Lovinde and Owl had their rendezvous off of Darien’s Long Neck Point at about 1pm – and started the trip to get positioned for the next day’s trip through New York Harbor, a necessary ocean transit to East Rockaway Inlet, and east along Long Island’s inland waterway.
Wind? From the SouthWest, of course. Right on the nose, of course. So an excellent work-around was proposed, and executed: motor right into the wind, across the sound, to the vicinity of Oyster Bay, then hoist sails (two reefs) and sail East along the North Shore of Long Island, taking advantage of the lack of waves along the way. Indeed, the plan was a brilliant one (thank you, Roger) because the heavily reefed cats behaved exceptionally well – in plowing down the Sound, not bothered by the 15-20 knot breeze.
Part of the success of this plan was the venue: there were very few waves in the sheltered waters, but the wind remained strong. But the other factor, how the catboats handled under two reefs: very well, but to reach and run: terrific.
Eventually, at Execution Rocks, the excellent sail turned into a slog, (crash and splash) as the wind shifted to the contours of the “channel” and it was back to ‘on the nose’ – requiring Owl to port-tack well to the North, above Hart Island, and come down the gap between City and Hart – and Lovinde to power-on directly to the lee of Hart, and then sneak around the North-end – getting to Minneford’s South a few minutes before Owl. It was good to get out of the weather at Minneford’s - famialiar from last week’s trial run.
Lessons learned for the day: - the weather will change and kick up quickly, and – two – the power and dignity of the Catboat with two reefs is impressive. It is good that the two-reef recognition happened early in the trip – it is good to remember that this trick is available for getting out of a heavy-weather jam.