Last Thursday, I took ORION for her final sail of the year. It was a beautiful, sunny day with steady winds and warm temperatures, and while I had originally planned just to stay in the Niantic River, I had the feeling ORION wanted to stretch her legs one last time out in the Bay. With an outgoing current, we slipped right through the bridges and were met with winds of 10-15 knots and fairly choppy water, so I reefed the main, rolled out the jib, and blasted along at over six knots.
I didn’t really have any particular destination, but the southwest winds were perfect for a sail out to Bartlett Reef and back. Averaging over six knots, we made the three mile trip in about a half hour. From the Bartlett Reef horn, I was able to view all the familiar landmarks - the Connecticut River to the west, Giant’s Neck, Harkness Park, Ocean Beach, the Thames River, Groton Long Point, Fisher’s Island, and all the places in between. I felt like ORION wanted to bid farewell to them until the next sailing season, and I’m glad we ventured out into the Bay.
Turning around at the horn, we sailed over to the Niantic Bay Yacht Club. All the boats were gone except a single transient sailboat riding on a mooring. The wind started to die, so I shook out the reef and sailed back to the bridges, taking the mainsail down just before the channel markers and rolling up the jib. I called the Railroad Bridge, thanked them for another year, and motored back to ORION’s mooring. Once there, I unshipped the rudder and removed the mainsail and boom in preparation for ORION to be hauled the following day.
Take a look at a new photo album here of ORION’s last sail for the season.