Hurricane aftermath

No problems for Constance, not even much water in the bilge. Some other boats had it worse:

Boat washed onto the seawall at Saugatuck

Last preparations

Irene will be almost a direct hit with gust up to 85mph early Sunday here.
Took the head sail down and wrapped the main tightly so we should be ok. Only worry is the storm surge. If we're 10ft over normal high tide conditions the dock will float off the pilons and it will be a big mess. Unfortunately we have a new moon and high tide will coincide with the strongest winds from the east pushing lots of water into the sound. Combined with the runoff due to heavy rains this could be a close call.

All wrapped up

Irene!

Getting the boat ready for the Hurricane. Landfall is expected around JFK airport and the eye will pass directly over of us, according to the latest predictions. Scary stuff.On the other hand this will be an interesting spectacle. I just hope everybody stays safe...

somebody has to be

last in a race. Not sure why it has to be us but those 5-10kn conditions sure don't favor Tartan34s. Today we got DFL'd on time by 15 sec. grrrrr. Bad judgement call on my part when and where the tidal current will be max combined with the inability to point when the wind is down. Oh well.

Wed night race 07132011

What a race! Had our friend Roberto onboard helping with the lines and taking some great shots. The evening started out easy and we were practicing poling out the jib with our heavy spinnaker pole. As soon as the RC was ready to start, a big black cloud showed up over the Connecticut shore. And sure enough the wind picked up, first a little, then quite a bit until we were somewhat overpowered with the overlapping jib. No time to change with 1min to go! So we went screaming down the line, of course over early and barely avoiding other boats. Sure enough the start was cancelled but in the howling wind some boats took off and were never to be seen again. Meanwhile we had a solid 30kn in the starting area with white caps all over the place.  So we rolled up the jib and went into the next start half way furled. Even then we got heeled over in the gusts like never before. After the first mark the wind subsided and we went full sails again. The rest of the race was very uneventful, and yes, we finished, and not even last!

Tacking before the start

Start postponed

Division3 start

Looking at the fleet from behind

Wed night fleet returning to port

Block Island Cruise

Constance went on a 4 day cruise to Block Island over the 4th of July holiday weekend! On board 6 crew which meant I had to take some stuff off the boat and also finally gave me a reason to adjust the size of the inset for the starboard settee to convert into a double bunk. Quite cozy with so many people onboard but we managed nicely, I think.

Passing through Plum Gut

We started off a little late at 7:30p but made it with remainder of the ebb tide through Plum Gut at 5a. Fabulous morning but then of course the wind died and it took us another 8 hours to make it in the Block Island Lagoon. Overall 20hrs to cover the 85 miles from Cedar Point to Block Island, incl about 5hrs of motoring. In the middle of the Block Island Sound Pat caught a big striped bass, which we invited to stay over for dinner :-)

Nice catch, Pat!

Block Island harbor was pretty crowded and there were no more moorings left, big surprise on a holiday weekend... So we anchored at the north eastern corner of the anchoring area, which works nicely with the shallow draft of the Tartan34C. I'm really happy with the holding quality of our 35lbs CQR anchor. Block Island is notorious for bad holding and I slipped here with Berni's boat before. Even though it was very crowded and quite windy the next day with the wind clocking around the whole compass, we never moved an inch.

Crowded dinghy dock in Block Island

Sunset with Dark & Stormies at the bar of "The Oar"

We stayed all Saturday, walking over the island to the Southern Cliffs. Quite a walk, but rewarded with a magnificent view and a cool splash into the crystal clear water! On the way back we indulged lobster rolls at the old harbor followed by the famous ice cream on main street. Great dinner on the boat with the backdrop of fireworks in our semi-secluded corner of the anchoring area.

Mohegan Cliffs

Next day we had start early to ride the flood tide through the Race back into the Long Island Sound. On the way back we got another (!) striped bass, this time he went for Berni's lure. Going through the Race was kind of eerie, the wind stopped as we entered the sound, but the water was churning like crazy. So engine on and towards the Connecticut shore. Tried to go inside long sand shoal to avoid the brunt of the outflowing tide, but in this case the tidal almanac is not correct, inside the shoal we had a ripping current of about 3-4kn against us vs 2kn supposedly outside. On top of that rain and dense fog set in. Time to get the boat washed down! Meanwhile Pat and I were entertaining other boats by using the Vuvuzelas as fog horns.

Rainy passage back to Connecticut

Finally made it into Clinton harbor, which has nice amenities including a pool and a harbor side restaurant. A little on the pricey side but we couldn't really eat any more striper! Getting into Clinton is a little bit tricky, it's basically up a little river that has tidal flats left and right. The channel is supposed to be changing every year and sure enough the GPS was showing us being  off the channel even though we were clearly within the markers! Good that we have a shallow draft with the center board up since the depth meter was showing 3ft something in the channel :-o
Next day was pleasant and uneventful sailing/motoring back to Westport where we settled for anchor beers at the Black Duck on swaying tables..

Wednesday night race

Photoboat came out and took some great pictures of the CPYC Wednesday night series! We also had a great breeze at 15-20kn with puffs up at 25kn, so just the right weather for Constance! We were actually almost overpowered with the 157% genoa but still had a lot of fun. In the end we got only 2nd last place in our division since the wind died on the last leg, just as usual, but nonetheless a great evening on the water.

C-mark rounding CPYC Wed night series 06292011

Constance ahead (!) of other boats

to the finish