#74… Friday, 8/21… This was one of my all time, top ten, best sailing days ever! You don’t plan days like this. They just happen.
On an August day that featured “Chamber of Commerce weather,” I went in search of the breeze. Sailing single-handed, I sailed out of Back Creek in Solomons, and out into the Patuxent. Thinking that the wind would be better in the Bay, I tacked several times before exiting the river. Going easterly across the Bay, I was constantly trimming and tweaking all three sails … anything to gain a tenth of a knot more speed. The wind was fickle going across the Bay. I had wind shifts, less wind, and more wind. Steadily, I made my way across to the shipping channel and to the other side. The water depth over there goes from very deep to shallow very quickly. When I got even with the red #76 buoy, which indicates the eastern edge of the channel, reluctantly I tacked to head back. Trimming the sails once more, Aloha Spirit took off. This was exactly what I had been searching for all day. She was flying! By the end of the day, I had recorded my second fastest boat speed for the well sailed, 42-year old boat. After 5 hours, I put her back in the slip. I cracked open a beer to celebrate an incredible day.
Put a star beside this entry in the log book! I’m going to remember it.