Hi everyone I hope you are all enjoying this last bastion of summer. Last weekend my half off Labor Day weekend worked out pretty good with a full boat Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have one place open for this coming Saturday, noon to 5pm, and Sunday has already been booked. I also have room this Friday as well as this coming Monday. Next weekend will most likely be the last weekend of the season, and I have spots available for both Saturday as well as Sunday, so give me a call at 508-451-0431 and save yourself a spot.
This past Monday (Labor Day) I took the Sarah Maria to the town dock in Newburyport, Where I spent the night cleaning, and organizing, as well as filling with both water as well as fuel. On Tuesday Mika the Wonder Dog and I took the Sarah Maria out to the ocean in order to calibrate the auto pilot and make sure it was working properly.
The auto pilot worked great under both power as well as all points of sail. I am happy about that since it would be really hard for me to go south without it.
The sky started turning dark and I had a scheduled 6pm bridge opening up in Amesbury, so we headed in, Mika was comfortable below deck and did not show any signs of wanting to move. I lower the sails at the tooth pick and made my way up river to just about the Ice Breaker when the storm hit. I did not know how long it would last and did not feel comfortable maneuvering around the boats in the harbor so I slowly let the wind blow me back down the river away from town. When the storm was over and as I was making my way back up river my motor died, so I had to drop anchor and figure out the problem.
With all of the tossing round of the storm I must have sucked in some bad fuel into the filter. I changed the filter, bled the system
and was off for my bridge opening.
Why do I say this all? It is part of boat ownership, you have to know your boat, have the spare parts ready to use. You should know how to deal with a storm before it happens, so the you have time to think when it does. And by the way all of you guys stuck listening to my stories, this is where they come from.
I am running Captain Ed's Sailing Basic Hands On Sailing classes at half price. these classes are going to be around 5 or 6 hours long and the price will be reduced from $150 per person to $75 per person.
We will be limiting that class size to 4 people per class so if you want to sail this weekend reserve your spot by this thursday August 28.
If you would like a Hands On Family Sailing Class the price will be Discounted from $400 for a family of 4 to $200. This is a great price, and and awesome way to spend time as a family before you all go back to your regular work and school schedules.
Remember these prices are going to last from Labor Day weekend, through the weekend of September 13 2014.
The Bella Donna will be coming out of the water shortly after that as I prepare the Sarah Maria to sail south for the winter.
If you would like to see the video that I took of the whale check out Captain Ed's Facebook Page. 
Make sure to sign up for Captain Ed's Facebook page to stay in that loop. 
If you are interested in getting in a sail this weekend give me a call at 508-451-0431 or email me at Captain Ed's Sailing
Many of you know that I have to follow the weather very closely and during the sailing season I get up in the middle of the night to check the RADAR and weather reports especially the Passage Weather site. The passage weather site is a site that we used, and found extremely accurate for the trip we made to the Virgin Islands in 2010. The passage weather site gives a seven day forecast but I think it is most accurate for a three day forecast. Pecking around the Passage weather site will give you a great idea what the weather anywhere is doing. The other site that I like to use is Maine Harbors, locally (New England) it will give an excellent report as well as tides and temperatures.
