On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 22:12:11 -0400, prodigal1 wrote:

okay is it just me, or is this not the most depressing time of the year?

Well, not for me, it hasn't been. I sail out of Toronto and just had a
great week of sailing down to Belleville and back with overnights at
Cobourg. The weather for the first three days was amazing and in the
mid 20s (80F) but we saw no sailboats out on Lake Ontario. Then a
front moved in, it ****ed rain and got down to 5 C (40 F) at night and
12 C (54F) in the day, but with an unusually persistant NNE-NE strong
breeze of 25 knots or so.

So we rode that puppy home until it died. Two metre or better waves
are easier to take if they're following, I'll tell you. But we hit
hull speed and better with a No. 3 and a full main secured with my
newly made up preventers. Funnily, we saw more boats out in the cold,
stiff breeze than in the much warmer, but patchy, air of earlier in
the week.

Biggest issues? Condensation when it ****ed down black sheets of rain
all day Friday and made the boat a little drippy inside, and a snapped
pin on the topping lift. The rolly seas (for Lake Ontario) were a
challenge in the galley until we got sail up, and I need to consider a
PCV kit for my rebuilt Atomic 4, which otherwise drove the boat
superbly when we had a canal to transverse or a stretch of calm.

The solution to the October sailing blues in northern latitudes is to
sail in October. We haul out Oct. 21 here. I plan to sail until about
the 18th or so, then haul the mast.

R.