September 18 | 7.2 Nautical Miles

With summer winding down and a fine day forecast for Monday, I took the opportunity to head ot for a short afternoon sail. I arrived at the club to find about 7 cars in the lot and headed down to the waterfront. Despite the forecast of 10-15 knots, there appeared to be zero wind. The skies were also quite hazy. I was surprised and a bit disappointed, but I headed out to the boat anyway. It appeared that there was a boat under sail outside of Clapboard Island so I quickly got ready to go and motored out the fairway, leaving the mooring at about 1450.

Light, but Nice

By the time I was approaching the end of the mooring field there seemed to be a very light 3 or 4 knot breeze, so I shut down the engine, unfurled the jib and sailed out of the anchorage and toward the northeast end of Clapboard Island at about 1.5 knots. As I got closer to Clapboard, the wind started to build a bit, and I was soon enjoying a nice 4.5 knot close reach past the island at a comfortable 10 degrees of heel.

I was surprised to see several boats out—unusual for a Monday afternoon in late summer—and I chased down an Ensign that was about half a mile ahead of me. I closed a bit, but then he tacked while I continued on toward Little Chebeague Island.

Once I reached Little Chebeague I tacked and headed on a close reach toward Portland. The wind continued to build and as I crossed the mouth of the Hussey it was blowing a fresh 15 knots. It appeared that I would easily lay the daymark at the southern end of Cow Island Ledge, so I eased off a bit and made my course to pass just above the mark.

A Squeaker

As I closed on the mark, it became increasingly clear that I was going to be cutting it close and in fact I had to harden up a bit to squeak by the mark, leaving it only 20 feet or so to starboard.

Once past the mark I continued on a close reach. I saw Wendemeen one of the Portland Schooner Company boats out for a daysail, and was able to close on her a bit since I was pointing quite a bit higher.

Despite the haze, the water really sparkled and the ride was glorious. Soon I eased off a bit and crossed the Flats to Mackworth Island. I really wanted to stay out, but we had guests coming for dinner and I needed to get back home, with a stop to pick up my son and then a trip to the grocery store, so unfortunately it was time to think about heading back in.

After a screaming reach across to Mackworth I hardened up, tacked, and then eased off for what is normally a broad reach back to Falmouth. Today however, the wind was more westerly than I had thought and ended up on a dead run back. I ran wing-and-wing for a while, but the wind was even further west at the masthead than deck level, and I was really having trouble keeping the jib full. Eventually I rolled the jib and still managed a nice 5 knots back to the anchorage. Near the fairway I gybed and took a beam reach straight in toward the club before rounding up and grabbing the mooring under sail.

I was back on the mooring at 1625 and soon had the boat put away. I called the launch, and after a bit of a wait (the club is on reduced waterfront staff midweek during the shoulder season) I rode in and headed for home.

Despite the shortness of the sail, it was glorious. With the boat scheduled to be hauled on the 29th, I hope this wasn't the last sail of the season!