Daysail

Sitka, AK
Saturday was a pleasant-enough day for a daysail–Friday’s gale was over and there were just light winds and occasional rain in the forecast before Sunday’s gale. The frost on the deck even cooperated by melting before we left the dock.

A Balmy Day in December

Sitka, AK
It was a beautiful day in Sitka yesterday, and we took advantage of the opportunity to go out for a pleasant daysail and to test the autopilot (which is finally working). We motored out of the harbor, then sailed to windward in a very light breeze. After a while, we turned back. (scroll down to next entry)

A Balmy Day in December

Sitka, AK
(continued from above) We set the spinnaker to sail back with, and to dry it out. By the time we had it set, though, the wind had lightened to almost nothing and we were making less than a knot thru the water. The current was in our favor, but carrying us too close to Old Sitka Rocks for comfort, so we dropped sails and motored back to harbor for sunset.

Driftwood

Sitka, AK
I’m not used to driftwood that’s bigger around than I am tall. I got quite used to no driftwood at all this summer in the Arctic. I guess I’m going to get used to driftwood like this and larger as I go south. Speaking of going south, I’m delaying that for a while. While the weather hasn’t made sailing impossible, it has made it difficult enough that I’d rather delay for a while. It was getting to be a week or so of gales, storms or strong headwinds, followed by 1-2 days of reasonable traveling weather, which made for slow progress. Also, there are some things on the boat that I want fixed (like the cabin heater that works off the engine cooling system) before continuing in cold, windy conditions, and fixing stuff is much easier when one is not traveling. Maggie had to go back to work, so she is back in New York now. She took this picture last week.