We arrived in Niantic without incident, and I was happy to have my father help me step the mast in the launch ramp parking lot.

Fortunately, her topsides and deck are still in excellent condition, but she needed a new coat of bottom paint, bootstripe, and maintenance varnish on her coaming tops and hatchboard slides.

I began the process at the beginning of January, and while it all went relatively quickly, it was incredibly involved with many hoops to jump through.

While the factory itself has changed considerably since O’Day left, the tall, narrow windows facing the street were instantly recognizable as I approached.

While we have been calling it various names during the year - shed, new shed, farmstand - it is, at least from November to April, “The Boatshed.”

Everything went extremely smoothly, and I’m happy to have her safe on the hard before the weather gets too cold and blustery.

The foliage was absolutely beautiful, and I ended up sailing as far north as I could toward the area called Golden Spur.

One by one, boats are disappearing from the mooring field, but I have been able to take advantage of some fair weather days to enjoy ORION for a little bit longer.

Let me tell you - I was absolutely blown away. It is an incredibly generous gift, and I can't thank everyone enough.

They include some photos from an afternoon with a friend, a sail up the river to go swimming with my son, a couple from the Rendezvous, and a couple from today.

I just finished an article detailing the events of the 2021 Rendezvous to Mystic Seaport, and you can click here to read it. You can also navigate over to the Published Articles page to read more articles about past events.

While the wind and rain had abated and there was still daylight left, my father and I plopped ORION back in the water and I motored over to her mooring.

We strapped her to the trailer, made sure her seacocks were open, closed and locked the cabin, and wished her the best.

A bunch of sailors have contributed to an enormous Google Photo Album which now contains 373 fantastic pictures of the weekend.

A few more pictures have been added to the Sailing 2021 page after a great sail today.

Even though Niantic has not been hit very hard at all by this storm, I’m glad we took advance precautions.

I sold all my copies from the first printing, and I’m awfully happy to have more in stock.

I added six new pictures to the album after a couple of great sailing days.

After an absolutely fantastic first sail yesterday, I posted some pictures to begin the new 2021 Sailing Page.

Fortunately, the tide was high enough that we were able to launch her from my parents’ beach.