Tag: sailing

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Photo of a NYC Halloween Voter sticker with a drawing of a pigeon wearing a witch's hat carrying a jack-o-lantern candy pumpkin in its beak. Silhouettes of bats and a witch also appear. The text reads "HALLOWEEN VOTER 2025". There are also small white ghosts and Vote NYC logos.

Voted early again this year but didn’t make the rookie mistake of not voting on Halloween this time. Sure, they give stickers to all voters, but none can match the cool factor of the coveted Halloween sticker!

I realized that it was a year ago this week when I loaded my former sailboat on a trailer. While I miss sailing as frequently as I did when i had my own boat, it was wonderful not having to think about hauling a boat out this fall.

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Photo of a blue sailboat named Fury being moved in a boat yard.

Spent some time this weekend splashing a friend’s boat. Instead of sailing, we cleaned. Power washing is almost as fun as sailing though. This might be one of the prettiest project boats I’ve seen. She’s going to be gorgeous next season, and a hear a new name is coming as well.

Also spent some quality time with a wood fired pizza oven, which inspired me to make some more pizzas at home. We don’t have space for a wood fired oven, but I think we can turn out some quality pizzas in our kitchen.

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Went for a sail in a buddy’s boat on Long Island Sound this week. It was a somewhat late shake-out sail. While smooth sailing is far from guaranteed on the first sail of the season, nothing broke or fell apart on this voyage. In fact, it was a lovely sail. We got back in time to watch the afternoon thunderstorms roll through from the deck of a local yacht club. This was followed by some home pizza making, good conversation, and a just a couple sips of wine.

The following day, I went for another sail (lucky me). This time in New York Harbor was much more spirited with a gusty 15 knot wind and accompanying chop. It ended up being a short sail due in part to my own schedule. We did manage to have a quick beer after, which is almost mandatory.

While we were having that beer, I noticed that almost all the serving items in use at this busy restaurant were disposable. Cups, glasses, plates, napkins, all used just once then bound for the landfill. This seems both unnecessary and irresponsible. Perhaps the cost of these plastic and paper goods plus the disposal fees are slightly cheaper than proper dishes and the staff required to clean them. However, I expect better, especially from an establishment located in a park with a mission statement touting “…innovative, and sustainable management and design.”

I won’t return to this place, nor any other that needlessly uses so many single-use items for dine-in service. They won’t miss me, but there will be one or two fewer plastic cups carted off to the landfill or becoming litter on my behalf.

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SailGP is on this weekend. We were fortunate to have a view of Saturday’s racing action from the (covered) comfort of the Adrenaline Lounge. Light winds, heavy rain and a strong current made for challenging racing conditions. It seems like those boats spread out a lot more when the wind is light, perhaps because falling off the foils kills their momentum and it takes time to start flying again. When the boats are all over the course, there aren’t as many contentious mark roundings and finishes, which are the crowd favorites. Even with the rain, it was a great time. I hope today’s race sees better conditions though.

There are another handful of AI related links below. One of which is an example of a corporation using these tools the right way (AI documents the legacy system, humans write the new system). Denis Defreyne writes, more eloquently, about some of the same AI thoughts I did last week. He mentions his employer’s mandate to use AI, which doesn’t seem uncommon these days. These mandates seem like an effort to force the x% savings their tech leadership promised AI would bring.

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The weather is getting warmer here in the northeast; sailing season is imminent. People ask if I’m getting ready to put the boat in the water. When they learn that it was sold, their next question is “do you miss it?” My consistent answer is “nope, well, not yet anyway”. It’s complicated.

As a non-boat owning sailor, in April, my thoughts would be on the upcoming season and, maybe, racing. As a boat owner, this is the time to figure out when the requisite, pre-splash work will get done. The clock is ticking and the erratic spring weather can render a well-planned day off useless for outdoor activities like painting. Inevitably, time gets tight and any projects that can happen on the water are postponed (sometimes longer than expected).

All that work happens for a reason though. The thing that keeps a sailor going while sanding, engulfed by a toxic cloud of bottom paint dust, is the promise of the season ahead. Great times and stories are almost guaranteed, and there will be at least a couple, true champagne sails. Is this made just a bit sweeter by having to work for it? Ask me after this season.

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