In July, my wife Marty and I spent one of the most enjoyable long weekends ever aboard our "Cruising Tempest." A "Cruising Tempest," by the way, is a Tempest with several pieces of non-regulation gear: 

· Ice Chest: A large foam-insulated picnic-type lashed down starboard side forward while sailing and placed in the rear cockpit while at anchor. 

· Stove: Two-burner fold up sterno placed on a wood board for insulation. 

· Boom Tent: A standard 9’ by 12’ grommetted tarpaulin is an excellent tent. The tarp is placed over the boom and lashed down to the spinnaker sheets. The boom is then raised as far as possible on both ends. Complete sitting room results. 

· Sleeping bags. 

· Anchor: 8 lb. Danforth with chain, placed forward of the mast. 

· Running lights: Red and green battery-operated lights lashed forward of the headstay and a single white light tied onto the rear end of the tiller. These are modified bicycle lights and available at J. Bliss and other fine stores. 

· Box of batteries: The batteries don’t last too long. 

· Safety lights and whistles: Attached to life jackets for night sailing. These were single battery lights with switches ... not too reliable so we added the whistles. 

· Life lines: A 7' long ˝" line with a heavy hook on end, tied around waist and then hooked to some line on the boat.

· Charts, Parallel Rule, Pencil, etc. 

· Cruising Guide to the New England Coast by Duncan and Waite. Published by Dodd, Mead, and Co., Inc. 

· First Aid Kit: 1 Quart Mount Gay Rum.

We had planned to leave after work Thursday but were slightly delayed due to YMCA camp graduation. Finally, complete with life jackets, lights, and whistles, we pulled away from the Noroton Yacht Club at 1 a.m. Friday. 

It was a truly beautiful, clear, moonlit night with a 10–12 knot northerly; no sea, no power boat chop. A little cool, but we were dressed for it. We sailed east with no particular destination in mind. After three hours of idyllic sailing, the "Great Sleep" came upon us and we headed north up into Black Rock Harbor (just west of Bridgeport). At 5 a.m. we anchored (without tent), moved the ice chest, and slept. We had covered 17 miles in 4 hours (averaging 4.25 knots) against the tide. 

At 9 a.m. the sun was bathing our sleeping bags and took away any remaining chill from the night before. A healthy swig from the Mount Gay bottle took the place of toothbrushing (remember the toothbrush was somewhat inaccessible) and orange juice. Marty had made "instant" breakfast consisting of hard boiled eggs, roast beef sandwiches, and hot black coffee (from a thermos). Our fold up stove stayed folded up. 

The northerly held and varied between 8 and 12 knots. We continued our eastward sail on a fair tide across the mouth of Bridgeport Harbor toward Stratford Point. On the west side of Stratford Point ("Point No Point") we became too interested in some beach houses and ran aground. As the tide was ebbing, this was a small panic. However, my jumping overboard lightened the load enough so we could push it off. (You’ll never do that on your 40-footer!!) 

With the wind abeam and a fair tide we made 24 miles in 4 hours (6 knots average) and reached Pine Orchard Harbor at 2 p.m. This is just east of Branford and inside the Thimble Islands. The Cruising Guide described the Pine Orchard Club as "the only club on Long Island Sound that has everything" ... an apt description! After some difficulty in persuading the authorities that this was a legitimate cruising yacht from the Noroton Yacht Club, they were very hospitable, gave us a mooring and use of the club facilities, and allowed us dinner ashore. (Our sterno cans are still intact.) We spent an uneventful night under our tent, awoke, had another instant breakfast complete with Mount Gay (we never did find the toothbrushes) and coffee (we refilled the thermos the night before). 

We left the mooring at 10 a.m. Saturday to begin our 40-mile sail home. The wind was northerly, had lightened to 5–8 knots. We had a pleasant morning sail under spinnaker until it died altogether outside New Haven Harbor about noontime. The hot sun eventually kicked up a thermal southwesterly which pulled us along to the entrance to Southport Harbor at 3 p.m. There, we "hove to" for a swim and continued into the harbor. The Pequot Y.C. launchman put us on a fore-aft mooring in this beautiful river harbor. Having been so successful with leaving our sterno stove unused, we walked a couple of miles to the Westport Steak and Brew for dinner, then retired to listen to the Pequot River traffic all night. 

On Sunday, we tacked out of this narrow river, running aground again in the process, sailed the remaining 13 miles home against a light southwesterly, and arrived in time to see (but not quite reach) the start of the Sunday Tempest Race. 

Conclusion — We had a great time! More fun than we would have had on a larger, more luxurious cruiser. The Tempest is an excellent boat for cruising. It is fast. We covered 81 miles in 17 hours: an average of 4.8 knots overall in a variety of wind and tide conditions. Our guess is that the 22-foot Tempest will sail with the average 36–38 foot cruising boat. 

There is no engine aboard, of course, but the boat will move in the slightest breeze and you always have the paddle. To get around the auxiliary, do not plan definite itineraries and try to have an alternate plan in case the wind dies and you can’t get home Sunday night. (Such as: leave the boat and take the train home or call the boss and take a week off, etc.) As for the drop® head, we’ll leave that to your imagination.