Winter Has Arrived!

SHIP'S LOG:

Skip and his wife Nancy, along with their friend Tom the Vintner and I brought ABISHAG to her winter home in Mystic. The trip took about 2 hours and was a breeze! And there certainly was a breeze. The wind was out of the Southwest at 15 knots with gust to 20-25. Waves were about 3 feet and it would have been a champion of a day to sail . . .if it was say August and there was no particular destination, but such was not the case today. As a result we motored the whole way and it was actually a rather nice ride. The trip to the Mystic River held no real problems, the greatest merely being the need to dodge the lobster pot buoys. With the wind and the waves, most of the buoys were difficult to see as they were at the end of their lines and so rode just below the surface. As luck would have it though we tangled with none. It would have been a really crappy day for going overboard to get one off the prop. The only boats out in the sound were some lobster boats, the odd fisherman or two and the cross sound ferries. There were two sailboats that came out of the Mystic River. One motored down the sound toward Niantic and the other put up sails. That one went off like a shot and quickly shortened sail. No one was interested in getting green water over the deck. true, the temperature was in the 60's but it still didn't pay to get wet. There were lots of empty mooring balls off the yacht club and as we went up the Mystic River, it was more of the same.

Going up the Mystic River was interesting in that the wind was right on our back and was pushing us along. as we got to the Mystic Shipyard, I dropped the throttle to idle and we were still moving along at a good 3.5 knots. I threw her into reverse to bring here to a stop and then turned ABISHAG into the fairway between the docks. I slowly proceeded down the left side of the fairway and made a slow right turn toward the slip. I had read a couple of articles about maneuvering a boat using a boat's prop wash. The turning the prop will slew the heading of the boat one way or the other depending on whether you are in reverse or going forward. Moving between forward and reverse, I lined the bow up with the empty slip and proceeded in. IT was slightly hairy as the wind was directly from behind and moved us faster than I wanted to got, but with judicious application of revers, we slipped right in and I surprised even myself. We were just about to begin tying up when I noticed that I was in slip #11 and not slip O #7. &^#%$%$#!!!!! I had to back out and move down two slips. Actually it went pretty easily and by the time I was approaching the slip, we got a hand from one of the yard workers. ABISHAG got all tied down, safe and sound and we were home for the winter.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

The trip was a snap and it went off without a hitch. Actually, I though God was fooling with me as when I turned the key to start the engine back at TYC nothing happened. However, I knew exactly what the problem was. One of the wires had slipped off the starting solenoid. I put it back on, turned the key and the engine roar to life. That was the biggest problem and was solved very easily. I know the boat well enough now that I can readily identify and fix most of the common problems. I guess that it means it is time to say goodbye. I'll be down readying the boat for the Monday Morning visit by the brokers and the reality of ABISHAG is up for sale will hit home. DAMN!