I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but this is going to be the year!
With mild temperatures, a light wind and sunny skies it was fairly comfortable on Willoughby Bay. Clouds moved in within 30 minutes and the wind all but vanished. Still, a nice start to the year...
My marina neighbor joined me for some time on the water.
Sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Before leaving the dock I noticed the wind pickling up. With gusts of 20+ knots I started right off with one reef in the sail. Good decision! It kept sailing relaxing for me and I was still seeing 6.5 knots at times on a broad reach.
Partly cloudy skies filtered the sun's heating, but with light winds it felt cofortable for a local sail.
Sixty degrees, sunshine and a 10 knot west breeze made for a great day on the water. Sailing over to Fort Monroe it was a little battle against the outgoing tide. Returning difficult but made much easier using the diesel for a short section...
Arriving at the marina there was a light north breeze. I thought to myself, this will be a pleasant afternoon. With the sunshine and the light winds it will be comfortable on the water. By the time the sail was up winds had increasted to over 15 knots. It made for great sailing moving me along at 6-1/2 knots, unfortunately the warmth of the sun was overpowered by the cool breeze.
A light west breeze made for a relaxing afternoon on willoughby Bay. With the sun already low by 4:00 o'clock and the wind dying it was time to return to the dock.
Will not make 100 this year. As of this summer, I'm back to a marina that doesn't require going through the HRBT with the constant traffic problems and getting more comfortable docking this boat in a wind, next year I will !
Left Willoughby Bay through the Swells Point Channel and rounded the bar heading east. Shortly after turning around at the Ocean View Fishing Pier the wind started gusting to around 20 knots so I put one reef in the sail to calm things down. Slow going returning against the still outgoing tide. The combination of clouds, breeze and mid 60's had me feeling a little chilled and changed my mind about anchoring out for the night...
A 10-15 knot WNW breeze was barely enough, close hauled, to get me across the channel to Fort Monroe while fighting the outgoing tidal current. Coming back it was still a close reach, but I made it. At times this weekend the current was running 3.5 knots!
After what seems like weeks of rain and wind a few gentle days for some relaxing sailing. With no destination other than on the water I'm prefectly happy to be floating around at 2-3 knots in a less than 10 knot wind. On Saturday I sailed over to Fort Monroe and after breakfast on Sunday just around Willoughby Bay.
Light winds. So relaxing....
Yes the picture is correct, I was inverted at the time...