My friend, Paige Ireland, a woman of some experience as foredeck crew on race boats, joined John and me for a full day of cruising. She's also a photographer who captured a some sweet moments during the day. We started out about 10am under sail, but before long had to roll'em up and motor south to get around Thomas Point, then head to our luncheon destination -- the South River. The wind god had decided to stay closed for the morning. She's cranky that way sometimes.
We found what we thought was a nice place for lunch then promptly went aground, not a 100 yards off of a duck blind. We easily got ourselves free, anchored (another first for us) and lunched on tomato and cheese sourdough sandwiches. I had planned to prepare a salmon salad, but there was no can opener aboard and had to improvise. We relaxed for a bit then decided to head home as the wind was picking up and the air was cooling.
For the rest of the day, there was a goodly amount of cooperating wind and we were able to sail all the way home into the harbor under sail. Only after we rounded the last green mark did we roll in the jib and mainsail. John and I, thanks to Paige's help feel very comfortable on the boat, working together. We'll be ready to head for our own slip on Thursday or Friday.
During this day, we had a number of firsts. They included:
- John getting on deck to adjust the clew of the jib and get a few trimming tips from Paige
- Going aground and getting off
- Anchoring
- Sailing all points of sail, including a few jibes as we played around the parked tankers
- Sailing into harbor with both sailing up
We've become a grand sailing family.
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