Finally!

Jasper and I finally got Jose off her mooring for a sail yesterday, after a long summer of frustrations, setbacks and hard work, and it was a glorious day. Mostly about 10kts. with some afternoon lulls. We were in the NorthEast River, one of the Chesapeake's northernmost spots. Wide and shallow, with a deeper channel, we had to be carefull with the full keel Jose. Wind out of the north which is unusual. 

Jasper is the owner of Jose and my sailing mentor. He teaches mostly by the Socratic method, setting up situations and leaving me to respond. For instance, I was still rigging a jib sheet through the blocks when he cast off our mooring with no word. It took me a minute or two to realize we were moving, and looking up I see we are very near another boat, but managed to skim by her. I think the theme of the day was anticipation, anticipate what the skipper is doing, anticipate the next puff etc. Setting me up in situations where I had to respond without forewarning. Needless to say, there were moments of ineptitude on my part. All in all, though, a good day, fine wind and weather.

Here we are going down river, downwind, wing on wing with the sun in our face, travelling SSW.

We sailed off our mooring and back on, no motoring, the new diesel has air coming into the fuel line somewhere and we can't seem to track it down. As a matter of fact, in the four years since Jasper bought Jose, we've always sailed off and back onto the mooring without engine and really never motored at all, except to test the old Westebeke. Good training for me!

Spotted this interesting little boat on the way past Hance's Point Yacht Club. What is it? If anyone knows, please tell me. Looks like a hard chine, probably home built,and it looks like fun.