Today we finished most of the winterizing tasks for the boat. This mostly consists of running non-toxic antifreeze through all of the systems that use water. For Silence, this is about a 7 hour job, but I got some of the work done last Thursday.

We also take stuff off the boat that won't make it through the winter: beverages, food, the cockpit table, and anything else that can easily come home. You know the season is really over when the alchohol comes home...

A quick follow up on our Labor Day incident: we've had estimates for the repairs, and the insurance company has settled the claim (less our deductible). The insurance people didn't pursue the responsible parties, and we don't have the time to pursue them ourselves, so the culprits are going to skate on this one. The repair work is scheduled for this month.

In other news, our marina in Back Creek has notified us that they are raising our rates by 42%, so we will be moving on come spring. It will be sad to leave the creek that we've been calling home for 14 years, but we are being priced out of the market. Too many boats and not enough slips have driven up the cost of being in Annapolis.

We'll probably end up keeping Silence on the West River, or perhaps the Magothy. My winter pastime will be looking at marinas in the area to find a new home port.

We sailed our last sail of the season yesterday. It was a perfect day, with 70 degrees, plenty of sunshine and plenty of wind (15 knots from the SW). Silence stormed out of the harbor on a starboard beam reach, then we hardened up and worked our way down to Thomas Point Light. We sailed rail-down for an hour or so. Then we tacked over to port and sailed easily back into the Severn River, up to the Naval Academy where the 150 year old Constellation was temporarily berthed. The sun was low in the sky, backlighting her rigging and glinting off the water.

Finally, we struck and lowered the sails, to be folded and stored for the winter below decks. Back at the dock, we made a toast to a great sailing season, and appealed to the sailing gods for a short winter.