Sail Away

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The balm of the week so far was sailing on the Hudson. My friend has a 30' sailboat, and almost as long as we have worked together, he has taken me sailing in the spring. Sometimes I get lucky and I also get to go out in the summer, sometimes with his family and sometimes with friends.

Today it was cloudy and cold. I asked him in the morning if we were still on for our sail date. He said OF COURSE! It tends to be even colder once you get on the river, but I told him I was still on.

I had this boyfriend who took me out in his sunfish on the Hudson on a similar day. It misted the entire time, he motored instead of sailed, (mainly because I don't think he knew HOW) and it was a miserable first experience. I landed on shore wet and cold. A week later I was out in my friend's vintage wood motor boat, and spied the creep out on the river with another woman. I ran circles around his little sunfish with the bright yellow sail which made it oh-so-easy to spot even on the Hudson.

Once we got out on the creek which leads into the river, the sun came out, the clouds cleared, and it was a cool but beautiful spring day. I did most of the steering while he worked the sails. He has taught me what little I know about sailing, and it is fun to play with the wind and see how fast I can get the boat while paying attention to the compass, the depth finder etc. I don't know all the technical terms yet, but I was able to figure it out for the most part as I have sailed before. I got it up to 6 knots when I could get a good wind.

We sailed for about 3 hours. When I returned to the docks I was so relaxed. In fact, I have never ever returned to shore stressed after a sail.

I forgot my camera, but the Hudson was lovely, as were the mountains and lighthouses that we passed. We sailed along side of the Amtrack train, giving its passengers a lovely scene.

I forgot how I love sailing. I would love to get a sunfish for some of the many small lakes around here and practice on that, but I bet that would feel very strange after sailing a 30' boat. Of course, a sunfish I can sail myself, a 30' boat is too hard.

Off to bed where I hope I still feel the gentle rocking of the river that I love so well.

Captain Patti

Comments

Judy Vars said…
Wonderful sailing you're so lucky. I learned to sail here in Alaska on Big Lake and was great at it, then I had some harry experiences and haven't been sailing since.
I should blog that story sometime.
:)
Judy
12:50 AM
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