Afternoon Sail

David and I met Skipper THom, Jim and Sam for an afternoon sail ahead of the Parade of Boats, I arrived at the boat about 30 minutes behind schedule, the rest of the crew was waiting patiently. They had corrected a sagging bumper  that had resulted in a large blue mark on the hull where it had rubbed.

I had left the DC power on to run the various alarms and they had flattened the battery, we hooked up to shore power for about 30 minutes and recharged enough to get the engine started. While we were waiting a pair of dolpins swam by the boat. Our departure this afternoon was much smoother than our arrival in spite of the current and we were soon motoring out of the marina.

The wind was perfect and once we had the sails trimmed we were cruising at 7+ knots with about 15 knots of wind. Everyone but David took a turn at the helm as we made a quick circle of the bay. We saw a few early Christmas boat parade participants out and by the time we returned to the marina things were starting to get busy.

Our slip neighbor helped tend lines while we eased into the slip and tied in. On the way out of the marina the cars were packed in everywhere, I haven't  seen the marina this crowded since last Charleston Race Week.