Once again, having heard the geese flying overhead as they began their fall migration, we decided to join them heading south. with an anticipated departure date of 10/7 so we could attend the Silver Spokes Annual Banquet - Leonard's biking group of great folks. Having only made the decision recently, the past few weeks had us scrambling to accomplish the chores we put off during the summer while we enjoyed some great sailing on the lake. Procrastination is so easy when the weather is sunny and the breezes fair and the summer seems to be non-ending. We got most of the chores done, and those that didn't, like polishing the sides and waxing the deck will wait for another day.
Total (almost) eclipse of the moon
A week earlier we watched the Hunter's Moon rise and go to a full eclipse from our LCYC mooring - the view to the east is great. On Monday,We took the sails off before the wind and rain arrived. With the very dry fall, the lawn at the club was a great place to fold the sails. We spotted a few threads on the jib cover that were starting to protest the time spent in the sun, so we fetched the Sailrite machine to do repairs. The machine has proved a great investment, having more than paid for itself over the years with the various projects we've done.
A last minute addition this year, was the construction of side curtains for the cockpit. We had lent the machine to our friend,Thea, earlier this fall to do a similar project that got us thinking it might work for us too. Like most projects, actual time spent doing far exceeds any projected estimation. This was no exception. With the mast being stepped Friday Oct 2nd, we needed to get the curtains more or less fitted while we still had the bimini up and could zip in the connector that fits between the dodger and the bimini which gets stowed while the mast is down. Friday morning found us checking the port side curtain before we started the necessary work to step the mast (no, the two sides weren't just a simple flip and copy). We'll see how well the curtains work after we get to Catskill and the mast is up - they should keep the cockpit dryer as well as warmer in a cold wind when we're anchored.
The weather didn't help either. The rain started Tuesday afternoon and didn't stop until Thursday reducing the days we had to work on the boat. With the rain came the first of the fall winds - a steady 2 days of 20+kts from the N, switching to the NE (the worst direction for fetch at LCYC) that had the boats tugging at their moorings in the waves the rest of the week. There was some mayhem at LCYC when a mooring chain broke on a boat at the N end of the field, causing the boat to play bumper boats as it headed through the fleet. We were lucky - it hung up on one of our neighboring boats, before ending up on the little sandy beach by the club.
Monday afternoon Pierre stopped by to scrub the bottom. He'd been in Syracuse working on a clean up site and missed all the excitement at the club. It's surprising to see how much even light growth on the bottom affects boat speed. We'd had the hull done in Solomons last May, so most of the barnacles had been removed - this was just the normal freshwater growth of slime that accumulates over the summer. He reported he could still see the bar code on one of the zincs on the prop - in salt water, the sacrificial zinc would have been significantly reduced in size.
Lynnea heading out
After loading the last of the gear on board, we departed LCYC, leaving stowing to be done underway. We made a quick stop at the shipyard to pump out and top off the fuel tanks. Shell Rieley walked down to say good bye while we were on the dock - Friend Ship was in the slings and on her way to the barn for the winter. Fully loaded, with the boat considerably lower in the water, we were officially underway by 1300. It was a beautiful day to be heading south with the mast on the deck. - very little wind and some warm sunshine to brighten the day. We could finally take a deep breath, stop checking lists, sit back and relax while Otto, our trusty auto pilot, followed our route south.
Making the turn inside R#2 at Shelburne Point
While we had hoped to reach the Ft Ticonderoga anchorage, the chart plotter predicted it would be about 2000 before we arrived. The arrival of a weak cold front had covered the sun with clouds as the afternoon progressed, some of which looked like they might provide showers and a bit of a NW breeze had come up. It had been a long day after a number of hectic weeks, so we stopped at Chimney Point, off the Vermont side south of the Crown Point Bridge. Another sail boat with its mast stepped was tied up at the Crown Point Monument dock so we'll likely have company as we head through the canal in the morning.The sky had cleared after sun down, and as I was putting the bins of fruit and tomatoes in the cockpit for the night, I caught a brief display of northern lights. It's been a number of years since we've seen them, and was a fitting end to our first day. We'll take it as a good omen for the voyage.
