Sailed down to Still Pond for the night

Well, that was an interesting week. I had planned to go down the boat on Tuesday, but I was busy making my awning and getting ready. Loretta, the girls, and I drove down on Wednesday morning for the 4th of July celebrations. I had heard that Havre de Grace has a huge 4th parade, and good fireworks, so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the parade was the weekend before, and the fireworks were on the 3rd (now THAT makes a lot of sense).

So anyway, we get down there only to discover that there's no reason to be there, other than to hang out on the boat. That's good enough for me!

It was cloudy all day, so we got the boat squared away, put the awning up, and just hung out at the marina. Loretta and I, at Captain Steve's advice, put snubbers on our dock lines. They're amazing. I couldn't believe how much more comfortable the boat motion was. If you're going to spend any time on board at all, whilst tied up at the slip, I strongly recommend snubbers. The girls and Alex wandered around town, read, and ate ice cream. That evening, I made grilled chicken and we invited Captains Steve and Judy over for dinner. We hung around, swapped sea stories, and ate until well after nine. Then a storm looked like it was coming in and we went back to close the foredeck hatch (wet bed = bad night). We had some thunder and lightning, a bit of wind, and a lot of rain. It was cool to sit in the cabin and look out at this drenching rainstorm in the marina lights. It was warm and dry below, though, so it was all good. The kids played games and we just hung around.

Thursday morning it was clear, though. When I was coming back from my shower I stopped to chat with a lady who's family had moored their powerboat on the floating pier across from Puddleduck's slip. They had been in the Sassafras River to watch fireworks when they noticed everyone else leaving in a hurry. They hailed one of the other boats and learned there was a tornado warning for that part of Maryland (this must have been the storm that went South of the marina). They hauled up the anchor and ran for Havre de Grace.

We all went to Waffle House for breakfast, and then Loretta, the girls, and Alex left for home. I stayed around, because a coworker was coming down to meet me. Mike arrived in about an hour, and we spent the day looking at boats, wandering around, reprovisioning, and just talking about sailing. Then we spent the night at the slip, again.

Friday brought a hazy sunrise at 5:30, and I was visiting the head when I saw this light. Got the camera, snapped this, and went back to sleep.

We got up a little after eight, squared away the boat, and put out. The wind had come up, and we made between four and seven knots all the way out the channel, around Sandy Point, and down towards Still Pond. We left the marina a little after ten and finally anchored in Still Pond a little before six. Some of this time was spent trying to anchor outside the cove, which was much too choppy. Even though the cove looked crowded, we moved inside and things were much better. The anchor held perfectly all night.

Mike and I swam around and talked about sailing. We had sandwiches for dinner, drank soda, swam some more, and then climbed aboard for the night. I shot sunset pictures and wrote to Mouse.This is a picture of a Valiant (I think) and a Pacific Seacraft that were anchored just East of us. Wow. Beautiful boats. On the other side, to the West, was an Alberg 30. I sat and watched the sun set behind her.


In the morning, we went for another swim and then headed out into very, very light and fluky Southerlies. It took almost four hours to make the run from Still Pond to the mouth of the Sassafras. We had initially planned to spend Saturday night in the Sassafras, but we were getting the snot kicked out of us by the power boat wakes, and we knew we'd spend the whole day getting to an uncomfortable anchorage. We motorsailed back to Havre de Grace and got in at the slip a little after five. We squared away, took out the trash, got showered, and headed over to Price's for crabs. Unfortunately, Price's was completely booked, so we had to go to the Nauti Goose in Northeast for crabs. It was good, but it wasn't Price's. Maybe next time. I'm glad I was so tired when I got back, because the bed was definitely rocking when I went to sleep....

Mr. Sewsitall makes an awning

As long as I was going to have the sewing equipment out and strewn all over the house, I figured I should make an awning for Puddleduck. The cockpit gets really hot during the days when you're sitting at anchor. I figured a nice white awning would look good, and keep the boat cooler. Here are the first two panels rolled for seaming. I used 60" wide Sunbrella canvas in "natural" color. I could have made a bimini, which would have provided shade while sailing as well, but the bimin kits start at about 450 bucks, and I don't have that right now.



I started out working in my bedroom, but as soon as I looked around, I knew that wouldn't be enough space. I moved to the living room (the first picture, above). I quickly ran out of space there, and had to move to the family room. Immediately above, you can see the fabric laid out in the family room. All the seaming is done, including the swallowtails, but nothing has been trimmed yet.



This is Molly helping me mark the cut and sew-to lines on the edges.



Here's the awning in it's final shape, with the edges cut away. Don Casey recommends, in his book "Good Old Boat," that for a tent awning you measure from the boom to the lifelines, and then subtract 4 inches. I don't think that's good advice, because my awning ended up being a little short on the sides, which lets the edge sag towards the cockpit and funnel rain into it. I think I would prefer the awning go all the way to the lifeline.

These are the double reinforcement patches for the corners and sides where the grommets will be installed. You can also see the 3/8 inch boltrope for the edge.
This is the mitered corner, after the reinforcement patches have been installed. The mitering helps reduce the number of layers you have to punch through with your machine (or your palm).

Finally, here I am putting the grommets in, after the boltrope is sewn into the edge hem. Of course, I cleverly forgot to take a picture of Puddleduck with the awning actually in place. It did work out fairly well. It was definitely good to have at the anchorage! I'd like to have side seams, and I'd like to have the boat's name on the edges. That's a project for later, though!

Torn Mainsail!

My mainsail tore at the seam just aft of the lower slug. This is a very high-stress area of the sail, so I couldn't let it go without repair. Here's how I fixed it. First, here's the tear.

There was no way to securely sew that weakened fabric back to the seam, so I knew I was going to have to make a patch.


As you can see, though, there isn't enough room between the seam and the existing grommet for a patch. Besides, Vince, from Tidewater, who is a sailmaker, told me that I needed to move that slug towards the mast by 1/2 to 3/4 inch. This means the slug and grommet had to come out for the repair.


The first thing I did after removing the grommet was to realign the torn part of the sail with the seam and boltrope, then hold it in place with dacron sail tape. There is an identical piece of tape on the other side of the sail.


Then I made a patch out of 6.5 oz dacron sailcloth. I hemmed the edges using a zigzag setting on a Husqvarna sewing machine. Then I used 1/2" basting tape to sort of hold the patch around the bolt rope so I could sew it onto the sail. It didn't work very well, as the stiff patch kept pulling loose from the sail and basting tape. I hand-sewed a whipstitch seam just inside the bolt rope, then decided that was too difficult and fed it into the machine to actually sew it down to the sail. I was using V92 polyester sail thread and a number 18 Universal needle.


Once I had the patch sewn down securely, I used a #4 hole cutter to make a hole, then installed a #4 spur grommet.


That was the hard part. After the grommet was in, I reattached the slug using 1/2 nylon webbing that was wrapped through three times (as recommended by "The Sailmaker's Apprentice"). A few quick stitches and the sail was ready to go.

What a great sail today

Kelly and I sailed Puddleduck up under the bridges (again) to anchor out and have a swim. When we were at the marina before leaving, we saw a huge column of black smoke across the Bay. Then we heard all the Coast Guard and fire traffic on channel 16. It seems a boat burned. Scary.

We had light and fluky Southerlies all the way up to our preferred anchoring spot, so the sailing was less than rousing. We did have a lot of fun swimming, though. The picture is of the Route 40 bridge, from our anchorage, and prior to swimming. On the way back down, though, the wind had kicked up to 12 or 14 knots, and we had a lot of fun. We needed to get home to work on dinner, though, so we weren't able to stay out too long to enjoy the breeze! It was a fun day, though.

On the way back in, I amost singlehandedly docked the boat. Loretta says that's like almost being pregnant. The only thing Kelly did (as requested) was to grab the port bow line on the way in. It's a little wierd to think this, but once I make two modifications to the boat (a Tiller Tamer and a couple of Harken 150 cams for the genoa sheets) I'll feel pretty comfortable single handing her around.

Unfortunately, we noticed a tear in the mains'l, at the seam behind the first slug. I pulled the main off the boat, and I'll have to sew on a patch this week. Fortunately, Vince (at Tidewater) is a sailmaker, so I might stop in to ask him a few questions.

Looking forward to sailing later this week!

Broken ribs vs. Sailing

Yes, it is, apparently, possible to break ribs just by working on the boat. At least if you're leaning over the stern lifting the engine mount, and all your weight, plus that of the engine, is on the edge of the traveler. This really hurts, and I'm not very amused.

Anyway, the new hatch cover arrived. I'll have to go down to the marina early this week to install it. Loretta, Molly, and I went for a sail yesterday because today was supposed to have nasty wind. Today does have nasty wind (gusts to 28 kts), so I'm glad we went yesterday.

On the way back upwind, the lock pin in the starboard genoa block popped out. I thought for sure it was overboard, but when we got back to the slip, we found it lying on the rub rail. I need to get some seizing wire and secure those pins. Other than that, it was a good sail.

Loretta has one Mother's Day wish - that the whole family go sailing. I think I'll do a lot of photography, and not so much work. I couldn't sleep last night because of my ribs.

Sailing with Retta, and more lessons learned

Retta and I took the 'Duck out for a sail today. We left late morning and played around out in the estuary off the marina. The wind was clipping along at 15 kts, from the West Northwest, so we reached down the channel at between 5 and 7.2 knots.

When we reached Sandy Point, though, Retta noticed all the other sailboats were a) heading in, and b) under strongly reefed jib or reefed mains'l alone. There was a reason for this. We decided to head back to the Marina, because we had things to do (ha). We had no trouble jibing our way out, but when we came about and headed to weather, we were heeling over more than I wanted, and we were having trouble controlling the boat. We were flying a #3 genoa and a main that doesn't have any reef points. We realized we were seriously overcanvassed.

I went forward (lesson here - should have put on a life jacket since I was working the foredeck with an inexperienced helmsman) and dropped the genoa, with some difficulty. I bungeed it down on the foredeck in case we needed it again, rather than just stuffing it back in the bag.

We were then in the channel, between the Aberdeen Proving Ground and Turkey Point, under main alone. A Catalina 340 and a Bene (looked like about a 36 footer) were both having difficulties. The Bene furled her sails and started to motor. The Catalina, under a deeply reefed fores'l and a reefed main, attempted to come about but failed. Attempted again and failed. a third time and made it. We tried to come about as well, but there was too little power for the windage. We fell off, built up speed again, and tried again. No dice. By this time, we were out of the channel and approaching shallow water.

I decided to use the engine to help us come about. On the third pull, my elbow hit the organizer I had hung on the rail, and knocked the handheld VHF into the drink. I hope King Neptune is having fun with my radio. Loretta is joking that I should find one with a float.

After we got the engine running, we realized we were still overcanvassed, so we dropped the main. We were able to make over 3 knots under power, even into the wind, so Retta found a jacket and a blanket, took a nap in the cockpit, and I took us back up the channel to the marina.


All in all, it was a great day! Yes, out of inexperience we stressed the rig and carried too much sail, but we got them down ok and powered back. Yes, we lost a VHF, but a) it wasn't my cell phone, and b) Retta and I had a FANTASTIC time sailing off the wind.

When we got back to Tidewater, we did a passable job of tying up. Then we ran up to the store to get cap leashes (we both felt like our caps were going to blow off). Then we squared away the boat and went to Price's for a plate full of crabs. Yes, all in all, it was a beautiful day of sailing. Now off to Defender to find another VHF. Oh, we also noticed the foreward hatch has finally cracked all the way. I'm not sure if I should replace it with a production hatch (about 500 bucks) or just get a new sheet of Lexan to replace the broken plexi (about 200 bucks). I'm leaning towards the size 60 Lewmar low profile. But that's for later....

Some further thoughts on the Epic

1. I can't hear the VHF effectively over the engine. I can't think of anything to do to fix that.
2. It gets bloody cold out there. I had a windproof pile jacket, and I was still shivering when we came in. I had heavy pile pants in the cabin, along with socks, but I didn't take the time to change up when the sun started setting. That was a mistake. I should have changed clothes and started the heater as soon as it started getting cold. We should have also made sure that there was adequate cold weather gear for everyone on the boat.
   
3. Food. We had snacks (cheese and crackers, ramen cups, coffee, and so forth), but no real food. Loretta had the foresight to stop us long enough in the morning to make a box full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Thank the Lord! She was a lot smarter than the rest ofus. Those sandwiches came in handy. I need to figure out some boat food that will store, but be easy to fix and eat, even if it means taking a thermos full of very hot water to make instant stuff. I'll have to think on that for a bit.
4. The traveler gets hung up when we jibe the boat. When the boom is in tight the traveler just won't slide, but as soon as we loosen the sheet, it pops right over. Maybe it needs a little lube. I'd love to replace it with a Harken adjustable traveler and a new 4:1 end-boom mainsheet system, but that'll have to wait until at least fall haul-out.
5. The heater works great! Warms the cabin right up, particularly when we close the companionway cover and hang a towel where the dropboards usually go.
6. I need a red light for checking charts at night. I don't really want to go below and use the red light at the nav station, because I'm not comfortable being away from the helm, particularly in a narrow channel.
7. We did a horrendous job of docking her in the slip. We have four 25' dock lines. We put the loop end over the cleats, and tied off the other end on the piling. I think this is backwards. I think we should have pulled the free end through the loop, and used a boathook to drop that over the pilings. Then we could cleat off the free end on the boat.
8. We did a horrendous job of docking her in the slip. :-) I think I need two 40' or 50' dock lines to use as amidships spring lines. We can use the spring line to control our position while using the engine to hold us in. When we come down the fairway to the slip, we have a dock dead ahead, and the slip is on the starboard side. We should prepare the two bow lines and two stern lines. Then we should prepare the fenders and two spring lines. We should run the port spring line outside the stanchions and around the stern to the starboard quarter. Then we should drift down the fairway close to the pilings on the starboard side, and turn to port as we approach the dock. This should kick the stern in towards the slip, and I can drop the port side spring line over the outside piling. (I'm assuming here I have room to do this before hitting the dock - I might have to rethink.) The boat's momentum will carry the stern towards the dock. Then go to astern gear and use the spring line to hold us on the port side of the slip. Then drop the port stern line over the piling and idle the engine. At this point, she'll be secured. I, or a crewperson, can jump off, secure the starboard stern line, and then the starboard bow line. We can use fenders and the starboard spring line to tie off on the dock.
9. Docking is the most stressful part of sailing. Believe it.
10. VHF 16 is NOT the same as CB 19. Some of those people were quite annoying. Sigh
11. Those ratty speaker mounts are going to let all this rain into the boat. Possibly onto the charts and log books. I should make it more a priority to rip those out, fill the gap with epoxy, and fit Beckson deck plates in the holes.
12. Even with the cunningham and vang released, the main doesn't go all the way to the top of the mast. That bugs me. I think I need a bigger mains'l. ;-)
13. I don't know what to do when being overtaken by a larger vessel in a shipping channel. I'm quite sure they have the right of way, but I'm not sure of the proper behavior. I'll have to look that up.
14. I really love sailing.
    

It was an Epic

Yes, well, this part looks nice. Notice there are very few wind ripples on this water. Yesterday, Mouse, Kelly, and I sailed Puddleduck from Middle River to Havre de Grace. If we had the wind right, it should have taken between 6 and 10 hours. Well, the wind wasn't right. It took over 15 hours to make the trip, and we ended up motoring in to the marina at 1:30 in the morning.

We learned a lot of things on this trip. The 'Duck doesn't sail too well in very light airs. How light? Here you go:
Does the phrase "glassy calm" mean anything to you? I think at this point we were making 1.2 knots. Might've been tidal drift.

Another thing we learned was about contingency planning. Fortunately, we had elected to put another three gallons of gas in the tank. It was sucking air when we pulled in. We absolutely should have started out with a full tank, and probably a spare.

We also should have picked out a marina part way along, where we could pull in and grab a transient slip for the night. We were pressed for time, though.

That was another lesson. Don't start a long trip if you absolutely must be somewhere else the next day. Things happen.

I was also amazed at the number of Coast Guard "Pan Pan" calls. And at the number of boaters who think VHF channel 16 is equivalent to CB 19.

One other thing I'd like to point out is that we wouldn't have been able to motor up the channel without pre-plotting the course on the GPS. I am planning to buy a GPS chartplotter for the boat in short order! It would have been so handy to be able to see our position relative to the channel, without shooting bearings and plotting position on the chart. That was a major pain.

Oh, and sunblock is a good idea....

Finally, some good weather!

This afternoon I cleaned the contacts on the stern light, which got it working again, ran the bilge pump, attached the flag clips to the halyard (and ran up the Jolly Roger), scrubbed the deck, cockpit, and topsides, removed the gas tanks, put the sails back aboard, replaced all the cabin lights, put two more life jackets on board, tried to secure the float switch (which didn't work out), organized the cleaning and maintenance supplies aboard, and stowed all the provisions.

Then I enjoyed the sunny weather and did some photography!