There is a quote attributed to Dwight Eisenhower that goes something like,"in battle, plans are useless, but that planning is indispensable." That sort of summarizes the day.
I am sure that one way or another you all have been here. You know how that goes, Tuesday you begin to think about what you will do on the weekend. You look at the weather for the weekend and see a Saturday:predicted to be less than 40 degrees, next to no wind, and chance of scattered showers. Sunday still cold and light-ish winds, but no rain.
The plan for Sunday was easy, I am going frostbite racing. No brainer. Dock time 11:00- be there or be square.....
But Saturday, that was a different story. It needed a plan, and true to form, I was just the guy to come up with one. Saturday was a perfect boat maintenance day. The plan for the day was to continue working on the new holding tank installation by making a cardboard mockup of the flat for the tank base and a cardboard mockup of the tank and then see whether I could fit that size tank into the chosen locker. I had visions of the space heater keeping the cabin toasty while I cut out the parts and tested them. Further between the predicted bouts of rain, the plan was to sew some new chafe gear on the dock lines, and climb into the lazarette to measure the final pieces of aluminum flat bar needed to brace and complete last year's autopilot installation. That was the plan. Stuff was gathered during the week, and tools and a cutting surface bivouaced at the ready in the workshop.
And then it was Saturday morning. Making coffee it occurred to me that it wasn't raining after all. A quick check of the predictive weather sources showed no rain, a high in the 40F plus range, and 10-12 knots of wind. Holy smokes, I was flanked by a perfect winter sailing day. Change in plans.....
It was one of those rare days where no matter where I chose to sail, it was neither a beat or a run. I experienced every possible point of sail with the word "reach" in its name but no beats and no runs. It was considerably windier than 10 knots so I spent most of the day ripping about in the 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 knot range.
I could get used to that. In fact I did. Coming into Annapolis Harbor the boat slowed dramatically in the lee of the Academy. I looked at the knotmeter expecting the worst, but I was still doing around 7 knots. So I quickly looked around for the DNR since I was speeding in the 6 knot zone of the anchorage. Given that there were no other boats underway anywhere in sight, I shot through the Harbor, buzzing the tourists on the City Dock and at Charthouse, lending them a sailboat in the background of their selfies.
A neighbor took this picture of Synergy reaching for the Mill Creek channel. Once I was safely tied up with Synergy put to bed walking up the steps to the house, the first drops of the presaged drizzle began to fall. This was a perfect case of when it comes to sailing, "Waste not (a moment of sailing time), (almost) want not." .