These Old Bones

Port Henry, N44 03 W73 27

(09/22/05)There are limits to what these old bones want to do. Today it was my goal to sail from Paradise Bay to Chipman Point. The problem was that Chipman Point is due south and the winds were 25-30 knots from the south. That meant hard work beating upwind.

I had a lot of fun doing it. I kept having to reduce sail as the winds picked up heavier and heavier. I reefed the main and I swapped the Yankee jib for the staysail jib. I almost took a second reef in the main, but then the wind eased a bit.

It was fine until I passed under the Champlain Bridge. South of the bridge the lake gets really narrow. I needed a tack once every 3 minutes. I kept that up for an hour until I flipped the page on the chart book to see that the lake was even narrower up ahead. Around two o'clock I figured that I was still a hundred or more tacks away from my goal. I needed a break. My old bones were complaining.

To make a long story short, I did an about face, and retreated a half hour back to Port Henry. I'll spend the night here. Tomorrow the winds are from the Northwest and it will be a lot easier to reach my goal.

One casualty today -- I lost my hat. I attempted a man overboard drill and circled back looking for it, but I didn't find it. Darn.