The never-ending project to fill my hole in
the ocean while bailing it out
Sailing Season 2011 is here at
last!
- Page 70 -
Click
thumbnails for a larger picture
Description
It was as a typical
annual shakedown
cruise: get out there after launching and work out the inevitable
bugs and tweaks. The weather forecast couldn't be any better:
Sunny, winds NW 10-20, temperature hitting 80, and low humidity.
No chance of rain for at least a couple of days. Wow. (Jun.
10-20, 2011)
One thing I learned from last weekend's overnight
experience out in the Misery Island cove is that either the bunk
cushions or I have gotten older and thinner. For the first time, it was
somewhat uncomfortable sleeping aboard. Considering that, like the boat, the
cushions are 37-years old, and that this is my ninth year aboard, I
guess we're both to blame. But I can do something about
the cushion padding!
I thought about perhaps next winter getting them
reupholstered, but using them so infrequently, I decided to see what
could be done to just give them a little more padding and life. My plan was to
find some sort of camping cushion intended for beneath a
sleeping bag. A friend suggested I try a pad he'd used, picked up
at a local sporting goods store. I found a roll of Thermarest RidgeRest
(its Trek & Travel series). "Superlight for situations where every ounce
counts - Ridges increase softness; valleys trap warm air - Durable
closed-cell foam can take years of abuse."
After rolling it out I marked and cut it into three
pieces, so the lockers can be accessed individually without rolling up the whole
thing; cut it to fit over the lowered dinette table. Seems like it
might work; we'll see. (Jun. 26, 2011)
Saturday's weather forecast for the Independence Day
holiday weekend couldn't be finer, at least until late Sunday when
showers and thunderstorms were expected to arrive. I took off aboard
Chip Ahoy at about noon. Immediately upon hoisting the main sail I
discovered another rigging snag -- the reefing line needed to be re-routed, which
was quickly accomplished.
It was otherwise a
great sail out toward Misery and Bakers Islands: Sunny, a
comfortable 80° with a steady NW breeze at about 12
mph all the way, turning NE late in the afternoon.
On the way out I spotted a gaff-rigged
something coming back through the islands channel, which upon closing
with it I
found was named "Lewis History."
Misery Island's cove was packed
bumper to bumper, no empty moorings that I could spot, so decided to
fall back upon Plan B -- return to my own mooring and spend the night on
it doing the other cruise prep work. On discovering that the
12v-110v power inverter (though lit and beeped), I spend the evening taking
it apart in the hope of keeping the laptop's
battery charged. I spent an hour or two figuring how to open it up
without damaging its internals, changed the spade fuse by flashlight
with some assist by the LED lights and oil lamp. It still wouldn't power
the laptop.
I'd brought along the laptop to make
sure everything is working before my annual cruise. Other than the
inverter, all went well. The inverter needs to be replaced.
The small 'extension cable' I added to the
old genoa's tack seems to be holding up well. Since sending back the new Joe
Waters sail I've been working on raising the old genoa's foot higher for more deck
clearance without losing as much sail area. This workaround seems to be
doing the job. The new bunk pad in the cabin seems to be doing its job too. (Jul. 3,
2011)
It the above video doesn't start automatically CLICK HERE
This morning, after a phone call to
Tommy assured me that Chip Ahoy was expected "as soon a possible," I
went out to Chip Ahoy as soon as the launch service opened at 8 am,
readied the boat then motored Chip Ahoy out of Salem Harbor and around
Marblehead to the Beacon Street boatyard. The pre-arranged plan was to
have it hauled out and its bottom sanded and painted. The plan
also was to have the keel and its cable checked –
though I didn't expect any problems with either. (Jul. 5, 2011)
This year, instead of a long endurance cruise to another
distant destination, I decided to take a shorter cruise
— more a vacation week away living aboard down to Scituate.
(Jul. 18-25, 2011)
One the way down to Scituate I found that I
couldn't pull
the main sail taut, the spliced halyard was all the way to the mast
truck; the boom was too high. With the 100 degree temperature during
that week on a mooring, I didn't want to remove the pup tent once it was
up, necessary to try making the required adjustments. Sailing home it
was even more annoying.
Today I went out to the
boat and took care of it, I hope. I attached the main halyard to the end
of the boom, hauled it up enough to take the pressure off the boomkicker
then easily removed it. I loosened the stop screw on the mast beneath
the boom and lowered it 3-4 inches, reset the screw stops above
and below the boom, lowered the boomkicker at the mast and extended it
one slot further aft on the boom. If I find that I have to adjust it again
after hoisting the sail, no problem — but I
think I'm close. (Aug. 3, 2011)
While I was in repair mode, I brought out the Weems &
Plath barometer, which somehow got overlooked before I launched Chip
Ahoy this spring. I suppose I got used to it hanging on the kitchen
wall, where it resides over the winters when I empty the boat each fall.
How did I miss its absence when I hung the Sangean H2O waterproof radio?
