Odalisque - July 8, 2005 Log

Log 2005 - July 8th

Friday July 8, 2005 – Couples on Hudson

Forecast: 8-10 w, n/w and thunderstorms.

We ended up being a foursome after all. Matt, Laurie, Caleb and Jessie. It was Laurie’s first sail on Odalisque since moving to Nyack. After her glass was filled with wine she admitted that Nyack was pretty good, maybe even better then Brooklyn. The land around Nyack is pretty from the water and this was her first time seeing it from this vantage point.
Once we had eaten and set sails around 3 pm we noticed a gray storm cloud threatening to our west but it was heading with the prevailing northwest wind and passed south of us beyond the Tappan Zee Bridge. We headed north, upriver, with all sails up. It turned out to be very gusty with some gusts probably topping 30 knots and we took on water over the rail going both north and south. We nearly blew down once or twice but the ladies maintained their cool and so did we and very little wine was spilled on the decks or river.
We reached Ossining and had the wind in our teeth for sailing further upriver as the whole of Haverstraw bay had its winds trained on us it seemed. We came about in strong winds and headed south. This stretch of the Palisades known as High Tor, Little Tor and Pyngyp are very fluky when it comes to wind. This is where I saw the cat paws and white caps coming on the swell. We were nearly blown over once or twice by a gust but managed to stay largely dry without attempting to reduce the jib. The main was let out, an upwind course was allowed by Matt when the gusts hit so we survived unscathed. The storm that had dramatically passed south of us was not quite out of reach after all as we caught a slight misting from it as we proceeded back towards the mooring field.
We had pulled up our mooring stick and dropped sail but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day so we bid farewell to our wives as they boarded the launch and we waited for our next passengers: Bob Klein and Charles Citroen, who were old friends from university who were not really passengers as much as welcomed mates. Matt and I stayed aboard Odalisque awaiting our next crew and strategised. We decided to double reef the main and we furled in the jib a bit on our next jaunt out. This would give us less tendency to get knocked down and still the ability to go forward nicely. We tried this configuration to good success but eventually shook out all reefs and unfurled the jib and finished up with skipper Bob at the helm. It was a pity that we had to quit while the sun was still up and the wind was blowing but even skipper Bob has 2 children and a wife on shore that needed his attention as do Matt, Charlie, and I (yes, they all needed Bob’s attention).
Charlie and I had a nice quick swim off the boat at mooring. The river was nice and we admired the hills and cliffs. The water tasted backish, a little salty but was warm enough for swimming in the 70 degree air. The current was downriver at about 2 knots but we could swim upriver against it and drift back down the boat. The swim ladder made getting back aboard easier and the launch was called as we dried up and prepared to depart.
We arrived at Matt and Laurie’s at 1950 even though we promised to get back by 7. Everyone was in quite good spirits after our experiences of the day and a wonderful meal was devoured at our old college friend’s table with other old friends from our SUNY/B days.

— Caleb Davison