First Sail of 2011

[rwdsr]

Captain's Log, s/v Joyce Marie, April 2, 2011, 1945 Hours

The adventure started before we got to the lake.  I took a stress day off Friday and stayed home and mowed the grass, and worked on the boat.  As you can tell, I have all the wood stripped off and it's in the garage having been oiled, and stained and multiple coats of spar varathane.  It really looks good.  What I wanted to do was get the registration numbers painted on, and the name on it before I took it to the lake on Saturday.  I've never done any freehanded lettering on that scale before and to say the least, was just a little nervous about that.  Anyway, got the lettering on and that came out real well, then I got all the stuff loaded on that wished I had taken on the last trip (See previous Log entry - "The Three Hour Cruise").  Morning came waaaayyyyy too early, but it has been a loooonnnngggg,  coolllldd winter, and a long three months off the water.  The crew? - (1 1/2) arrived early and after consuming a hearty breakfast and enough coffee to choke a horse, finished loading and took off.  Mistake number 1 - In my haste, I failed to perform the standard walk around before departure, thus failing to notice that I didn't put the padlock thru the latch on the hitch...............  We made it all the way to the big bridge going over the lake to the marina on SR 79, before I hit the place where the road stops and the bridge starts, and the boat flipped off the truck.  Needless to say, Sunday I had to go buy all new underwear.   I have become a strong believer in heavy safety chains.  In this case folks, they saved my bacon.  I am going to have to buy a new set of chains as they were ground almost in two on the road.  I was able to get the boat and trailer over to the side of the bridge, and disconnect the chains, then jack up the tongue and get everything stable, and on the road again.  Meaning I quit shaking, and changed my drawers.  Other than the chains, we sustained no damage.  I'm thankful.  We rolled into the marina, and rigged, and launched like we might have known what we were doing.  The little motor after sitting all winter took off on the 3rd pull, and we were off out of the marina.  All week long the weather reports called for sun, temps in the mid-60's, and 7 - 11 mph winds - Ha!  As soon as we got out to where we were going to raise the sails, we were hit by winds 15 to 20, and I'll swear, some gusts higher than that!  I gave the order to hoist the jib, and all hands sprung into action.   As soon as the jib was up and trimmed one of those gusts hit us, and we were off running north up the lake.  Several times according to the GPS on board, we hit 7.2, and 7.3 mph.  For a sailboat, that's flying.  Marie is turning into quite the sailor; she took the helm on this cruise and handled the boat really well.  We also pointed considerably higher into the wind this time than we have ever run before, either on the Compac or the Catalina.  By the time all this had happened, we had run about 4 1/2 miles up the lake, (the captain made the decision this trip to sail out against the wind, and sail back with it) we started getting mutinous murmurings from the smaller 1/2 member of the crew - to wit: "Are we there yet"?  "Is this all the faster this boat goes"? "I'm hungry, I wanna eat!..............  The captain had the strange notion to use 1/2 crewmember for fish bait, or make walk the plank.  No wait - that's a pirate, - how about keel hauled or hung from the yard arm?  Nah, this boat doesn't have that kind of keel, and it doesn't have yardarms.  Aw right, awright, we'll put in and feed the little noisemaker.  It's too rough out here to make a sandwich under sail.  (Give me break here ok?  It's only the first sail of the season, by the end of the year I'll be able to single hand the ship in a blow with one hand and make a full course meal in the galley with the other one............yeah, right.  We pulled into the little bay by the campground and made sandwiches all around, then attempted to take a little nap.  That lasted about 5 minutes, and was brought to a quick end by - you guessed it, the 1/2 member of the crew.  At that point we hoisted anchor and motored back out into the main lake.  Going back, I wanted to try reefing the mainsail for the experience and to see the difference of sailing on the main alone without the jib.  The boat was a whole lot more stable that way, but not near as fast as sailing under the jib.  Again, Marie handled the boat for a good ways back and did real well.  I think what I'd rather have for those conditions are a small storm jib and a main sail about 1/3 the size of the main just for sailing in heavier airs.  I'm also toying with the idea of putting a small block on the end of the boom to give me better purchase when adjusting the outhaul.  With the wind really blowing, it sure is hard on the fingers.  We did make it back to the marina ok, and got some good pictures (attached), and made it on home without any further screw-ups, er, mishaps.  I am getting ready this week to get the other motor over to a friend of mine who is a whiz on small motors and he should make quick work of it.  By the time everyone gets here, everything should be working properly.  Catch you all on the water.

[Salty19]

Bob, always enjoy reading of your plunders...er I mean ADVENTURES!!!

Real glad to hear everything except the chains were OK after the getoff.  Wow, could have been ugly.

See you at Carlyle Lake in August for the Com-pac Rendezvous!