Hot Day at Governor’s

Categories Sailing Log

We did a better than usual job of getting to the boat at a reasonable hour, but the high temperatures and squirrely winds made for a better day of swimming than sailing.

We had our sails up before noon for once and started slowly making our way toward Governor’s Mansion, sailing a very broad reach with unusual west winds behind us. About half way there, Jen pointed out a conglomeration of boats, and I said that it looked they were setting up a race. They even had the same inflatable race buoys as our club. We then had to give way to a Hunter 33 that was creeping along on just a main and realized that it was Arpeggio, a fellow Windjammer. Then we slowly realized that all of the boats were from our club, and that we had accidentally sailed directly to the starting line of a race that we forgot was happening. Oops. Sorry to disappoint, fellas: even with a fat PHRF over 280, on the scale of Yacht Rock aggression our boat is way more Christopher Cross than John Oates. We were just passing through.

While mesmerized by all of this, I also cut off a boat that was on starboard tack and clearly had right of way over us. Oops again. At least that boat wasn’t from our club so the guilt didn’t last much longer than the stern look (which, of course, is the look that a pissy skipper gives you over his stern when you failed to follow the first rule of sailboat vs. sailboat collision avoidance.)

We continued to Governor’s under dwindling wind. By the time we got there, there wasn’t enough to keep the sails full, so we switched to motor and anchored in a secluded spot. I guessed that the wind was trying to switch around—it’s very common on hot days at the shore for the rising air over land to draw a cool sea breeze off the ocean—so I anchored facing east in about no wind. I then went swimming, and eventually noticed that I couldn’t see the anchor rode. It turned out that the wind had picked up again from the west, and must have blown the boat over the rode, tangling it on the keel. Oops. The wind wasn’t that strong and again I think our small, light boat saved us from larger headaches. I have no idea how we would have resolved this on a big boat, or in 25kts, or with all-chain rode, but for us it was as easy as completely untying the rode and walking it around the boat. I didn’t even stop swimming; I just talked Jen through it from the water and it wasn’t that big a deal.

Inconveniences aside, we did do some excellent relaxing. We spun some really smooth music and Jen joined me for a swim with her various swimming accoutrement. The wind picked up to 15kts or more and we decided to head out early to leave enough time to get to the Windjammers’ annual Chicken and Ribs dinner. We were slightly overcanvassed on the way back to the marina, but made good time.

 

"Prepare to fend off the bridge abutment."