« July 4 Weekend in Huntington | Main | Port Jefferson »
July 14, 2008
Sail Away
After an incredible yoga class last Friday morning, I hustled through the farmer's market and Union Square and returned home to fetch the weekend's gear. The backpack was so heavy, I opted to take a taxi up to Penn Station to catch the train to Huntington. I managed to catch an earlier train than planned, and arrived at the boat with plenty of time to put things away, and run to the grocery store and the chandlery.
On my return, I discovered several boxes of new gear that I had purchased online had arrived. Perfect timing. Chis was planning to leave the office early and meet me there, so I puttered about, not working too diligently because it was a little like opening everyone else's presents on Christmas morning. The hours ticked by, and Chis called to say he would catch the 7pm train. Egads! So much for early departure plans.
By the time he arrived, I had opened all the boxes, put all the gear away, and made dinner. Speedy Dave.
It turned out to be a warm and humid evening, so we dined in the cockpit and enjoyed the breeze.
The dealer arrived Saturday morning shortly after 10 as Chis and I were swapping their dock lines for ours, their fenders for ours, and putting away the remaining bits and pieces. We went through the entire boat, identified all the mechanical, electrical and plumbing bits, then left the dock for a sea trial. On returning to the dock, we grabbed some lunch, stowed our things, and left for our inaugural sail almost directly across Long Island Sound to Prana's new home in Stamford, Connecticut.
It was a delightful sail, a deep broad reach in southerly winds. Slightly anxious about the docking ahead of us, we talked our way through our docking plan, and proceeded to the marina. With no assistance, the two of us put the boat gently into her slip, tied her up safely, and settled in for a bit of relaxation and dinner.
Saturday morning was beautiful, and in true form, I woke with the sun's emergence. As Chis slept, I pulled out our new cruising genneker (an asymmetrical spinnaker) and worked on sorting out the rigging, and putting it in its sail bag. I cannot wait to try this thing out - a beautiful display of red, white and blue - decidedly American, but sentimentally French.
The forecast was for increasing winds, so we decided to head out for a sail shortly after breakfast. It was great to try out different sailing angles. We met up with Impulse, who, despite her longer water line, lighter ballast, and bigger sail area, was not significantly faster than us. We topped 8.5 knots sailing upwind in about 14 knots of breeze. Not bad considering the fact that we may not have even left the dock on Platina in 14 knots of wind!
It was a marvelous weekend of sailing, lounging, dining, and sailing. Way too much sun! And we get to do it all again next weekend.
Posted by dave at July 14, 2008 05:12 PM