Odalisque - September 20, 2003 Log

Log 2003 – September 20th

September 20, 2003

We enjoyed several beautiful September days while enduring the effects of the fringes of a hurricane named Isabel. There was little rain in NYC while I was awake but there were strong winds having strong gusts up to 45 miles per hour both Thursday and Friday. We discussed going out on Odalisque on Friday but the wind was too much and the time was too little. We decided to go out on Saturday 9/20/03 instead. Babysitting services were acquired by Laurie and Matt so the day was secured.

Laurie Life is lived one day at a time, and one challenge at a time (though there may be many challenges). We didn't make it out at the agreed upon time of 1 pm but we all got to Odalisque at about the same time. It was nice to have an even compliment of sexes on board at the same time. Matt and I pulled most of the lines getting the sails up with some help from Jessie. The blower for the engine was turned on and Laurie asked what the cowl vent in the stern was for. I explained that the blower blew exhaust out of the engine compartment, while the other cowl vent sucked air in. We had some laughs about how much stuff on the boat sucked and blew. We eventually motored off the mooring with barely any wind and headed north and then northeast. It was a truly gorgeous day with some high clouds slowly dancing by. The calm after the storm. It was great to have another female on board in the person of Laurie. We brought a bunch of sandwiches and a nice bottle of Spanish wine.

As we motored past Willets point we encountered a familiar yet unsettling phenomenon. Sets of waves, caused by tidal currents, rocked the boat. I have seen similar waves in Hempstead Harbor while out sailing in my much smaller 14' boat. A group of larger waves would approach, appearing as if wake from some larger ship. But there would be no ship in sight. The waters of Long Island Sound move around and cause their own wake! There may have been ships over the horizon but they were not causing the waves.

Although it was evident that Noah had opened bottles of wine on the boat we could not find the opener. Three of searched the cabin of Odalisque to no avail. I resorted to using the Swiss army knife we had to try and work the cork out. I almost had it all out but ended up leaving a small portion of the cork bobbing on top of the wine.

The wind obliged us with a bit of freshening as we headed up towards Larchmont Harbor. We spied on islands that were within a mile and other shores that were further away. We wanted to try a swim off of the ship so we took our new swim ladder and put the boat in irons. Jessie jumped off first. Caleb followed and tried the swim ladder first. It was difficult to get back on and Jessie came up next. We took a south by southwest course to get back to Steppingstone Marina.

The sun was about an hour from setting as we got back to the mooring, but it was producing a beautiful display for us after an initiation cruise for Laurie. We got the launch back to Steppingstone and Matt used his 3D camera to take some pictures of the boat and us. Mr. Art Director. I had my camera too and was taking pictures of our pretty boat.
A nice early Autumn/late Summer day sail.

We will have to make some plans to do longer sails in the future.

Yar!

— Caleb Davison