sail #12

Today felt like the day that the real cold of winter left us for the season.  Something about the height of the suns track in the sky and the warmth of the ground all seems to point to the end of a very long winter.
I set out on my 12th sail of the winter season today.  I made a triangular course of the bay, starboard tack, then port, then downwind.  The wind was out of the south, against the ebbing tide and it had quite a long fetch to build up the waves that made it a bouncy raucous sail.  I sometimes hear people talk about sailing and say how peaceful and quite it is.  I always wonder what their sailing must be like and what they might think of a sail with me.  Though I do find the sound of being under way comforting, I do not find it quite.  In fact I very much like the sound of sailing and have a strong association to those various sounds of a boat underway.
There is of course the sound of the hull making it's way thru the water.  That can have many different qualities depending on the day and conditions.  There is also the sound of the wind passing thru the rigging and past my ears.  Then there is the boat.  The boat is never quite, and the hull seems to amplify any sounds made in the rigging or from gear shifting or from the water as it passes by or pushes against it.
Today's sail was with the working jib alone and I did get it to tack easily enough.  The wind was probably about 12-15knots and there were lots of waves swelling and breaking because of the contrary tide.  It all made for great fun.
I have to say that the addition of a bit of shock cord to the tiller and run to each gunwale has made the steering of the boat so much less squirrelly. I sometimes just have the shock cord friction against the tiller and other times take  turn around the tiller.  With this set up I can get away from it to tend to the boat for a few moments with out the boat immediately heading up or off.  I can, when the sail is trimmed right and the heading is right, sometimes walk forward and leave the tiller all together with this set up.
Only 2 and a half weeks left of the winter slip rental.  Still undecided about taking a slip for the summer but I am leaning away from it.  It just seems a bit much to spend on larking around on the river, especially considering that I can now trailer my boat.
Still nice to have the river to myself.  This won't last much longer now that the season has turned, I am sure.