Final? Sail of the Season

I keep thinking it’s the last sail of the season, but then a lovely weekend magically appears. We took Polerys out to test out the new blocks. And also because it was sunny. It was a little cold, but we were projected to have 8 knots of wind. Perfect for a couple of amateurs.

So far, we’ve just gone out of the marina, headed towards Bainbridge Island, and back. Pretty much each sail has been the same thing. The wind in this part of Puget Sound is almost always heading in from the North. As much as I’d like to sail up to Ballard, or down to Blake Island, fighting the wind doesn’t sound fun to me.

We hoisted the Targaryen flag, and headed out. The new blocks for the headsail made it a lot easier to shape the sail. Or maybe we’re just getting better at it.

We were averaging around 3 knots, until I made one itty bitty tweak to the headsail and like magic, we were at 4 knots, then 5. We got all the way up to 5.7 knots. I was staring at the chart plotter like a lunatic. I sounded like a parent when their child is learning to count.

“Come on 4. Come on… YES. 4 knots. Let’s go for 4.5. 4.1… 4.3… 4.5! Fuck yeah. Get the camera! hurry!”

The nice thing about Puget Sound is the prettiness. On one side, you get Downtown Seattle. On the other side you get the wilderness of Bainbridge. Look south and you have Mount Rainier. Look north and you have the sea.

It started to get pretty chilly, so we headed back to port. I did probably the worst parking job so far. Crashed into the dock, but luckily, the bumper prevented damage. It’s so humiliating.

Still, it was a great end to the sailing season.