Last sail of the season

20-October-2013

On Saturday the forecast included rain so we didn’t go sailing, but on Sunday my brother and I went out.

Before we headed out, we stopped at the fuel dock to top off the diesel tank.  It only took 7 gallons of fuel.  That is the amount of fuel we used for the entire season.  Not too bad considering we motored about 5 hours on our trip to Chicago back in July and we motored roughly an average of about 45 minutes each time we went out, going out of and back into the marina.

My brother at the helm

It was a bit on the chilly side with a temp of ~48 degrees when we left the marina. We had a couple sprinkles of rain with waves less than 1 foot that built to about 2-3 feet. The winds started out in the 5-8 knot range, but finished nicely in the 10-15 knot range.

I brought out my “Third Reef” foul weather jacket when it started to sprinkle a little rain.

 

Winds started in the 5-8 knot range

 

Winds finished nicely in the 10-15 knot range. The rail was almost in the water.

We practiced the “heave to” maneuver a couple times. I was aware of it and had a basic understanding of what it meant, but had never done it before. Heaving to is a bit like “parking” the boat on idle speed in the middle of the lake (or ocean). It can bring the boat to a stop very fast (and calmly) and would be good in a man-overboard situation. It is also good if you just want to take a break to use the head or for eating lunch.

Since this was the last sail of the season and the weather forecast for the coming week includes temps below freezing and some snow, we removed the sails before we departed in preparation for having the boat hauled out of the water next weekend.