Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell

15-25 NWN mid 50s, sunny

I skippered Akimbo for member sail, started w/one reef but put the second in quickly. Headsail only out to the front shroud. Had a great very speedy downwind trip past FSK and carol island, turned around to head upwind back toward the city, but it was so on the nose I didn't want to tack through the bridge, so we put the engine on and furled the headsail away, and motor sailed through. Once we were clear, we decided to get the headsail out a little bit and fall off to see if we could make progress at all that way, and just as I was thinking about going ahead and shutting the engine off, it's sputtered out. The starter still worked, I gave the crew the helm and had them just keep tacking for a while making what progress we could, and I checked the belts, the air filter, the log boom to make sure I didn't stupidly go out with a low tank (I didn't) and the fuel separator cup thing. I didn't see any water or sediment in it, and thought it might be good to bleed the line, but didn't want to make a mess heeled over and sloshing back and forth the way we were, so I left it. We tacked back to the city, I called Tom and he came out with Scott on Sun to meet me as I sailed in. I decided that rather than dock under sail at the T-head, I would anchor across from under armour, they rafted up with us, and gave me some diesel to try topping up the tank with (just in case that was it) but it didn't help. So we stayed rafted up and Tom drove us back to DSC and docked at the T-head, and we walked ourselves forward and tied up. After we were nicely tied up and shook out the reefs and put the sail away nicely, I bled the fuel from the strainer, tried starting a couple times, but no dice. There was a lot of gunk coming out with the fuel so I'm pretty sure the motoring just past the bridge while getting the headsail out shook up some sediment. Will go back and finish bleeding it, close the valve on the line and open the top of the separator and change the filter. Hopefully that resolves the issue. 

Got to do a fantastically cool delivery of an XC38 coming off a big boat from Holland. We got on it to prep for the straps and crane lift. We released the backstay and topping lift, secured forward (so the straps wouldn't hit them) then got back off and let the crane crew lift off and over to the side. Actually maneuvering on the deck of the big boat was kind of crazy in and of itself, huge gaps to leap/step over and climb around onto other levels. We climbed down to the next lower level and went over the side onto the hanging boat (we set fenders up before the lift so it didn't rub) and then we were set slowly down into the water with a couple of workers on board to release the straps after we splashed. The straps caught on the rudder but they were able to push them down and off with the MOB stick. Then we opened the raw water seacock, started the engine (we checked the batteries, oil and coolant while still on the stands on deck) and put back the topping lift and backstay, and motored away! It went perfectly. We motored to the marina in Annapolis where it lives now and enjoyed the beautiful (though chilly) day. 
(Low 50s, sunny, 5-10kts W ish)

Managed to get back to DSC too late for member sail but took a J out for a little while with Tom & James anyway. Wind was picking up and gusting a bit by evening so had a good but brief jaunt. Did 1 fig 8 practice and botched the first try but got it on the 2nd. Feel sick with anxiety about the bki. :-(

Spent all day working on J's and learned about an amazing cleaning product called FSR (got 2 full waterlines looking much less grungy quite quickly) and then learned how to remove damaged bow fenders, re-epoxy and set a new one. Got them done and curing on #s 3 and 13. 
 

Was pretty tired for member sail and didn't really want to skipper so I just hopped on Akimbo w/Tom, James, and Marianne. Had a great time. Wind was just great, not too much, we furled in a bit of the jib a couple of times but always ended up bringing it back out. Tacked out past the fort for a bit and got closely overtaken by a trimaran, then turned around and jibed back to DSC. Dropped sails right at dominoes.

What an amazing weekend. It was an overwhelming firehose of information but I did manage to retain a bunch of new tricks and understanding of how things work that I had no clue about previously. Also, I feel like I need to re-do the hands on portion again after over had some time to process the first go round. Lol. I'm annoyed at myself for not getting more pictures, especially of some neat stuff the jury rig and leak wraps/plugs and things like that, but maybe next time. The pool/life raft thing was ... hard. I absolutely did not understand how hard maneuvering inside that thing is. I also had a hard time with how heavy my wet foulies were, the pressure from my inflated pfd (definitely let off some air once it goes off to make it tolerable, and tighten the crotch strap) and I guess just all the sensations and exertion and other people on top of me and especially the one guy who came in the raft and wasn't breathing right and got me more panicky, it was just really hard. I think I would do better on another try now that I know what to expect and will spend some time working my my mental preparedness and physical fitness. I was so excited to do the pool/raft thing and ended up not enjoying that part, but I also think it was an amazing experience and am so glad I had that opportunity to learn and understand wtf it is really like, and to have the perspective of at least being able to imagine now how horrible to could be NOT in a perfectly calm warm pool. I will work on this. 
 

Also, the fire module terrified me and I want to get all batteries out of my house and off the boats. :-( 
 

Comms was amazing and I understand epirbs and plbs much better, and I think I finally get what my DSC radio does on vhf now. (Lol) 

Damage mitigation was probably my favorite because we got to work in teams to come up with creative solutions to problems like a jury rig, leaks, etc. And I got to actually test a bunch of different pumps. And I learned that even though some pumps will run with the leads reversed on a battery you could burn it out that way. (RED NEGATIVE!)