The other times that my wife and I have brought our kid to the boat, it’s been… difficult. The kid gets bored on the train, doesn’t like wearing his life jacket, wants to get off the boat the moment he gets on, and so on. Today was… different! We had a great train ride, there were no life jacket complaints, the kid was fairly occupied while sailing, and he even fell asleep on my wife for almost an hour.
On top of a happy kid, we had wind! The wind wasn’t consistent, and it wasn’t super strong, but it was there. Occasionally it gusted to around 12 knots. We sailed! And got decent speed at times. As opposed to the hazy days we’ve had in the past, the NYC skyline was crystal clear.
NYC skyline from Manhasset Bay. The Whitestone bridge is on left.
We also saw an old schooner of some sort. The kid was very excited to see a real live pirate ship.
We made it to Execution Rock and then turned around. The boat is still motoring too slowly, which bothers me, and I had even more issues shifting to forward from neutral. The GPS also kept turning off, but it looks like the contacts are just a little corroded which seems solvable.
Execution Rock
On the way back, the wind was light, we were sailing downwind, and I accidentally jibed. The mainsheet hit me in the back of the head, knocking my eyebrow into the GPS mounted on the pedestal. My hat that I had bought the day I bought the boat fell into the water. My wife encouraged me to try to get it, but I was single-handing the boat and assumed the hat was going to sink. It didn’t, though. The navy colored brim was hard to see but made the whole hat float. I grabbed a boat hook, swung the boat around, and managed to rescue the hat. This was a good reminder to be careful about jibing and watch out for the damn main sheet that’s too close to the wheel!