Hi Gerry, Burt here in Surry, Maine. Where are you in New England? We've not sailed much in southern Maine, but around midcoast: Penobscot Bay, Union River Bay, Eggemoggin Reach, etc: A good rule: sun means wind, wind means waves. Dead calm in morning at times, then waves steep and fast in late afternoon, then dead calm again. Waves are not tall, but steep. Currents are a BIG issue with the river currents and tides. Met a guy in Bucksport who was in a Monty 17 at the dock--and he was scared...he had lost his anchor as the current was going so fast that he didn't have time to tie off the line when coming down from Bangor..He learned a lesson to tie off first. Anyway, we gave him an anchor and line so he would be safe with his son. Anyway, fantastic sailing here but have a chart, as we have ledge outcroppings, not sandbars in many places. And we have mudflats..... Burt On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 8:50 PM Gerry Lempicki via montgomery_boats < montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
The stories you all are telling of hapless sailors are funny...or not, really. But it doesn't surprise me; we've entered an age of instant gratification. People want to go do something but not necessarily put the time into it to learn properly. One thing that really gets me these days is how everyone gets taught to study in order to pass a test, but not really learn the material. Sorry, I'm going on a rant here. LOL My problem is that I over research things; although that's how I ended up with an M17 for our first sailboat, so it can't be all bad. :) We're very happy the way things have turned out this summer; we've gotten a ton of sailing time on our reservoir. Last week was the first time we felt the need to reef, so we put one in before sailing off the mooring. It turned out to be a perfect lesson in how reefing works; we sailed when no one else was, and midday we were able to shake it out and continue on. Now we need to find a ride on the ocean off New England to see what we think about ocean sailing.I have 2 weeks off starting today, so tomorrow we go to finish up the new traveler installation. The traveler is all mounted, but we need to put on the blocks and eye straps used to position it. That will definitely smooth out setting the main.