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Showing posts from December, 2018

Wind…

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Wind at last… we (Sheila, Katie, Elizabeth and me) went out for a brief sail yesterday and there was wind. Sheila remarked how different the helm felt with wind. The Kingfisher has a relatively large rudder so even very small movements make a significant difference to the direction. About 5 nautical miles sailed. Not far but good to be out on the water. And still relatively warm. What was surprising to us was that since it was glorious sailing weather and the previous weekend almost no wind at all… there were almost no sailing boats out sailing (I counted 3 others, and none when we started.)

What no wind again?

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 So time to chill out after a lot of work… in other words time for a sail. 09:30 we put the new straps on the bimini (yes, this works really well now) and motored out of the marina and put up the sails. Wow… we're sailing along at 0.9 knots… then 1.1 knots… trim the sails and we're speeding along at maybe 2.1 knots. And it looks like it's race day for the local sailing club. A dozen boats on the water all trying to get the speed they need to beat the others. And then the wind dies. Well… it does where we are, about a mile or two out from the shore. Along the shore they are still trying to race and going nowhere.  So what to do when you're going nowhere? Get out the paddles for the dinghy and paddle! And it's the first of December… …and it's hot enough to be in a shirt and no sweater! Even me!