Odalisque -September 25, 2003 Log

Log 2003 – September 25th

September 25, 2003

With the advent of fall threatening to move in quickly, in the form of a ridge of cooler air flowing south from Canada, there will be fewer and fewer summery sailing days left. I found myself playing hooky from work this morning after a boisterous night out at our friends, the Randimans. Jessie and I decided to make plans to take Odalisque on a sail together in the afternoon. The forecast from the weather channel was for temperatures in the mid 70’s with some sun and clouds, and SW winds from 5 to 10 knots.

We picked up lunch at Kalustyans at 28th end Lex: 2 falafel sandwiches, and a hummus and feta sandwich (totally vegetarian and seemingly out of character, but I like falafel and hummus as much as any red meat eater or vegetarian). Before heading through the midtown tunnel we always close the car windows and put on the air conditioner in recirculation mode. Inside the tunnel we could smell the wonderful scents of spices from our purchases at Kalustyans and started eating one of the pita falafel sandwiches.

It had seemed warm and overcast in Tribeca before we left. We made it to Steppingstone by taking the Clearview Expressway to Northern Boulevard and then heading up towards Kings Point Academy. It was a beautiful day out on Long Island. The wind was blowing, the sky was blue, there were high clouds not moving very fast. Good signs for things to come.

The launch guy was someone I had never seen before as I have not been there during the week. We boarded Odalisque and stowed our gear. It was blowing near 10 at the mooring but we got the mainsail up and dropped the mooring stick together at about 3:50 pm. We sailed with the main sail only. The tiller can be a little sluggish with this arrangement but a steady hand can still get the old girl to come about. The wind seemed stronger than it had been at mooring. We were in 15 – 18 knot winds with streaks on the water and white caps. If we had the genoa up we would have been heeling over a lot. I resisted using the jib and we made forward progress just fine with the main sail (probably 3 – 4 knots). We tacked over into Douglaston Bay admiring the racing sailboats, which were flying their spinnakers. These were full racing crews with a compliment of 6 or 7 men, presumably from the Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy or Fort Schuyler Merchant Marine Academy. They were young and working hard as they switched sails. We tried unfurling a bit of jib but it kept luffing so we refurled the genoa and continued slowly but surely onward powered only by the main sail. There was also a fleet of smaller sailboats, like lasers or snipes deeper in the harbor.

Since it was a Thursday there was little traffic on this part of the western sound, but we found ourselves facing a group of 4 laser like sailboats with a coaching boat nearby barking orders and a larger sailboat on a port tack and another racing sailboat flying a spinnaker. We held our course as there was a lot of sail traffic all of a sudden. Very exciting. One of the cadets in his laser could have nearly touched our hull as he sped past our stern. We waited for this temporary traffic to move past and then we tacked towards the Throggs Neck Bridge.

We were moving forward as we approached the bridge, just slowly. The tide had been fairly low when we left the mooring but it seemed to be rising. I had noticed several sets of “rogue” waves that were fairly large as we sailed west. The current seemed to be against us as the tide was coming in; and in it comes through the East River, very fast. Pouring into the sound from the ocean. One day we will try to harness that flood, just not today. It was near 5:30 when we came about to a beam reach back towards Steppingstone. We were close enough to the bridge to hear the sound of tires on the pavement above when we turned tail and headed home. The ride back to the mooring would be quick, given that the current was going our way and that we were on a beam reach in nearly 10 – 12 knot winds. We sailed right by the Steppingstones obstructions near the landward buoys. You could see that there was a chop in the water where the 1 – 2 knot tide was rumbling over the low stones.

We found our mooring under sail. The engine was on but was only used for a second or two making upwind towards the stick. We were both hungry after our short 2+ hour sail. So we took down the mainsail, covered it, and sat down to eat our falafel and feta and hummus pita sandwiches. The rocking of the boat on the mooring was not evident to us at this time and we happily enjoyed some nice food while watching the sun go behind some low clouds to the west. Perhaps a sign of bad weather to come.

We were home by 8 pm having left Steppingstone at 7. The rocking and rolling, pitching and yawing of the boat is buffered by the forces you feel in a car so we hardly noticed our sea legs until we got home. Terra firma. Now the pitching and yawing is largely a function of my inner ear and Heineken beer. What a glorious end of summer day.

— Caleb Davison