There are days that need to be declared legally mandatory sailing days because the conditions are so perfect. Today was one of those. High temps near 60F, winds in the 15 to 20 knot range with occasional higher gusts, and mostly sunny.
I must admit that I woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks....Green and wrinkly. I have been running flat out lately, burning my candle at both ends, then trying to light the middle. Yesterday Barbara and I got up early and started cooking, drove to Philadelphia to spend a marvelous afternoon (lunch) and evening (Dinner) with my stepson and his wife, then drove back to Annapolis, getting home way past my normal bedtime.
The last thing I wanted to do was drag my achy-shakey bones out of bed and go out sailing. (Okay, not the absolute last thing.). But as I said, as I looked at the weather online, the following notifications popped up:
" Get your head out of bed,
you ain't listening to what I said,
I said get your head out of bed,
Spray them pits, and eat then grits,
And get that boat out of its slip."
It ended with an official note from NOAA that declared this is a "small craft mandatory sailing day" with the rarely used,"no-if-ands-or-butts."
So, whether I wanted to or not, given the official weather notification I was forced to go sailing.....and it was a super day out on the water. A co-worker from West Marine joined me. We had a lovely beat down towards Thomas Point in pretty steady apparent winds in the low 20 knot range, occasional errant gusts not withstanding.
Feeling a bit off my feed, I did throw in a first reef, but carried the full jib. Coming home, we surfed in the steep chop holding pretty steady speeds in the low 8 knot range with surges into the low to mid 10 knot range while still under reefed main and jib.
All in all, it was a great last sail of the year, my 86th logged sailing day of year.
Apparently, no one else got the weather alert since, inexplicitly, Synergy was the only boat out there. Their loss, or as they say, not my monkey, not my circus....