Plan to sail - Niantic to Sheffield Islands. Twenty-five knots from the East. This means big fetch. While Michael happily futzed with polled out jib, sheeted the happy sail through the end of boom and put two reefs in mainsail,…

We are thrilled to acknowledge Ethan as our youngest sailor yet! Ethan, who is five or six (we can’t remember) was kind enough to have a mooring set up for us in Niantic. We felt like royalty when the launch…

June 29-30 Mamaroneck, NY to Jamestown, RI Joshua and I loaded Dirty with a week's provisions and readied Gerty for our 6:00pm departure. The sun has set and now i’m on my first night watch. Ever. I figured I better write…

If I am walking down the street and I see someone wearing the same shirt that I’m wearing, I don’t think, “We have the same taste in shirts, therefore we could be friends.” Perhaps if I order the same chicken…

You know how when your kid is born, you love them, but you don’t know them? Quickly they develop personality traits, idiosyncrasies and physical characteristics so that you can not only identify them from a mile away, but so that…

Michael told me last night that summer starts June 21st. Bullshit! Summer is my favorite season of the year and I consider myself an expert at recognizing the starting signals. The excruciatingly high pitched tone of the ice- cream truck…

Teenagers and grandparents galore for a Saturday morning sail on June 9th. The crew: Grandma E (pretty in traditional blue and white sailing style), Zachary (backward baseball cap, Georgetown tank top, Joshua (reflective sunglasses-too cool), nephew Nathaniel (clean cut Cornell…

We don’t know many sailors. Our hometown isn’t landlocked, but in the Hudson River Towns you’re more likely to meet kayakers, soccer parents, bikers, skiers and pilates lovers. So I was pleasantly surprised when my long time friend Lori called…

My worry was really building as the week days passed by. To my surprise, it was none of the traditional sailing fears that were surfacing; what if Michael falls off the boat?, What if we hit a whale?, and so…

Mid fifties and raining, but still fun on mother's day.  Once we realized we could put up the bimini, it was even more pleasant! Plus, we are still psyched from our first squall on Gerty last week.  35+kts frontal wind…

Last night, Saturday April 29th we had our first local guests aboard. Maxine, Michael, Kathryn and Rob were terrific crew! The wind was easy breezy blowing at 10 knots from the South on a calm sea. We hit the Connecticut…

After using our new asymmetrical spinnaker for about three hours, we had one significant issue.  The flip-flop block at the top of the mast sawed through the spinnaker line.  Another hour of sailing and I think the sail would have…