[bmcald]

Jeff,

Thanks for the tale of the first sail. 28 miles in 3 hours! You have to tell us more about Synergy (LOA, beam, draft, etc etc--and do you have photos online here or somewhere?)

My last sail of the season was Jan 4, so I''m not feeling as much cabin fever as usual at this time. Plus there has been so much ice on Long Island this winter that ice boating has been possible nearly straight through from early Jan until about two weeks ago. The entire Great South Bay was frozen.

My home office overlooks a creek to the bay and I saw the last ghostlike sheet of ice slip out with the tide, and then come back up the creek with the wind, but much reduced, and finally gone all together. Now the ducks and geese are carrying on with mating rituals. One very content looking male hooded merganser is steaming along amid a flock of a dozen females right now.

I''m lining up the chores and looking forward to launching in a few weeks.

Cheers,
Bruce