Weather blues

I’m mad at myself for not sailing last weekend. I was on the boat and should have just cast off and headed out. It was a nice sunny day and the wind was about 10 knots. But for some reason I was nervous about sailing alone. Instead I took a few photos, filled the gas tank, and tidied up below. Then I headed back to the beach.

I’ve been second-guessing myself every since. After all, I’m not going to become a more confident sailor unless I SAIL. Unfortunately, I think I’m being very particular about the kind of weather I’ll go out in: too much wind? too little wind? threat of rain? Better not go out.

Truthfully, the weekends have not been cooperating weatherwise. We’ve had rain almost every weekend since I got the boat. That make passing up the great sailing weather last weekend a little tougher to accept.

Broken winch

I think I broke the starboard side winch on Sunday. It was sticking a little and I gave it a good tug with the winch handle, when suddenly the top of the winch came off. Take a look at these pictures comparing the two winches and you’ll notice a circular crack in the starboard one. The bolt (nut? circlip?) which holds the top on has completely broken.

I can probably find a new winch in a consignment stop somewhere. Does anybody know who the manufacturer is? I was thinking that they are South Coast winches, but I don’t see the “South Coast” script in the top.

in the meantime I’m worried about sailing and possibly flipping the top of the starboard winch overboard. Maybe some duct tape?!?!

An evening sail

Kellan and I went sailing last night – finally! The weekend weather has been pretty bad lately. Rain last weekend and a really stiff southerly breeze this past Saturday. (We actually went out to the boat but it was pitching so much on the mooring we decided against sailing.) But yesterday the wind swung around from the northeast, which meant that our mooring would be quite sheltered. The breeze was a bit stiff in the mid-afternoon, but I knew the breeze would die down as evening fell. In retrospect, we waited just a bit too long to head down to the beach.

The direction of the wind meant no waves and no chop so paddling out was very easy. Once on the boat, it took us about 20 minutes to get ready to sail. Kellan was a big help stowing things below in the cabin.

Again, the northeasterly breeze was pushing us away from the beach so once we cast off we drifted gently for a few moments before the wind caught the sail and we started to move. I didn’t even lower the motor because there was no danger of being blown towards shore. We headed west parallel to the beach, right into the setting sun.

And it was GREAT! Kellan took the tiller for about half the trip (I held the mainsheet when he was driving). We basically did two big ovals off the beach, which was about an hour of sailing.

On the was back to the mooring the breeze was really dying. I could see that the water was very smooth up by the mooring itself, so it was time to lower the motor and see if it would start. Well, it did — once I remembered to connect the battery!

It took about four tries to get it right. It is going to take some practice to get the motor to run at the proper speed using the throttle/choke lever. It is very easy to rev the motor and very easy to stall. But once in the proper rev range you just throw it in gear and off you go.

Kellan grabbed the pick-up as we drifted up to the mooring. Then it took about 30 minutes to get everything ship-shape. The sun had set and it was getting quite chilly, but we had had a great time. Finally, a chance to sail the boat!

Boat junk

My car used to be pretty empty.  Aside from a sunshade and an ice scraper, everything else is tucked away in the glove box or the spare tire well.  Out of sight.  Neat and tidy.

Since getting the boat, the following seem to have taken up permanant residence:

1. Empty gas can
2. Bottle of marine engine oil
3. Life jacket
4. Coil of rope
5. Spinnaker in a bag

Hmmm…  Only two weeks and already the boat junk is taking over!

Post-Ernesto report

The remnants of tropical storm Ernesto stayed pretty much to our west. I went down to look at Dragonfly a couple of times on Saturday, just to be sure she was still attached to the mooring. Everything was fine. I think it was just “new boat owner” jitters!

Kellan and I visited Dragonfly again today. As expected, we discoverd that the seabirds had been hanging out on deck and on the sail cover. What a mess! I spent 15 minutes scrubbing the deck with baywater and a plastic brush.

Then we hung up our pennant string. It looks like the Pearson Ensign moored next door is quite bird free because of her pennants, so I had hunted down a string at the local iParty store. We’ll see if this is the answer. I forgot the camera so you’ll have to use your imagination. It does look quite festive!

The other news is that we’ve decoded the model number on the outboard motor, thanks to this page. We’ve got a 1991 15hp Johnson outboard with a 20″ shaft. Now I’ll be able to get the correct spark plug.

We also brought the spinnaker home with us. One of these nights we’ll spread it out in the yard and see what we’ve got.