Sailing Vs Motoring

If you know me my predominate mode of sailing is racing or day sailing which pretty much means the boats only get used when there is wind :)

However as we progress with Seafever as a second home and started cruising more it becomes easy to see were the does anybody sail anymore starts

From my racing experience on Long Island Sound most stuff starts in the afternoon so there is wind and are favorite is the Stratford Shoal distance race at 34 miles

Over the years i have lost count of how times many BUT we raced in 2008 2009 2010 and 2011 in conditions from


to


Taking between 6 and 8 hours to cover 34 miles THEN i had to go and start cruising

For 2012 we have done three overnight trips

TRIP ONE PORT JEFFERSON

Wicked rain and wind on Friday so we put it off 24 hours which just happens to be the 2012 Stratford Shoal race day

As we do not like to get arrive in new ports in the dark we left about 10am for a 21 mile trip :)

So after sailing off the mooring and reaching the sound the wind is still out of the east form the worst possible direction and a VMG above 3 knots is NOT gonna happen

So 23 miles into a 21 mile trip its 5 PM and we have no wind and nine miles to motor IF we ever want to reach Port Jefferson so for the first time in a long time we motor

Now its Sunday after a great stay in Port Jefferson and there is absolutely NO wind nor is any going to happen so it is a 21 mile motor home

TRIP TWO OYSTER BAY

Same deal except we decide we do not wish to motor 21 miles ever again :)

Its Friday afternoon and the trip is short enough we can wait for the wind to fill in

After sailing off the mooring the wind direction allows us to sail :) to the Oyster Bay mooring field at which point we use the motor 5 minutes and all is well

After another great evening we kill as much time as possible including walking 3 miles for breakfast and again the wind is NOT gonna happen

So we motor out a bit and are able to sail about 1/2 way home which is not what we want but as good as it was gonna get

TRIP THREE NORTHPORT To NORTHPORT

Saturday and we really do not want to motor AGAIN so we bring dinner and start late and the wind just never happens so we never even leave to mooring

After a great evening of flat calm the wind starts to blow like stink at 3 AM in the upper 20s as it woke us UP

Come Sunday we tidy up the boat its still blowing a bit and by 10 Am it is dead flat again i guess the good thing is we did not use the motor

I can only conclude if you want to travel by sail on LIS you better be lucky on the days you pick

TRIP FOUR

We had taken off August 23 and 24 for a four day weekend in which we figured we had to be able to sail at some point NOT

The wind forecast was really bad and correct so we used are plan B which was a Mount Marcy summit hike in one day and there was NOT even wind at 5400 ft