Jonathan's "Kerrie Lynne II"

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The forecast for Friday was for perfect sailing weather. Sunny, eighty one and winds five to ten knots. Moreover, the effects of a tropical storm was supposed to be felt later in the weekend. So, I took the day off. Boy, what a good command decision. This may have been the best day I've had yet on the water. Almost the entire day was spent under sail. At the end of the day, I did motor back to my slip but that only allowed me to maximize my time under sail.

First, I checked out depths through various openings under the West Norfolk bridge and decided that any of them on the northern half of the bridge were suitable for passage (all have over eight feet of depth at low tide). I sailed around for about half an hour in the Western Branch and then sailed under the West Norfolk Bridge and headed north towards Craney Island. My plan was to sail past the island and into the James, maybe as far west as the Monitor Merrimack Interstate 664 tunnel. However, the winds were southerly until about 2:30 PM when they became northerly. This meant I was either doing downwind sailing - not a particularly fast point of sail or tacking to go upwind - actually enjoyed the tacking much more. Because of the winds I only made it to the edge of Craney Island, I never did make it to the James.

Getting ready to sail under the West Norfolk Bridge under full sail.

The Main Sail

A tug passes by. Whenever anything large came by, and there were a lot of ships, I made sure I was out of the shipping channel!

Coal piers at Lamberts Point.

I fashioned a makeshift gen-pole out of my boat hook for downwind sailing. Sailing wing-and-wing. Just approaching the ODU sailing center here.

The ODU sailing center where I took sailing lessons two years ago. On the way back in the evening, I saw the fleet was out on the ramp with sails up, I guess class was getting ready to get started.