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August 27, 2009
Stamford, CT to Thimble Islands, CT
Chis "Relaxing"
Chis left the office around midnight, scrambled home to shed his suit, then hopped on the train to Stamford. He arrived at the boat around 2:30am. I was sound asleep.
We had lost our genneker halyard a few weeks ago, and I had arranged to take the boat over to the rigging dock so that the yard could use the crane to put it back up. Like a trouper, Chis got up around 9 and we headed over to the riggers. About an hour later, we were on our way to the Thimble Islands with a new genneker halyard.
We were heading east in light southeast winds, but the seas were a bit rough. It was a longish trip and our latish getaway meant that we were not going to tack upwind – this would add about 40% to our distance (and time). So we motored, hoping for a wind shift to the south. Gradually, the wind clocked to the south, and then to the west. The sails went up and the engine went off. Yay!
The Coast Guard began broadcasting warnings about Hurricane Danny, which they later corrected and referred to as Tropical Storm Danny. Good correction. At 4pm, a gale warning was issued for Long Island Sound within 48 hours. Friends in New York were emailing begging us not to head east.
It wouldn’t be sailing without the wind on the nose and scary weather forecasts.
Nevertheless, we are cautious, and will continue east and make sure we are in a safe place to weather the worst of what Danny has in store. We weathered Hurricane Dennis in Fort Lauderdale, sailed through a gale at Cape Hatteras, and sat on anchor at Great Sail Cay in the Bahamas for 3 days in 30-40 knots winds and horizontal rain. We’ll be fine.
Posted by dave at August 27, 2009 09:26 AM