Recent Daysails
This is the time of year when sailing is good almost every day. Breeze is strong, temps are moderate, even the rain is tolerable. So I’ve posted a few photos from recent sails. Not great stuff, but just to give you the feel of sailing on the Chesapeake in October.
Weather looks a little doubtful, but the wind was good. It was a fantastic day to sail.
. . . and I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a good day to be on the water.
Photo from yesterday. Started out with fog in the morning. By the time I got on the water the fog was burning off. You can see the remnant mist off the point of Rosehaven (at right).
The cliffs, where I anchor in shallow water and scrub the growth off the bottom. I can anchor in about 4 feet and stand beside the boat brushing the growth off.
The work boats are always out here. The water is never too rough, the weather never too bad to make a living. This is a hard job.
And I’m not the only pleasure boater who thought that a Tuesday morning was a good time to sail.
I think this boat has a throttle setting titled “plow,” or “maximum fuel usage.” He was at the perfect speed to send out maximum wake. I’d hate to have his fuel bill.
Canada geese making their way. One of the iconic harbingers of autumn on the Chesapeake.
Hands-free steering.
Salty skipper and the obligatory selfie.
Learning more about sailing alone – heaving to affords a controlled way to drop and bag the sails. Heaving to is the answer to many moments when you just need a to create a space of calm, reduced motion without having to mind the helm.
middlebaysailing 
Sailing alone has its pleasures. When I did that on our boat, J’Lesca, I usually did it while wearing a harness. The thought of J’Lesca sailing away without me should I accidentally go over the side prompted me to give up just a little bit of my freedom of movement.
To give me maximum flexibility with pretty good security, I ran a jackline from the cockpit to the bow pulpit and clipped the short lanyard on the harness to it. The biggest downside was that I could only go around one side of the mast, but I was able to reach any part of the deck that I needed.
The safety harness is definitely an inconvenience, but then so is falling overboard. Alone. I’d rather stay on the boat!
Sadly, Eolian is tied down for the winter… One of the problems with a bigger boat – you rarely go out just to go sailing…
Bob, you need a sailing dinghy to satisfy your sailing jones when Eolian is tied down for the winter!