Did my upgrades and made my first Akimbo reservation this morning! It was QUITE chilly, mid 30s partially sunny, and although it didn't look like there was anywhere near the predicted 10kts at the docks once we got out past the Ft it picked up nicely. We went out past ft Carroll for a bit and then turned around. It ended up being really excellent conditions, except for the chill. After about 3 hrs it was getting to be possibly fairly uncomfortable. Lol. Everything went great until docking when I reverted to my bad habit of going too slow, lost too much momentum and drifted too close to the dock and had to back out at the last moment. Embarrassing. Bleh. Otherwise fun. Peanut M&Ms were an excellent treat to pass around and keep everyone going when the shivering got to be too much. Also learned to properly winterize engine. Seems not to work very well if you leave the engine running and try to swap sea cocks. Instead the method is to turn off the engine as normal, close raw water sea cock, place hose at bottom of antifreeze bottle, open that seacock, turn engine on and if it doesn't start sucking in the antifreeze immediately rev the throttle up. That seems the foolproof way. Do NOT throttle down (like I stupidly told James to do) because it will stop sucking and may get an airlock. When pink starts coming out the exhaust shut engine off immediately. Close the seacock. This should take about 1/2-3/4 bottle.
Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell
Took out #6 with Richard for a frostbite course practice and then went back to ft mchenry via a pause in the turning basin for heaving to practice, then tacked back to DSC and docked. It was fairly chilly. Reefed the main but it wasn't too much wind really, but the tips of my fingers were pretty numb by the time we got back. Mid high 30s I think, felt fine when the sun was out but not great otherwise. Water temp as 51ish according to the noaa reading by the ft. Only out about 2.5hrs due to the cold.
And it went awesome! (except that I spaced on which slip we were in mid-final docking, but up to that, awesome.) I really wasn't 100% on enrolling in the BKI because I felt so unsure about single handing skills in certain specific ways, and she clarified stuff and also made just had me DO everything I was worried about and it was totally fine. I did a quick stop POB with the weighted buoy, a heave-to, reefed and should it out, an upwind and downwind dock at the T-head, and left the dock 3 times myself which made me feel much more capable of that in future. The only things I'm still worried about are leaving the dock under trickier conditions (pinned to it in higher wind, for example) and generally just managing much higher wind. Otherwise I think I'm good. So I went ahead and registered. Eek. (≈2.5hrs) ooh interestingly, I tried sheeting the jib both ways because she likes NOT crossing them, and I find it pretty much fine either way so I'm ambi-sheetrous or something. I think I will generally keep them crossed though because it does keep it a little simpler to adjust on the high side.
Awesome awesome day doing a couple class race frostbites In Annapolis. Learned tons and also it was just a beautiful day out with pretty decent wind. (It was excellent to start.)
Went out for just under 4hrs with Tom and my James on Akimbo. Wind was amazing so we were double reefed and pulled in the jib even a little extra once out past ft McHenry. I think only letting it to just the front shroud is the best balance for the second reef in the main. There were much fewer whitecaps than it seemws like there should be for the level of wind we had. I don't quite understand that. It definitely was less than my checkout day but not by a ton. If my checkout was around 28 I would have guessed today was 24ish. So how how come practically no waves or whitecaps? Anyway, had a great time. Did a final pump out for the winterization and added antifreeze to the tank. I taped over the toilet lid too so it should be EXTRA clear to everyone that they better not use it.
Assisted with changing the oil, oil filter, and impeller. Checked bilge, added a little antifreeze, and also to the black tank. Cleaned the raw water strainer while doing the impeller. (Well Tom did and I encouraged lol) also double checked the belts and other filters for the rest of the engine stuff. One part was wrong but we should be good on everything else I think. Not sure about the second oil cap though. I think it's gear grease and not connected to the other cap where we topped the regular oil up after draining it from the dipstick chute. Spent 4+ hrs, need to add up the volunteer hrs soon. Whoops.
It was snowing/sleeting when we finished so no actual sailing. :-( Will test it out tomorrow hopefully though.
Took advantage of the excellent wind, just a bit gusty but never considered reefing until we were practically back past Dominoes. Got to just before the bridge in under an hour! Averaging 6kts in a J seemed crazy but we were just about dead downwind. Getting back took some effort and stupid navionics messed up the track record repeatedly. I really wanted to see what kind of progress we were making on the starboard tacks (wind was quite westerly with a little south off and on) but no such luck. Just under 4 hrs out.
Spent 90 minutes SH practice on J#9 w/Robert. The main halyard doesn't run right on that boat. Definitely not taking it out for SH again. Would be in trouble if I had to get it down quickly myself for a downwind docking. I was too scared to shove off so let Robert take his turn first, but then I got some practice just tacking and jibing around in front of DSC, and then I took the last turn and got the jib down myself , had to go back up because I forgot to make sure the bowline was ready, then set my stern line up as well and went and did a surprisingly easy upwind dock, and held both lines as I got off so it actually went the way I meant it to.
Then we hopped over to Akimbo for Harish to get some practice time in for his instructors exam. We anchored, reefed, hove to, and just sailed for a while. Got back in right around sundown. (About 3 hrs)
First session "teaching" and I think it went well! My 2 people did great, both got in a good amount of practice tacking and jibing and discussing wind direction, checking the windex, etc. I hope they had a good time. Wind was so low it was a pain getting back in at the dock though. :-( Not super confidence inspiring.
Took a J out for a brisk sail out past ft mchenry and caught up about my trip. Wind died down rather than picking up after the fort, and that combined with the easterly angle made a real bridge run unrealistic. Also, I've never experienced this sailing before (probably because I'm used to being dehydrated in the heat or avoiding liquids while on watch off shore) but in the cold I developed a pretty urgent need to pee that forced me to ask to head back an hour before I wanted. :-( That really really pissed me off. I don't want that happening again.