November Day Out

Thursday and Fri we got bashed by the Nov Noreaster (formerly Tropical Storm Ida). Saturday was the transition day, and Sunday the sun was shining! I took good care of Silver Fox during the storms, checking on her twice a day - except when we were trapped by the flooding (Friday). I had tons of lines holding her and monitored the tides that were 4 or 5 feet above normal!

Sunday was a completely different day, and made the previous 3 days seem like distant memories. We decided to go for a little sail. We mostly wanted to test the tempermental motor, which neither of us really felt we could trust to start at sea. I felt it was my starting technique that was partly maybe mostly at fault. The problem I had was that I did not respect the carburator. I did not pay enough attention to getting the fuel mix right to the engine conditions, and I believed I was flooding the engine. So this sail was to test my theories, and see if the engine would start when we needed it to. And it did. It behaved perfectly, and we now have more confidence in our girl!

It takes a while to get the boat prepped when she is in winter mode as the halyards are skied, and everything is put away. It was toasty warm, but there was little breeze when we got out. There was a big tideline just outside the entrance to the cut (see photo). We motored towards our place so we could drop the pick there, have lunch and then see if the engine would start - if not we could go ashore to the house!

We anchored and had a relaxing hour on the hook, but the leftover swells were abeam and could get a good roll going at times.

Then with the engine working great, we sailed for a bit in the 2 or 3 know breeze. We put up goofy, and full main and had a nice gentle sail back towards the cut, with a strong ebb helping.

Once again when needed the engine started on demand - giving weight to the theory that the problems may have been largly operator error in the past!