Ff like a herd of turtles again this year! Boat was in early but had a tear in the genoa at the too that could have progressed separating the luff tape. Got it fixed finally but didn't make it out until this weekend with my Wife and Nephew. What a rough outing.had the boat running at the mooring no problem for a half hour. Had to deal with a lazy jack line that I stupidly forgot to put a stopper in. I hate my mooring location. It is an a location that isn't very calm and traffic tends to want to pass close by. So the boat is bouncing in the waves while I am trying not to fall and break a leg while standing on a sail covered boom reaching up for a block swinging from the mast to reave the lazy jack line through it. Succeeded but ripped down a signal
Halyard....oh well. Screwed up my reef lines somehow so I just removed them for the day. Took forever to get the main up....everything went wrong....forgot to remove the topping lift...jammed a batten end in the lazy jacks...caught the sail on a reefing horn...just a mess.
I didn't sail at all last year and boy was the rust showing. Got out there. It was supposed to be 5-10 and was 10-15 with some good gusts channeling through the islands. Had a tough time on one tack as my starboard winch wouldn't work in the fast direction for no apparent reason. Wouldn't click or advance at all. I was just too damned rusty and was rattled by all the crap earlier for sure. Things were fine for a while but got ugly fast later. We were on a broad reach out of the harbor past Deer Island Light when we just got hammered by the wind as we left the shadow of Long Island behind. I tried to fall off but had absolutely zero steerage as, I realized later the tide was carrying us out and we were totally in its control without enough water flowing over the rudder to steer. I thought the damned rudder had gone! If I had been able to parse all this I would have hung on for a few moments to clear the narrows which we're driving the jet stream I was in, but we got hammered even harder by the wind so I out her into the wind in a panic by this point and furled the jib. I started the engine, which had run perfectly for thirty minutes earlier and the overheating buzzer came on and stayed on.
At that point I was ready to hang it up for the day but persevered. I apologized to my passengers and explained what had happened. We were able to sail on pleasantly for another half hour before turning home. Of course i still had an engine intake that was likely fouled, so we sailed in and fired up the engine for the last 100 feet after we turned into the wind. My Wife got the pickup stick first shot thankfully.
I might have to go for a swim of hire a diver to clean my intake. I have this neat drain cleaner that fires compressed air down which I had used last week. As I said, it ran fine for a half hour at the mooring, instead of sailing off the weed it must have just pushed a flap back over it.
Bob
Halyard....oh well. Screwed up my reef lines somehow so I just removed them for the day. Took forever to get the main up....everything went wrong....forgot to remove the topping lift...jammed a batten end in the lazy jacks...caught the sail on a reefing horn...just a mess.
I didn't sail at all last year and boy was the rust showing. Got out there. It was supposed to be 5-10 and was 10-15 with some good gusts channeling through the islands. Had a tough time on one tack as my starboard winch wouldn't work in the fast direction for no apparent reason. Wouldn't click or advance at all. I was just too damned rusty and was rattled by all the crap earlier for sure. Things were fine for a while but got ugly fast later. We were on a broad reach out of the harbor past Deer Island Light when we just got hammered by the wind as we left the shadow of Long Island behind. I tried to fall off but had absolutely zero steerage as, I realized later the tide was carrying us out and we were totally in its control without enough water flowing over the rudder to steer. I thought the damned rudder had gone! If I had been able to parse all this I would have hung on for a few moments to clear the narrows which we're driving the jet stream I was in, but we got hammered even harder by the wind so I out her into the wind in a panic by this point and furled the jib. I started the engine, which had run perfectly for thirty minutes earlier and the overheating buzzer came on and stayed on.
At that point I was ready to hang it up for the day but persevered. I apologized to my passengers and explained what had happened. We were able to sail on pleasantly for another half hour before turning home. Of course i still had an engine intake that was likely fouled, so we sailed in and fired up the engine for the last 100 feet after we turned into the wind. My Wife got the pickup stick first shot thankfully.
I might have to go for a swim of hire a diver to clean my intake. I have this neat drain cleaner that fires compressed air down which I had used last week. As I said, it ran fine for a half hour at the mooring, instead of sailing off the weed it must have just pushed a flap back over it.
Bob