Al was looking for crew, for a short afternoon sail, just to get out on the water. Of course, I jumped at the chance to sail on s/v Charlotte, and enjoy a few hours on the water. I've known Al for years, as one of the experienced CYC racers, and sailed with him only once, back on Chris's C&C34 Carmanah.

Charlotte is a Quest 30, a Roger Martin mini ocean racer, with more sail area than my boat, and weighs about as much as my keel, a good choice for a light air day! Al keeps wrapped in black plastic like an Americas Cup secret, slick. Al brought his friend Clifford, a retired NASA scientist, with lots of interesting early space stories - what a delightful treat!

Pretty flat conditions, and I think we may have hit 4 knots of boatspeed, with the chute up, briefly. We had a sweet sail down around West Point, and most of the way back before, calling it a good day, and motoring home. Nice to be out there. . . Thanks Guys!
(Click on a image below for a larger image "slide show" - arrow keys work well.)