1 of 4Sailing Casco Bay 2005

After a very wet spring and a Nor'easter I finally got the boat in the water on June 7th. No more working on the boat, time for sailing! The weather so far this summer has been fantastic (hey, we paid our dues!). There wasn't much wind for the first sail but it sure felt good to be back on the water. Someone I know who can see the harbor from his office called me to tell me I was going no where fast. That was fine with me.

First chase of the season
 A 27 footer
 Fort Scammel on House Is.
 "Ocean Venture"
 "Mary B." at her mooring

This summer has been mostly day sails so far. I love looking around for other Tanzer 22's and have seen a couple. I also like taking pictures of other boats.
Hull 00?
 Cruising fast with reefed main
 "The Crew"
 "Wendameen", Portland's newest windjammer
 Atsy-fartsy shot

I had a great sail up to Chandler's Cove one day with very brisk winds. What a rush! I went out under reefed main (first time reefed) and working jib. Got up to 6.8 knots and sailed with the rubrail in the water most of the time. I can see out the portlights from the cockpit and sometimes they were underwater too! I was a little nervous at first but became comfortable knowing the boat would heel just so much then stop. The girls have joined me on several sails and are a great crew. Good daughter-daddy time.
"Snapdragon" handily passes us (a Erikson 25+)
 The Bagheera ghosting into harbor
 Wreck visible at very low tides
 The "Fish Hawk" showing tourist the sites
 Mary and Ed heading to their mooring
I do enjoy seeing some of the tall ships we have in the harbor, especially the "Bagheera". We also have the "Wendameen" and the "Francis". A real treat was seeing the Iwo Jima coming into Portland harbor. I was just going back to the marina when she came out of the fog and rounded Spring Point light. There were three cannon shots from the East End answered by three shots from the ship. Wicked cool!
Hey, get out of my way!
 Awesome!
 Lined up for shore leave
 Sunset over the city
 Amy's impersonation of Cousin It
I have also been busy calibrating my new compass and knotmeter. Last year I was suspicious about my knotmeter reading too high. It now agrees well with my GPS when taking into account the current. My compass still has 20 degrees of error after playing with the compensation magnets. I think the keel is really throwing it off. I will play with it some more.