Friday, September 19, 2008

Sailing season is not over

Wednesday was a great day for a sail!  Winds out of the south-west at 10 to 15 knots and little wave action.  Ruth had to help my son with his photography business, so I had the afternoon to myself.  I decided to finally carry through with a promise I had made to take one of our friends from GYC out for a day-sail.

Ed is a sailor with no boat, having sold his sailboat after knee surgery, and having a difficult time sailing single-handed.  Now he relies on his friends to take him out to enjoy his passion.  This was the first time I have taken Ed out sailing, and he was like a kid at the wheel.  We beat into the wind for the first half of the trip, heading towards a couple other sailboats off in the distance.

Once we were close to them, Ed suggested that we come about and have a race.  It really wasn't much of a race with the other boat flying only a jib and us with main and jib up.  The speed of Water Colors reached 7.2 knots at one point, about the best my Hunter 33.5 can do.

We reached the Rochester Harbor piers and decided to take the sails down before entering the channel.  It was that point that I began to wonder about bringing the boat into her slip.  Ruth is always at the helm when leaving and returning to our dock.  I am the one on deck managing the dock lines.  Now I needed to bring the boat in, only the second time this year, with Ed volunteering to grab the one dock line I have set up at the piling, and then throw it over the winch to stop the boat.  I came in nice and slow, and Ed worked the line like an old pro.  Once we were stopped, I stepped off to the dock and set the bow lines.

Like I said, it was a great day for a sail, and a great day to be with an old friend.  He said that I am on his "A" list now, and he feels safe sailing with me again.

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