Tonight was the first race of the AYC Wednesday Night Racing. Of course, that meant I had a mid-week excuse to get out on the water. It was a beautiful night to go sailing.and we sailed a pretty good race for the first race of the season. Its not that there weren't a boat load of small slip ups and less than Ideal events, but it was a good way to begin to iron out the wrinkles left from the winter's hiatus.
Jeff
Mostly, it was sailing in a pretty steady 10-12 knots of winds at a comfortable 60 degree temperature, except that the next moment, there was no wind. I mean literally... telltales hanging dead vertical, masthead cups not turning, SOG= speed of current marked by the floating leafs moving at the same speed as the boat....that kind of no wind.
Then slowly, over 5-10 minutes, the wind would fill in at the masthead, and then fly the upper jib telltales and slowly make its way back down to the deck and go back to a very steady 10-12 knots. Except when a 25 knot gust came through and rolled the boat rail in the water.
I have been volunteering at CRAB (Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating). CRAB's program taking out people with Disabilities and Children from underpriveledged neighborhoods out sailing has been a meaningful experience to participate in. Seeing the joy on the faces of the 'guests' taken out sailing is amplified in my heart.
CRAB operates with a manual that provides guidiance on their very organized set of procedures. Each year the volunteers attend a short seminar to updates us on both the old and any new precedures and reacquaints us with the boats used by CRAB. Today, was that seminar and I got to spend some time on the boats messing about the their unique set-up.
(If you find yourself with some spare time and a desire to do some good while messing with boats, I hope that you will check CRAB out.)
Chuck at Chesapeake Sailmakers introduced me to one of his technicians who had only been sailing once in his life. I thought I would do something about that and invited him out sailing. That second sail turned out to be today.
It was a sporty day out there. Looking at the winds recorded at Thomas Point, we were mostly in winds that were close to 20 knot with gusts approaching 30 knots at times. With a second time sailor aboard, I decided to put in a first reef and not roll out the jib.
It was a lumpy beat with spray flying on the way down to Thomas Point. For a new sailor, he did very well steering in those difficult conditions. Once we tacked around and bore off, we had a wild and wonderful trip back to Annapolis. Surfing between Thomas Point and Tolley, we held a pretty steady 8 knots, and at one point hit 10.6 knots surfing. That was all with a single reef and without a jib.
We took a fast loop through Annapolis Harbor. A friend snapped the attatched picture as we left the harbor on the beat out, hugging the shore in the lee of the apartments on the point perhaps a few 100 feet before hitting the serious breeze off the Bay. That picture sure looks very docile, but isn't that always the case. Aferall it is only a snapshot from a reasonably protected point in the harbor. Attached are the readings from the weather buoy roughly a mile and a half away in the full brunt of the wind.
On the way out from Mill Creek, on our first tack. we passed near the weather buoy around 2:30 befor tacking and heading out into the Bay where the wind and waves were a bit more sporty., We passed the buoy on the way into the harbor a little before 3:40. And passed it gain maybe 15-20 minutes later, by then we were heading back home to Mill Creek.
Tackled somemore maintenance on Synergy and a boat that I am helping to set up for single-handed cruising.
Jeff
It has been a good year for getting out on the water and sailing, but now it is time to pay the piper and take on some maintenance work. I am also helping a friend at my dock update her boat to be easier to handle short-handed,
This evening I worked on some electrical clean up left over from the installation of the new autopilot last year. I also tried to figure out why the GPS data no longer shows up on the cockpit repeaters. (Wasn't NEMA supposed to make that type of problem easy to resolve?)
On the other boat being optimized for short-handed sailing, the plan is to run the halyards and reef lines aft to make short-handed sailing safer and easier. I am donating some bit of salvaged hardware to the cause. I had a few deck organizers left over when I redid the deck plan on Synergy. They were probably 25-30 years or more old when I removed them and frankly looked really rough. I had tossed them in a bin of no longer used parts just in case I could repurpose them for something else.
Sitting in a bin for the past 10 ior so years did not improve their appearance. So, I took them apart and cleaned up the frames and sheaves. The original black anodyzing was shot and frankly looked dated. I took the organizers apart and primed them with zinc phosphate primer. In the morning, I lightly sanded them and applied a coat of white paint after the primer had cured.
I started volunteering at CRAB last year, It was a wonderful experience. So I was delighted to join the team at CRAB to re-rig the boats after the winter. Definitely another sign of spring.
Today was definitely a 'You can't get there from here' kind of a sail.
There seemed to be two very different wind systems violently fighting to occupy the same spot at the same time. There was great winds on either side of wherever Synergy happened to be at that moment. But as hard as we tried, were stuck in a no-man's land between the two.
Instead of roaring along in the solid breezes to either side of us,(by us I mean Synergy and I) it was port tack beat- tack-starboard broad reach-jibe-starboard beat- port dead run- back to port beat.
And that was just in a couple hundred feet without altering course.
Not to mention creeping along in less than 3 knots of wind, only to get hit with a 15 knot gust knocking us rail down before going back to almost nothing again.
But there were a lot more boats out sailing than in the weeks prior. I had a chance to have a nice chat with Jose Turcios, who was also out for a day sail. Jose was kind enough to take the attached photo of Synergy at one of the few moments when she was sailing well and with the sails properly adjusted. (I need to get in the habit of having my cellphone in the cockpit to snap photos on these outings.
But no matter what the winds, it was truly a beautiful day to be out on the water....
Ahhhhh....another glorious day on the Chesapeake Bay. With good breezes, comfortable temperatures, sunshine, and lots to see.
There were some fast boats out sailing that gave me boats to play with.
Interestingly enough, on Saturday, there were nine ships in the deep water anchorage off Annapolis. This included a car carrier which I almost never see in the anchorage. The rest were bulk carriers. Today, there were 6 ships and one of the missing ships was the car carrier. With Baltimore terminal supposed to be closed, I have to wonder where the three ships went.
But the other thing that I noticed I'd that most years the Canada geese and the sea ducks (scoters, long tails, buffleheads, golden eyes, and old squaws) seem to leave around the same time that the ospreys arrive. This year the osprey came back on time but the geese and sea ducks are still here. Sailed near a big flock sea ducks and was seranaded by their wind whistles as they decided to look for a new neighborhood.
I had another great sail even if I did feel a bit like Joe Btfsplk. There were great breezes and temperatures that would have been comfortable if the sun was shining on me. Everywhere I looked there was bright sunlight....everywhere except that one 'anywhere' that I happened to be. There the sun was blanketed with a dark, thick cloud between me and sun, very effectively obscuring any hope for warmth.
There was a Goldilocks wind, neither too much or too little wind,...just enough to maintain a steady 6 or so knots, except when I ducked into Annapolis Harbor, where the winds dropped off considerably.
I probably normally would have bore around and headed back out into the Bay trying to stay in the stiffer breezes. But I wanted to take a gander at the Pride of Baltimore, which was tied up at the DNR dock at the City Dock.
All in all a good day, the occasional shiver not withstanding....