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Waking up to the lapping of water on the hull before sunrise is an unbeatable combination. I sleepily got up and started hot water to boiling for tea and hot chocolate and then took my camera up on deck and took some pictures of the sunrise…. truly gorgeous.. After sitting in the cockpit and watching the sun come up while sipping on a cup of hot chocolate we got moving and put the jib and mainsail on the roller furler and boom respectively. Well I intended to go sailing saturday but one thing after another ate up the whole day as I made my way to the boat. We finally got out of the marina about 5 pm and I realized that the battery was dead. We were planning on anchoring out for the night so this was a bit serious… no anchor light no depth gauges no lights inside or running lights.. So we turned right around and redocked. I drug out the charger but when I started to charge the battery the charger kept giving a F01 error and wouldn’t charge it. Sunday I pulled the sails off of the boat and took them over to richards house and we sewed up some seams that were pulling apart on the jib sun cover on the leech and repaired a batten pocket that had worn a hole in it on the main. The next day or so we started to hear about Ernesto so I didn’t bother putting the sails back on the boat. Just waited till after the storm.. Luckly Ernesto came and went with not much effect.. by the time it got here it was 40 mph winds and lots of rain. 🙂 I like this sort of storm!! Well we took Sea Puppy out racing today.. I thought I was going to be the race committe today but Chapel and her husband were in town and volunteered to do it. 🙂 so I got to race Sea Puppy. I was supposed to have lots of crew and most of them ended up not showing up. Miriam was the only one left with me when we left the dock and because of her surgery she couldn’t help sail… It was looking more like a casual solo race for me than anything really competitive. Once we got out there though we took aboard Richard off the committe boat. He had helped Chapel and husband as well as her niece and friend get the committe boat out and the course set prior to the race. Chapels niece and friend were starting to get sea sick on the committe boat which was anchored so I took them onboard also ( the perked up after getting moving again.) Again I was supposed to have a full boat.. I had invited some friends out and they called saturday evening and canceled. Then I invited my neighboor and his wife that have the slip next to me to go out and they said yes but canceled at the last minute. I ended going out with Mark a newer member of the club that was at breakfast. We put sails up just outside the intrance to the marina and sailed the five miles down the waterway to the inlet and onto the ocean. Winds on the ocean were running 15 to 18 through early afternoon and then picked up to 20 to 22 mid afternoon when we were headed back in. Once out on the ocean we headed torward southport and ran about 6 or 7 miles up the coastline and then back. I got up this morning after spending the night on Sea Puppy in her slip and stuck my head out. It was still early though light. There was no breeze at all and the water in the marina was like glass. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots.. Here are a couple that I particularly liked. Well I was supposed to have a full boat today.. but everyone cancelled out on me. So I went out by myself 🙂 All the work I have put in changing the running rigging and controlls is really paying off. Sea Puppy is now very easy to single hand. The wind was blowing around 10 to 12 knots off the coast and the seas were minimal at about 1 to 2 feet. I sailed for a little while then came in and anchored out with LC Marie and Lickety Split… We spent the afternoon scrubbing our boats bottoms and hanging out. Nice time… I installed a new cam cleat on the starboard cabin top for the new topping lift I installed in the mast. I used it this weekend sailing and it works like a champ. I also replaced the old cam cleat on the port side cabin top. It was getting old and the bearings in it were crumbling away. It was not easy installing the new one on starboard.. I couldn’t reach where the bolts came down through the cabin top. It was several inches up under the fiberglass headliner. In the end I drilled a couple 5/8ths inch holes through the headliner to get the nuts on the bolts coming down from above. The replacement one on port was also difficult to get to the nuts on it because of the headliner.. However I was able to flex it down and use a needle nose pair of vise grips to grab them and then unscrew the bolt from above.. Time to install starboard one 1.5 hours… it was a bear even with the holes in the headliner.. Time to replace port one about 20 minutes.. though not easy it went in quickly. I bedded both of them with 3M 4200. Oh and in case you are wondering the one on port is used for the spinnaker pole lift.
Oh my, my, my… what a beautifull day.. I woke up about 7am to 69 degree air and blue blue skies. It felt good. I got working and got the roller furling finished and the stantion base replaced between waking up and just after breakfast. See last post for that story. I invited Mike and Cary to go sailing with me and Hans but Carey had vehicle issues and Mike was getting ready to leave the country for work. So it was just me and Hans… The forcast was for 15 to 20 knots of wind and around 4ft seas.. what we got were 12 to 14 knots of wind and maybe 2ft seas.. We had a great time. The roller furling worked great.. the smaller furling line plus the new hardware to handle it worked increadably well. There was no snarled up line at the furling drum and the sail went in and out with ease. We were out for around 6 hours. 🙂 what a nice day.. the temp was in the mid 80’s and the wind was blowing.. lots of high fluffy clouds that gave some shade throughout the day. I got back in from anchoring out this morning and went to breakfast with other members of the sailing club. I planned to get up with hans and go sailing. After breakfast I went down to the boat and started putting the fairleads on the stantions on the port side of sea puppy and also the turning block with cam cleat attached to the toerail on port to secure the furling line…. Hans showed up about then and sat down on the dock as I got the two fairleads on and the small stantion mounted block roughly mounted.. About then the clouds which had been closing in all morning started to mist rain over us. Gradually increasing to a heavier steady rain. Hans had big golf umbrela he put up and I rigged the umbrella I keep on the boat to the main sheet and boom so I could sit in the hatch and stay dry. We sat and talked and watched the ran come down over the marina for a couple hours. 🙂 another cup of hot chocolate went down nicely as well as we sat there. I got down to the boat about 7:30 or 8:00 pm and it was still light out. So just spur of the moment I decided to motor out to waities island and anchor out for the evening. One of those deep seated needs/desires of mine is to do this sort of thing. Only I always seem to just end up doing the day trips going out and sailing. When I invite people out they always need to be back to make that date in the evening or take care of the dogs or any one of a thousand things that people are responcible for. I understand it and even have my things that I have to go do in lieu of hanging out on the boat sometimes, but this evening I didn’t have anything and there was no one else to worry about. Talk about that feeling of ultimate freedom.. Well this morning before going to breakfast I rigged up the lazy jacks and tested them out.. No pictures yet but I think they will be a big help… one thing I don’t like is that with them on you can’t get a neat flake on the boom.. however they do mostly contain the sail to get it down quick if not super neat and tied down. When not in use they pull out of the way under the boom and down the side of the mast. |
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