With obligations looming, I decided it was best to take ORION out of the water for the winter so she wouldn’t just sit on her mooring collecting barnacles.

I’m going to try to sneak in a few more afternoon outings before ORION is hauled for the winter, slated for Friday, October 18th.

We had a nice time walking around, playing baseball, and spending time on one of the beaches like we did back in 2019.

The amount of information website owner Mike McIntire had on his site was truly impressive.

It will be nice to take a back seat and concentrate on the Association’s website as well as this one.

Everybody had a great time at the historic Custom House and exploring the city of New London.

Regretfully, I have not been sailing as much as I would like to have been, mostly due to poor weather whenever I had time available (usually on Thursdays) and work commitments.

It was a repeat of last year’s event, only without the rain; it was absolutely perfect weather!

I was pretty darn relieved when I was able to get to Niantic today without incident.

It feels like I have been working on ORION for a very long time, and I originally did not plan to take on so many projects!

I know it has been almost two months since my last update, but a lot of things have been accomplished in the meantime.

Like many projects, I start out thinking something will be a quick fix or touch-up.

I also took the time to clean up the rudder blade itself since it was pretty stained with rust and grime underneath the rudder head cheeks.

I have decided to try to fix my RudderCraft rudder blade which was pretty seriously bent and twisted after I carelessly left it in the down position after a sail.

Some tasks can be done at any time, but some warm-temperature-dependent tasks such as painting need to be put on the back burner until the spring.

Just a week or so ago with ORION safe and secure in her boatshed, I took a closer look at the rudder, and boy, I’m glad I did.

I finally uploaded the final four pictures taken at the end of October during ORION’s final sail and haul-out.

We were met with winds of 10-15 knots and fairly choppy water, so I reefed the main, rolled out the jib, and blasted along at over six knots.

Although there is still a little more sailing left for this season, I think I will definitely be making more of an effort to take more photos next year.

I have been watching the track of Hurricane Lee for the past week or so, and while it seems to be passing us by quite a wide margin, we’re still supposed to be getting some significant winds tomorrow.