Leaf Peeping Cruise

[SeaFaring]

Today I took my daughter out for a 2 hour cruise up the Patuxent to look at the leaves. Sadly, the colors don’t really come out, but it was spectacular.

The Johnson had some trouble with cold starts, requiring choke and probably a dozen pulls. Once warm, it took a single light pull to start. Temps were in the mid-50s. The duck hunters were out refurbishing blinds, and we even saw some swans!

I had a GPS with me and found that running against the current, we topped out at about 4.4kts and with the current at 6.6kts. I discovered that there’s a sweet spot at about 2/3 throttle. I only gave up .1-.3 kts, but presumably burned a lot less gas. This is because I don’t really have enough HP for legitimate planing speed - throttling up just pushes a bigger wake, but it does mean I have some reserve power for pushing into the wind.

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[jtrip]

Good pic's. Special time with your daughter. I have been wanting to do that here in SC. Our colors are great this year.

 

[-CN-]

Nice pictures.
Leaves are pretty much gone here already. The cold and wind here in Wisconsin took care of that.

 

[BillPlayfoot]

Leaves are gone here

 

[Stumpalump]

Awsome! This is the best time of year to boat because the air is cool but the water and air above it is still nice. Different style of boating you did there and is my favorite. I call it joy riding but some may call it cruising.