Sunday, July 31, 2022

thinking about fall

 I figure I have 10 more days of summer sailing.  Then I'll haul SPARTINA and bring her home for a couple of week for maintenance.  It verges on being too hot to sail in August, I might as well get some work done.  There are several jobs that need to be done on the boat.  I have sailed her a lot this year and it shows. 


After the haul out the Pilgrim and I have some travel plans.  And when we return from that it will be time for the fall sail on Chesapeake Bay.  I found myself trying to remember last year's fall sail, the fall fest 544, 28 days of sailing and then another week on the Chestertown waterfront for the annual Chestertown Downrigging Festival.  The photo above is from the first day of the sail, 32 nautical miles from Cambridge to Warehouse Creek, a favorite anchorage.  The morning began with light wind but once through Knapp's Narrows it filled in and we made at times over five knots under just mizzen and jib.  

It has been an excellent summer of sailing, one of the best for SPARTINA I think.  I am looking forward to the cool, dry winds of fall.

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P.S.  I had forgotten, until I looked at the log, that we had sailed 455 miles on the trip.  That cruise, combined with the 400 miles Sea Islands sail, makes for nearly 1,000 miles of cruising this past fall and winter.  Not bad for a little wooden boat built in the garage.

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