Sat Evening Cruise Aug 7th.

Been busy racing in Newport (Rolex J/105 ECC's), and Harbor Springs (Little Traverse), so not been much cruising on Silver Fox over the past few weeks.

But took the boat out today, as there was some breeze out of the NE, around 7kn, and a warm sunny evening. Sailed upwind and got some good upwind settings on the main with the AP driving. Brigite had to do paperwork so I was on my own.

Sailed out past L to the channel markers, then put the chute up and sailed to the house, dropped the hook and called B. But the sun was settings, so it was getting late.

So I sailed back, and it was a lovely sail as it got dark.

Got in and rinsed the boat down and by the time everything was put away it was 10pm.

It was great to get out and have some quality time with the boat on the water!

Ralph Out.

Spontaneous Sunday Cruise (7/11/10)

A beautiful summer day here, and I wanted to clean the prop shaft and prop on the boat, Brigite wanted to go for a swim, so we took the boat out to East Beach.

But there was a nice breeze, so we went for a lovely sail first - out into the bay and back. Wind was from the South around 6 kn and puffy.

We dropped the hook and had a very nice swim in the warm water. The shaft and prop had some barnie growth, and the hull had a layer of slime, which I brushed off. I got another jelly sting - which is no more than a sting from nettles from back in the homeland.

We hung out on the boat for a couple of hours on the hook, then had to go home as we didn't bring any dinner with us.

4th of July Cruise

Our friends Karen & Mike joined us for an afternoon and evening sail and BBQ on Silver Fox to celebrate our nations birthday.

Had a decent breeze from the ENE and we sailed close hauled to first island, then back towards Little Creek. It was mostly sea breeze, then around 6pm (I think) the wind suddenly died and filled from the SE which was the gradient. That was quite cool, but it happened right as Karen gave Mike the tiller, so he thinks he is cursed by the sailing gods!!

We went to the beach at Ocean View and anchored there to BBQ and watch the fireworks up and down the coast. It was a lovely warm evening, and we had a delicious time!

Around 10pm we sailed back to LC and it was a busy place with all kinds of boats making their way back to the channel and their docks in Little Creek. It was neat to see the whole place lit up with red, green and white nav lights! Karen claims it was the "best 4th of July ever", and none of us disagreed!

Wed Night Racing Update...

We have been fortunate to be able to not miss any races yet this season - I guess you could say we are getting good value for our entry fee!!

6/23/10
Steady ESE to SSE, strong Flood. Raced Mike 1st time. Too much action with Baserunner and at corners (douse gybe, gybe set). We were 3rd in class, beating Schock who hit the leeward mark and lost a lot of time there. A stressful race with storms brewing at the end.

6/30/10
Very light & shifty Easterly. Long phases between shifts. We were not always in phase. We had a pretty good race, but I think when we were behind I pressed too hard and sailed too tight in the beats for the light airs.

7/7/10
Good breeze from NE 15kn, went left and quickly & gradually decreased to 6kn. This was a tough race for Brigite, as she had a real hard time trimming the genoa, as it was so physically hard, and that put us off kilter, and left a lot of time on the racecourse.

7/14/10
Nice breeze that faded and went hard right as the evening progressed. We had a good race except for being foulded by Trouble, who were oblivious to the fact that they were in the wrong. I managed to keep it together and move on, but my game plan was destroyed, as we couldn't get to the right as early as I had wanted.

2010 Sailstice Cruise - June 19th

Been working very hard on the Boat and her sister for the past few weeks, and needed a break. I had to go it alone as Brigite was in Western VA at a weekend away.

I took the morning off, packed a steak, salad, cooked rice and a tomato, and headed East!

Did some work on the boat, with the help of Lee from Sea Dog, the 24 foot fishing boat beside us. The work was supposed to take about an hour, but ended up taking 3 - such seems to be the way working on boats, actual time = expected time * 3.

I wanted to test the rig tension and the #3 sail, and it seemed there was enough wind for that, out of the SSE forecast at 9kn, but actually more like 16 with gusts to 20kn, especially out in the East just past the protection of shore.

So off I went with the autopilot working perfectly, after my repairs to the broken gear. It was a reach out and another boat left just after me, and I believe it was Butch in Schock Full O Nutz, they caught me at the Bridge Tunnel (BT), and then reached off.

I wanted to go up to Cape Henry, and around the Tanker anchorage, as I have wanted to sail out there for a long time, and the wind direction was perfect. The Tankers are very cool, they are like resting giants, massive and reminders how powerful the ocean is. Why? Because these things are soo massive that they look like they are invincible, but still out on the oceans of the World they take beatings, and to me that demonstrates the power of the Oceans and is a reminder that they can never be underestimated.

Ok, so back to the sail, sailed up and around the tankers, to the furthest out ship then tacked back towards the beach up at Cape Henry. That area is a military base and Restricted (Out of Bounds), and there were boats doing training missions there, and I sailed right through it. I hoped they were not authorized to use live fire on intruders!!!

Then I sailed up towards Lynnhaven, as the sun started to set. I bore off to a run and towards the BT, put up the chute (busy work when single handed), lit the BBQ and enjoyed the sunset.

Got to 1st Island as darkness set in, dropped the chute while there was still some light, sailed close hauled the 4.5 nm towards Little Creek. Cooked my steaks on the way and enjoyed them as I sailed along.

Entered the Cut just after 10, and was on my way cycling home at 11pm. A 20 nm sail taking 4hrs.

Short Cruise and BBQ - Sat Jun 12th

Brigite & I took some time to take the boat on a hot Saturday afternoon. The Southerly was strong and building to over 15 knots. We used the #2 and a reef and were still overpowered.

We sailed around in the bay, then back to the beach by the house where we anchored and started the BBQ.

The tide was out, and we bumped up on the sand as we approaced to anchor, and we now have that WP on the GPS. It was soft and we were going very slow and there was no risk of any damage, etc.

We had a glass of wine and lit the BBQ, when storm clouds and rain appeared on the west horizon over Hampton, so we decided to raise the anchor and motor sail with the #2 up to East Beach and cook/eat there, closer to the cut and marina.

The storms passed just to our N and we only got a few sprinkles of rain, but a strong wind from the W. It was choppy and B was not feeling well when down below.

We ate, hung out as the wind and chop died down, and headed for home in the dark - probably around 10pm.

Wed Beercan Racing Update

Not much racing here in June. The weather has not cooperated, mostly due to summer type storms developing in the evenings.

May 26th racing was abandoned due to the absence of any wind.

The June 2nd was abandonned due approaching thunder storms - luckily for us as we were too busy to head out, we had to go up to Colonial Beach at the weekend so no time for racing.

The 9th we had a race - kind of. The RC was very wish-washy about whether or not to have a race as there were diminishing storms around. They called the race, then under peer pressure reinstated a race! Thus it was not going to count, but get scored anyway.

Wind was S around 11 kn, course sent us from the start to J close hauled, a long spinn broad reach to L, a beat back to the start leaving K to Stbd. A strong flood tide all evening.

We had a killer start with our #3 and full main. We were first to J, gybed, put up the chute and were able to hold off the thundering herd to also be first around L, this was great going! CYMRU wasn't far behind, able to slowly eat away on our lead once they had their big genoa poled out wing-on-wing.

We had a good beat, and used the in-hauler on the genoa and it helped us gain a few degrees closer to the wind.

Got passed by CYMRU not long after rounding L, and they were a freight train upwind, then Baserunner passed us to weather, and maybe one other boat got ahead, so maybe we finished 4th scratch, but we corrected over everybody!!! Shame it doesn't count - but it was a great sail and a lot of fun which is more important. CYMRU was second, despite horrible tactics, and Southern Style was 3rd, having been very fast on the beat.

On the 16th, we were working on the rig, and had to skip racing to work on the boat, but to no harm as racing was abandoned due to oncoming storms! By my count the Summer 5 race series only had one race day!

Lets hope we get better weather the next couple of Wednesdays so we can forget this frustrating spell.