Looking down
Lankford Bay Marina
Lankford Bay Marina
Looking down
Got to the marina early knowing that I had to climb the mast. Winds were light - at 10 in the morning and out of the South - South East pretty much under 5 knots - with a few gusts. Mostly Cloudy, but some sun. Temperature - upper 50's to lower 60's,
Well, first climbed the mast as I had to replace the Davis WindTrak...one of the colored fins was missing - or at least wasn't where it was supposed to be. Got everything set, tools in a bag attached to my belt, new windtrak tied to a rope which was also tied to my "top climber" and up I went. When I got to the top, I pulled out the wrench to remove the old windtrak, but found that the nut was a different size than the new one (go figure), so instead, I unscrewed the adjustment screw, pulled out the old and replaced it with the new. Carefully aligned it (as I noticed that the metal bar it is connected to is not on the centerline of the boat!). Lowered myself back down and prepared to take Bubbles out to check out all of the adjustments under sail.
Headed out about 12:30, got the sails up quickly and the engine was off before leaving Langford Creek and heading into the Chester. The adjustments made were dead on - or at least a lot closer than they had been. Could sail well at 40 degrees to the wind on both tacks, the Davis windtrak and the raymarine wind instruments/display are now in sync. Speed was a lot more accurate too! Light winds - no more the 9 knots of true wind, so I left out the full genoa, After getting out into the Chester, went on a beam reach towards the Corsica and then back towards the west side of the river and then back again to Piney Point before turning into the wind, pulling in the Genoa, dropping the Main and putting up the Gennaker.
Started out slow back to the marina, but it picked up once back in Langford Creek. Storms were starting to come across from Baltimore, with gusts expected to be about 30 knots, so I started the engine and dropped the Gennaker a bit earlier than I had planned. Got back into the slip about 4:30 - before the rains came, A fun day - been a while since I have been up the mast!