Weather - Mostly Sunny - 55-58 degrees. Winds SW 8-12 with gusts to 15+. Departed the slip at 10:30 am and headed down Langford Creek towards the Chester. Got the sails up before the first turn at Day beacon 7 - engines off soon thereafter. Winds were fairly light at first - but they picked up considerably as I made my way down into the Chester. Made a few runs between the mouth of the Corsica and the western shore of the Chester. I stayed relatively close to the mouth of Langford Creek because there were storms in the forecast. About 1pm, I noticed some storm clouds on the horizon - and on my radar app and they seemed to be heading my way - so I started to head back up the creek - still under sail - in an effort to be tied up in the slip before the storm hit. About 1:30, the weather alert went up on the radio, but it did indicate that points north of me were more in the direct path - and the clouds indicated that also. Safely tied up at the slip when the storm came through... but wasn't much where I was, just a bit of wind and a few drops. North of me seemed to get hit pretty hard though!
Century Club: Tom Dean
I had added solar to Bubbles last July and have been very pleased (two Renogy 175 watt flexible panels) with those two panels providing all the energy I needed plus! In the big Christmas Eve blow that came through, evidently the engineering of the connection of the panels to the frame proved to be inadequate. I had attached the panels with nylon cable ties and one panel was completely gone and the other, while still attached, was barely attached with the connectors broken. The frame was undamaged, so I ordered a new panel and began exploring new ways to connect the panels a bit more securely. I found some stainless steel cable ties that had a strength rating that was more than double the nylon cable ties and of course won't suffer UV damage.
So today, I reattached the old solar panel and the new one and then lifted the frame up to what used to be the radar mast and reattached it. Hooked up the MPPT (again, renogy) and I once again have solar power which meets all of our needs! When I purchased the solar panel and the necessary connectors - also got a great deal on a 1000w inverter - which will be installed later.
Weather - Partly Sunny with temperature 58-60 degrees, winds out of the SW 12 knots with gusts to 20. Singlehanded day! Pulled out of the slip about 10:30 am after doing some last minute preps - setting up jack lines. Decided that I was going to reef just to be careful. Sailed down Lankford Creek towards the Chester River, having to do a series of tacks since the creek runs basically north/south. Once I got in to the Chester, the winds picked up significantly and some issues came up fairly quickly. The biggest problem was that I had not properly set the softshackle that I use on the Genoa - and the Jib Sheets pulled through and I lost control of the Genoa. Trying to think quickly, I made a turn back up the creek - and released the main sheet so that I was running with just the main - hoping to get up the creek and into the western fork so I could anchor and reattach the sheets to the genoa. I also furled the genoa to keep it from flapping around. At first the plan was working, but then the genoa began to unravel a bit - so I tethered to the jacklines, made my way up to the bow and tried to wrap the genoa up a bit and then used some line to tie it up. This worked and allowed me to get up the creek and into a little alcove where I anchored behind some trees so it was calm. I fixed the connection between the soft shackle and the jib sheets (and did it right this time). In the meantime, I discovered that a slider on the main had broken so I replaced that at the same time. Decided to stay in the back creek and sailed around for a while before heading back to Lankford Bay Marina. A fun and exciting day - certainly glad the first mate (wife) wasn't aboard - as she would not have found it as exciting!
Todays task - getting ready for the first sail - was getting the sails up! Wind was fairly light so I was able (by myself) to get the sails hanked on, raised and then furled and lowered on the boom. Took a while, but I had some time left afterwords to continue preparing the toe rail teak for oiling.
Bubbles has stayed in the water all winter, but I had removed items before Christmas because I knew I wouldn't be sailing for a while. Today was a work day starting to get the boat ready in anticipation of the first sail (weather was indicating a warming trend!) Brought the canvas and sails back to the boat in anticipation of putting them back on. Got the dodger back on, but the winds were to strong to put the sails back on - so I did some work preparing the teak for oiling.
Our sailboat - Bubbles - had at one time been documented, but it had lapsed by the time we purchased her. This past fall/winter, I began the process of re-documenting her and we recently received the documentation from the Coast Guard, so while I was working below on mechanical aspects, my wife was removing our MD registration numbers and decals - as well as removing some "bubble" decals from the transom. It was a full day of work - weather was very nice!