Leah suggested that we go out for an evening sail. Quite surprised that she would suggest sailing. So off we went.
Bit of breeze, Force 3. Not wanting to have the boat heel too much or be too exciting, suggested that we sail with a single reef. She agreed, and we did. Doing so kept the angle of head down to fifteen degrees or so.
Sailed out past Y "A" on port making a bit over five knots. Light helm, well trimmed. Leah thinks the new mail from Interrupt looks wonderful. Quite pleased to hear that.
Spent some time learning to spot light buoys and read the lights on various boats around us. The unilluminated buoys are rather hard to see. Given the difficulty of finding illuminated buoys against the background of shore lighting, its clear why one should enter new ports or anchorages before dark.
Tacked over to starboard. Again the helm was loaded up. Finally figured out that I was so mistrimmed that I was excessively loading the helm. When I was able to trim properly, the helm became light and quite easy to handle. Seemed to be tied to sailing a bit farther off the wind on starboard tack than on port. Need to try recalibrating the wind instrument.
Returned to Annpolis honoring Y "A" in addition to R "4". Y "A" was hard enough to find, finding R "4" in the jumble of lights on the shore was tough enough that it was good to have used Y "A" as a guideon. Even so, had to get surprising close to R "4" for it to stand out clearly among the clutter. Expect that practice sailing at night would improve my ability to pick out the buoys from the short lights. Red are more difficult due to the automotive brake lights and other red lights ashore. G "9" is the last illuminated buoy when entering Annapolis.
Confirmed that the boat left to herself, with the main single reefed and sheeted in hard with the genoa rolled away, will slowly tack making about one knot of headway. Without the main up, the boat will turn about broadside to the wind.