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Finally it's here!!! The shortest day of the year. Now the days start to get longer again. Today's sunset is at 4:30 PM here in Portland Oregon. By next Friday we are back to 4:34 PM. Can't wait for those long lazy days of summer.
I know what you mean, Dan. I always consider the Shortest Day of the Year sort of a special holiday as it starts the official countdown to the sailing season to me. (Don't ask me how many days left, I'm not that organized right now. April 1 is the first day of sailing season for me. No foolin')
I'll make sure to get out sailing today - my favorite day of the year. I anchored out last night in Mission Bay.
Come on summer!
By the way, I suppose everyone here knows it, but the solstice is at around 10 PM tonight and occurs when the sun somewhere on the Earth is directly over the tropic of Capricorn (23.5 south lattitude).
Yes, and I'm being an optimist. Actual today and tomorrow are the same sunrise and sunset. Anyways, couldn't resist. Took the sails back to the boat and rigged it up for a last day of fall sail. Here's a picture of a cold but smiling admiral.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Dan is that up by Hayden Island<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Yes, you can just make out the I-5 bridge in the background where it crosses from Washington over Hayden Island to Oregon. We got a light SE wind so we could close haul upriver and run back down. Nice little sail. Glad we did it. I was going stir crazy with all the rain we have had this month. First time we have been out this month...maybe the last. Rain coming back in tomorrow. Suppose to get colder for Christmas, maybe snow.
Out a little early from work today and decided to go for a sail. Came back with lights on around 630pm and about 38F. Only saw one motorboat out there. The normal bunch of Coast Guard & DC Harbor Police boats were not out there tonight.
I had a wonderful sailing afternoon. It was breezy and cold. This was the first day I've had the 110 out in about 9 months. It was blowing about 20 knots. I was heeling over to 45 degrees in the gusts but not quite rounding up. I threw in the first reef and sailed out the channel into the sunset. The seas were about 5 feet, steep, and rough. The boat was tossed around quite a bit but there was plenty of horsepower in the sails. I ducked spray, blasted through waves, and ran out a couple of miles. On the way back in I was hit by some big breaking waves. I was seeing boat speeds in the 7s and got knocked into a couple of near broaches. It was really fun surfing the breakers back in. I think the trick is not to fight the broach too much, but hold the tiller gently, let the boat go, and bring it back after the wave. We really made our way back in style. I was docked and ready to leave for my wife's office holiday party by 6:30 PM.
When I was in High School I had a maths teacher who was a very good amateur astronomer. He insisted there was no such thing as "the shortest day" as they all had 24 hours! He called the winter solstice "the day with the fewest hours of daylight"...I guess "shortest day" is a lot easier to say.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I guess "shortest day" is a lot easier to say <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Or maybe longest night?
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.