Second Season Start

Splashdown

Peregrine splashed at 8 AM on Friday, April 26th. It’s nerve wracking to see the boat hanging in the slings. This is only overpowered by the suspense of seeing if the boat has sprung a leak during the winter when it’s dropped in the water. Thankfully, everything went fine.

Even better, the engine started on the first try!

Back to Port Washington

The next day, my dad and his brother (my uncle) joined me to take Peregrine from Jersey City back to Port Washington. While the weather wasn’t as sunny and warm as last Fall’s trip to Jersey City, we still had fine weather and a great trip. What struck me about this trip was the significant decrease in anxiety compared to the Fall trip. This was due to a couple reasons:

1. I had already done the trip.
2. There’s no docking or dock-related unknowns in Port Washington (I just had to find a mooring).
3. I had a seasoned sailor with me.

We had trouble raising the jib due to the roller furler halyard swivel getting stuck during hoisting. I was also unable to get my mini-chart plotter thing to start which meant that we had no depth sounder. Nevertheless, we made great time with the tides pulling us through Hell Gate. Some friends who live way up in a high rise in Hunters Point even snapped a picture of us as we cruised along up the East River.

When we got to Port Washington, my dad hoisted me up the forestay to check out what the halyard swivel was getting stuck on. It turned out we just needed to force it a bit and we were able to raise it. Still, there’s clearly some issues with the swivel which will surely not fix themseleves…

After the forestay, my dad (again!) hoisted me up the mast to replace a spreader boot that had fallen off at the end of last season.

Family Sail

The following day was a beautiful Sunday, and my wife, kid, and parents all went down to the boat. We tested out the sails for the first time and got the chart plotter working. With solid wind, we decided to try to actually sail somewhere. The closest island to Port Washington is Hart Island. Hart Island is anything but fun. Wikipedia puts it best:

…Hart Island has been the location of a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter’s field used for both individual and mass burials, a homeless shelter, a boys’ reformatory and workhouse, a jail, and a drug rehabilitation center.

Most recently, Hart Island was where a number of COVID victims were buried when the city’s mortuaries were overwhelmed.

What a lovely island to circumnavigate for the first sail of the season, right?

It was unclear when we set out whether it was actually possible to sail around the whole island. There are a number of rocks and other sorts of obstructions along the way. Nevertheless, we managed to make our way around without running aground. The far side of Hart Island also finally gave me a full view of Orchard Beach which I had first seen last season.