Day Sail

Vergennes City Dock, N44 10 W73 15
(09/14/05) Today old friends, Rollie and Rosemary Faulkner, joined us for a day sail. Our relationship with the Faulkner’s goes all the way back to when Rollie handled the adoptions for our first two children, John and Jenny.

I was steeled for winds perhaps more frisky than wanted for a day sail. The forecast said 25 knots. On the other hand we began and ended the day with a leisurely cruise on Otter Creek. The Faulkners had vacationed before on a canal boat in England. This was a bit like that. It was very enjoyable I thought.

Before we came to the lake I reefed both the yankee jib and the mainsail. I also warned everyone to be ready for rough weather when we emerged from the creek. When we actually got to the lake, the wind was almost nil. Wrong weather report again.

Never fear. At this time of year, Lake Champlain doesn’t stay still for long. Within a half hour a 20-knot breeze came along and Tarwathie was heeling 30 degrees. Rollie was surprised to see the rail dip under the water. It turned out to be a really fine day -- warm and breezy. The Faulkners seemed to be natural sailors and we all had fun.

We lunched near the Maritime Museum dock where there were replicas of 18th century vessels.

Libby and Rollie both took delight in pushing Tarwathie to see how fast she could go and how far she could heel over. Several times I had to tell them to ease off because they were taking us too close to shore. It was great fun.

About 15:30 we re-entered the creek. The two-hour cruise back to Vergennes was the perfect cap to the day. We were all thoroughly relaxed by the time we got back.

My next focus is trying to organize a guy’s day sailing for this weekend. It would be great if we get the weather to have this much fun.