June 8, 2004 | 4.0 Nautical Miles

I had work commitments for the afternoon of June 8th, but I headed down to the boat early in hopes of catching an early morning sail first. I wasn't sure what to expect—sometimes a breeze will fill in early, and sometimes not—but I had a few projects to take care of as well, so...

Foggy!

I arrived at the boat at 0915 and was surprised to find quite a bit of fog still lingering inside the islands. From the Town Landing dock I couldn't see my boat. Since it was flat calm, I just rowed out to the boat. The new-to-us rigid bottom inflatable that we are using this year rows so much better than our old one that I find rowing to actually be somewhat enjoyable. I can hardly wait till we have a REAL rowing dinghy! On the way out to the boat I stopped to take a few pics—looking back to the Town Landing (above), and a nice snap of the boat sitting on the mooring.

Since it was foggy and flat calm, I decided to take some time to finally get all my reefing gear sorted out. This year I finally managed to get the hardware for the second reef installed, as well as the nettles, and some fairleads along the boom to support the reefing lines when they are not under tension.

Not Much Time

While I was getting this project finished up, I noticed that the fog was scaling back, accompanied by a nice southerly breeze. I cleaned up from the project, and even though I knew I was going to have to be back on the mooring by 1230 or so, I decided that I would grab a quick sail. I dropped the mooring lines at 1125, leaving me only about an hour to sail.

Still, an hour was better than nothing and I enjoyed a nice beat up toward Portland. The breeze was a perfect 12 to 15 knots and there were almost no other boats out sailing. I beat towards Portland for about 35 minutes or so, and when I was abeam the small islands called The Brothers I tacked and turned back towards Falmouth for a nice beam-broad reach. The boat was screaming at 6.2 knots and I relaxed, leaning back and steering with one foot.

Sadly, it seemed only moments before I was back on the mooring packing the boat away.

Check out the brief video clip from the day:
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