Driving up the Palisades Parkway in a modest rain, it seemed
like the 60 percent chance of stormy weather must be passing
through. Light wind on the Hudson made Three Sheets'
courses seem a little ambitious, but sitting around swapping
stories while looking for a stir of the "tell-snails" still beats
channel surfing or gawd forbid straightening up the office.
Even seeing a classic cumulo- nimbus cloud drifting over the
river wasn't disconcerting. Surely that was the one that
produced the earlier storm. Surprise! That was the appetizer
for the front that rolled through just as we neared the line,
turning the placid sky into a dazzling display of lightning and
rain gusting nearly horizontally to the water. The adventure
gave us all a good gab over slices of pizza back on shore.
Whoa! Stiff headwinds while driving to Haverstraw made
me wonder if Capt. Paul would be nuts enough to use the
big jib. Silly me. Of course. Sailboats run on wind, right?
Actually the extra canvas came in handy close to shore
but out on the water? I was glad we had spicy pizza after
the race and not before. Wings, the committee boat as
well as a good idea to expand "pizza night" options, chose
a great 4-mile course that kept us flying to the end. We
Vikings gained position from the start and Mourad, our
new crewman, learned what "heel" means in sailing.
Burp!
Mouse Over For
Caption
A steady 18 mph breeze gave us ample opportunity to see
waters between buoy 26 and B twice. That's 2.6 miles
each way as the gull flies, but sailboats don't go straight
from point A to B and probably neither do gulls. Being a
bit short-staffed, we Vikings got a workout, but it was a
great night to be on the water. Lots of fresh air gusting
down from Canada to breathe while watching a
magnificent sunset o'er the Hudson. Henry couldn't have
asked for more. Besides picking a great course, our race
committee even chipped in a gratis barbecue. Had we
finished later we probably would've stayed for it instead of
heading back to New York City. But doggonit! Capt. Paul
noticed I'd thrown out the sea anchor.
