End of the season

What a glorious fall day!  Warm, sunny and windy. Perfect for a sail.  But the window before Haul Out is shrinking, and we couldn't put it off anymore.  Only 6 days. Having to work for a living, today was the day to take down the sails and de-mast.  Rob went down ahead of time, Alex and I went down later in the afternoon to lend a hand.

About ten salmon were in the water in front of the club by the willows, making the water look as though it were boiling with their shenanigans.  The cliffs were golden in the autumn light.

The 'last' sail this season was Thanksgiving Monday, and it was a beauty!  We had plans for more and kept the mast and sails up hoping for one last dance on the lake.  Last weekend we motored through the gap, bounced around without any wind, and turned back in again. Yesterday was rainy, and today there was just too much work to do.

It is always disappointing to take down the sails and the mast, truly the end of the season.

What a good sailing season though, great conditions.  We spent almost every weekend on the boat, sailed to the south shore and back for the August long weekend, and then venturing west, for a week at Niagara on the Lake.

Being on the water is so relaxing, it's  a different pace.  Everything slows down, even as I'm heading down the hill on Brimley to BPYC and catch that first view of blue, checking for sails on the horizon.

Maybe if I take some boating courses over the winter I won't miss it so much?  Or maybe we should just break down and splurge on a sailing vacation for the chilly dark months to lift our spirits?