[jimmalkin]

Great tale and wondrous pictures, John, thanks - I had a bit of a winter's bash taking Taronga for a weekend jaunt from Jersey City to
Eastern Connecticut where she will be hauled for her annual 3 month spa treatment. Left on Saturday the 22nd at 0600 in 20 F (thatıs 1/4 inch farenheit) with 20 kts gusting to 30. The salt spray breaking over the bow froze into slush on deck and the windward forward lifelines began growing salt icicles. Saturday night the temperature went to 19F. Hard to climb out of the sleeping bag.

My crew (Joan had begged out due to an antipathy to freezing her ass off) and I were sporting our best gore tex and polar tech and wicking layers and we were still bloody cold. Once the sails are up and drawing, there isnıt much to do in the way of moving around to keep the circulation going. How did the square rigger sailors round the horn and sail the westerlies in the Southern Ocean with their woolen underwear and canvas jackets?

On this weekend jaunt, we only moved around to experiment. Specifically, weıd experiment with various ways to make hot water out of the kettle interesting. We found a touch of bourbon with brown sugar and lemon worked nicely and even a touch of rum with lime worked nicely. They were both interesting. After a while we forgot to go to the kettle for the hot water. Thus ended the experiments.

We got to our haul out maritime spa centre in Branford and Joan met us with the car to drive back to NY on Sunday afternoon. Had a beer and pizza on the way back at Pepe's Pizza in Fairfield (highly recommended and right off the Turnpike) * the central heating at the pizza joint was nice. The beers were nice, too.

Now I'm editing my lists of things to do on the boat while she's hauled and wishing it was March...