Well, first time doing so intentionally.
NWS forecast was "5 knots. Waves flat." Instead I got 7-9 knots sustained, gusting up to 12 knots. I had the rail in the water more than once, and my watch says my top speed was 6.5 knots. It was scary at first, but a fun sail!
Sunday was a beautiful day for sailing, with sunny weather, temperatures around 60 degrees, and around 10 knots of wind. Blair, Barbara, and I sailed a J/22 out to the (remains of) the Key Bridge. It was Blair's first trip to the bridge.
On Saturday we had our first day of J/22 frostbite racing of the season at DSC, and what a first day it was. Winds were 10-15 knots, gusting above 20, with temperatures around 70 degrees. Around half a dozen boats participated. I had Jen and Blair as my crew, and we did not finish last.
Beforehand, I took Akimbo over to Inner Harbor Marine for a refuel and pump-out. They didn't have any diesel, so we just did a pump-out. After we got back, we removed the mainsail for the winter.
I attended the single-handing clinic for DSC instructors and BKI candidates on Sunday. I partnered with Tom, and we had Jasdev for our coach while we took turns practicing single-handing a J/22.
Everyone was disappointed after the Nor'Easter cancelled all the races at DSC's annual Ya Gotta Regatta, so I organized an unofficial "make-up" race for the DSC cruisers using the same rules as we would have raced under for YGR. Since it was a make-up for the ill-fated YGR, and because it was held on Halloween, we dubbed it "The Ghost of YGR".
Unfortunately, Kelly was out with a post-FNFR injury, so team "Navigational Hazards" was down to just me, Anne, and Sandy on Akimbo. Winds were light, so we sailed the short course. We overtook Messin' About near Canton and held the lead despite a strong attempt by "The Sweet Dream Team" on Sweet Dreams to catch us. It was a close race when we all rounded the G15 buoy and turned upwind, but the pack quickly broke up after that and we took a substantial lead. The wind died when we got back to Canton. Sunrise, which was in last place at the time, dropped out, but the rest of us perservered until the wind came back 10 minutes later. We finished with a comfortable margin of victory, and Messin' About retook second place from Sweet Dreams and finished 20 minutes behind us.
We had the final DSC Friday Night Fun Race of the year this week, in 15-20 knots of wind from the north. Jen, Kelly, and I went up against severall other boats in a J/22 race out past Fort McHenry and back. There were 4 boats at the start, but 2 other boats joined the race late. We were in third place when we rounded the R2 buoy, but managed to pass one other boat near Locust Point to take second place just before sunset.
A month after Ya Gotta Regatta, we finally got the entire "Navigational Hazards" team together on Akimbo at the same time for some practice. Winds were relatively light, but were still enough to go through our starting procedure and sail out to Fort McHenry and back.
Kelly, Melanie, Anne, and I sailed on Akimbo for this month's DSC Full Moon Sail. We had just enough wind to make it out to just before the Key Bridge and back. Temperatures were initially around 70, but eventually dropped into the 50s.
Tiane, Marian, Karli, and I sailed on Akimbo for the last DSC Member Sail of the year. Winds were late at first, but eventually picked up, allowing us to sail out to Curtis Bay and back.
Jen and I raced in a J/22 against Jasdev and Madelyn for the second-to-last DSC Friday Night Fun Race of the year. The race was back and forth the whole way, but Jasdev's team prevailed in the end.