GETTING TO KNOW YOU

SHIP'S LOG:

Saturday was a great sailing day and I took ABISHAG out to get to know her just a little bit better. I am still amazed at how well she handles in light air. In the very light air, I was surprised
that she wouldn't stall in a tack. Once she starts over she completes the tack and indeed it is necessary to center the rudder once she gets half way or her displacement will give her the momentum to turn farther than I want. Learning how to handle her in the light air is really important, actually more so than heavy air, for I am going to sail a lot more in light air along the coast that in heavy air. In heavy air, coastal sailing, I can always drop a hook and wait for it to pass if I want, but ghosting around a harbor, to a dock, to a mooring, is a skill that I will use a lot more, especially when I am by myself. Aside from the first attempts to get on the mooring, she has handled wonderfully and predictably, and there have been no problems. Still it is a learning process.

And speaking about learning, I have discovered a new aspect to ABISHAG. She has visions of being a "lobsta boat." Ghosting down the Pine Island Channel toward New London, I got into a field of lobster pots and hooked one. If it had been a simple float it probably would have slipped off. However, these floats had a stick at the top which probably makes them easier to pick up, but they also make it tougher for them to slide off a prop or rudder of a passing boat.

Moving at about one knot, it took a few moments for me to realize that I wasn't moving. Turning the wheel made it clear that I wasn't hooked by the rudder. Leaving the wheel and going to the stern, I could see that the float wasn't hooked around the rudder on the wind steering vane. That mean that it was hooked around the prop. It also meant that I was going swimming. Great!

I lowered the dinghy and then the ladder. Tied a line to the stern cleat and heaved it astern so that once I got the boat free it didn't sail away from me. Put on the mask and went over the side.
One breathe and down to the prop and there was the float, its line wrapped around the prop and the stick on top wedged against the hull holding it in place. A hard tug and it was off the prop . . . . . . .and then wrapped itself around the rudder. Another tug and it slipped off the rudder . . . . . only to wrap itself around the rudder of the wind steering vane. One more tug and it was disconnected completely from ABISHAG which literally leaped forward now that she was free. trailing the line behind the boat was a very, very good idea. My grab for the boarding ladder was a miss! and who knows if I would have caught up without the safety line.

I am going to have to clean and paint the rudder on the wind steering system. The "sea growth" has been particularly vigorous in its growth rate and while it comes off rather easily from the bottom painted surfaces, the "bare naked" rudder on the wind steering system gets a quick coating and unfortunately barnacles to go with it. I say unfortunately as when I went over the stern, I scraped my leg and it didn't feel very good at all. The nasty thing about "barnacle rash' is that it heals very, very slowly. A little Witch Hazel, a little Hydrogen peroxide, some Bactine and Neosporen and it will still look "new" for the next month. I am going to have to pull that rudder, scrape it down and paint it. I am not sure why I didn't do that before. For some reason I "thought" that it wasn't necessary but it surely is.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

It was strangely quiet Saturday . . . . on the Marine radio. I monitor Channel 16 (you are supposed to) when I am sailing and usually on weekends, there is constant chatter on 16. This Saturday, it was strangely quiet. A few calls for radio checks, a few calls for towing help, a few Coast Guard updates and advisories, and one "SECURITE" call, and that was it. There just aren't the boats out there this year. I should say that there are not the "powerboats" out there. There numbers are really down and even those out there are motoring at very un-powerboat-like speeds. There are fewer sailboats than in years past, but still a lot more of them than there are powerboats. I suspect that the cost of fuel is really having an impact.

Still about 20 or so big powerboat racers came zipping into New London from Manhattan, went around the Goldstar Bridge and headed back to Manhattan at full bore. The noise they produced was incredible. The close passing to other boats was unnerving. The amount of fuel any one of the boats used in this race probably exceeded to total amount of fuel I have used since I have owned boats! It's nice to see people waste money like that!