to take advantage not only of the decent weather, but also for their
last gasp before returning to the grind of school, post-vacation work, and
so forth. Labor day is such a turning point here: afterwards,
the bay remains empty, particularly mid-week, and most folks' boating
season has wound down. I always look forward to September sailing
because the weather is often glorious for sailing, and the waters are so
quiet and peaceful. Today, though, every boat in creation seemed to
be buzzing about.
Nice, but fairly short solo sail, with nice
winds of 12-20 knots and some higher gusts. I called it short
because of the increasing winds and the need to do some other things later
in the day, but since I knew I would have difficulty getting out much in
the next several days, I had to grab the opportunity while I could.
On board: 1030-1330
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September 3, 2004 | Sail (14nm)
Another lousy day on the water--bright, clear, and pleasantly warm.
Nathan Sanborn convinced me that we should go sailing (it was a hard sell,
of course), and we decided to meet at Glissando just after
1100. Upon our arrival, the winds were nearly still, so we had a
sandwich while waiting for the wind to pick up enough to get under
sail. We had a fun sail in southerly winds from 12 to 29 knots
apparent; the winds really picked up during the afternoon, and we decided
not to sail back to the mooring. Afterwards, we enjoyed icy cold
beers and some of Nathan's homemade dill pickles. (I don't usually
eat pickles.)
On board: 1100-1700
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September 1, 2004 | Sail (8.9nm)
Nice sail today. Mark Whipple, owner of Triton #59 Tikvah,
came up from Massachusetts to go for a sail, along with his daughter
Emily. I let Mark sail the boat the whole time, which he enjoyed;
he's been working on his boat in his backyard for several years, but
she'll go in in Spring 2005. Right, Mark? Winds ranged from
nearly nothing much of the day to as high as the low 20s later, but from
the west-northwest, which meant rather flat seas.
On board: 1145-1700
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