Fall Sailing

[Baysailer]

In keeping with the fall sailing motif I'll recap yesterdays sail. It was a light day but sunny with a high covering much of the northeast so I brought my DS to Chaumont bay. I keep my Rhodes at Chaumont so I'm used to it. It is the largest freshwater bay in the US (at least thats what the sign says) and is on the north east side of Lake Ontario. The winds are usually from the southwest and are usually pretty strong with waves to match. Yesterday the winds were light and from the north so it was pretty flat, OK with me because the waters getting cold. I rarely sail with or to any destinations, I just goof around with what suits me at the time. Today was no exception, I was just flaking around in the main bay and the winds were so easy and predictable I thought a chimp could sail in this.

Now is where I made my mistake, I crossed between Point Salubrious and Cherry Island into Guffins bay (actually it's still part of Chaumont Bay). I figured I'd gunkhole a bit since there's some small uninhabited islands including Cherry which is fairly big. This was around 3:30 in the afternoon. As soon as I got into Guffins I should have turned around. I could see and feel the wind shadows and making headway back into the wind was frustrating to say the least. Suddenly I wished that chimp could help me get out of the hole I was in.

I didn't get back into the main bay where the winds were until 5:30 - 6:00. It was certainly refreshing to actually catch some wind. Unfortunantly it was a dying wind and I still had 4+ miles to go. At least it was a reach so I didn't have to worry much about pointing. At the outer marker I still had about 2 miles to go and it was down to a whisper and all the big boats packed up their sails and motored in. At the inner marker I had 1 mile to go and enough daylight still but now I had to go into the channel and could expect even less cooperation from mother nature. I stayed out a little bit to keep out of the weeds and wind shadows but eventually I had to lift the centerboard and rudder most of the way up and work through the reeds to get back to the lauch area. Once there I had to contend with some impatient fishermen at the end of their day. Some snide comments about sailboats but most of them were OK. I attributed it to the fish not cooperating with their plans.

With fall sailing you never know what sail will be your last one for the year and if this one is my last it will go down as being a good sail. A lot happens on a slow day and even more happens in your mind.

Baysailer

[K.C. Walker]

I guess the question is: is today the last day of summer sailing or the 1st day of fall sailing?

Still it was an adventure to remember! Great post.

You're right, I keep thinking that this could be the last sail of the season. For the last couple of weeks the weather's been so wonderful that I keep getting another last sail in! I'm hoping today will be another one of those days.

I like ghosting! But, it's always risky to go too far I was ghosting around in Watch Hill Harbor a while back and just enjoying myself immensely. It was still in August that I did this. No other sailboats had their sails raised and most of the boats were already at morning or anchored. It was great to be able to glide around on apparently no breeze, so quiet. Of course, as the sun was setting so was the last of the little bit of breeze going still... time to drop the iron wind, pull the cord and disturb the silence.

KC

[GreenLake]

Definitely fall colors, somehow. Although no leaves. Observed a few days ago:


[click image to enlarge]

After a tour of the lake, reaching both ways with favorable winds, we sailed to our favorite restaurant. The usual motor boat crowd was pretty much absent. We had the dock to ourselves. The wind died at sunset, but enough of it came back after dinner to ghost home under a night sky with city lights.

[Peterw11]

I hit the lake about 4pm for a couple of hours. Winds from the WSW at 10-15 with sharp gusts to 25. Temp in the high '70's and mostly sunny.

Just beautiful.

I had the lake to myself. No power boats, only one other sailboat, and he only for a half hour or so.

I had her at max hull speed for most of the two hours I was out there. Had a wake going like a ski boat. Really a perfect afternoon.

Headed back into shore as the sun started to set but the wind remained pretty strong. I had to drop the jib about 100 yards out to cut my speed and loosed the main at 50 yards. By then I was still coasting fast enough to scootch forward and raise the CB, and get back to the stern to lift the rudder just as she kissed the beach.

Perfecto...right on the money.

And per usual, the wind had died to dead calm by the time I got into my truck.

What a day.

[navahoIII]

KC - I sent you a PM regarding the Hobie Cat sail.

NavahoIII