Yeah, But We Need the Rain . . . .

SHIP'S LOG:

It was not a great day yesterday, not a lot of wind and sort of gray and overcast pretty much. But I took to opportunity to go for a sail to work out again using the Hydro-vane Win d steering System. It is not a particularly complicated item to use, but like pretty much anything that you haven't used in awhile, it took some re-acquainting to remember exactly how it worked.

I set it up at the mooring and then motored out to the mouth of the river. The wind was light and out of the south west so I had a half a mile run to get to where that sails would draw and I could shut down the engine. I got on a southwest reach and engaged the steering vane. As I was adjusting it, the Coast Guard came on channel 16 and announced a special weather bulletin in channel 22 - their working channel. Now there are marine weather channels and channel 16 is not one of them. Channel 16 is a hailing and emergency channel. The Coast Guard rarely uses the channel except to announce a problem, so when they get on and say the have a weather announcement, I pay attention!

Moments later, I was listening to a weather warning couched in apocalyptic terms and dooms day adjectives. Being a little over a mile from the mooring, I headed back. I got to the mooring and tied up and sat down with a book and lunch. The sky went from broken clouds and blue sky to complete gray overcast to dark gray overcast to a curtain of rain. After an initial downpour, it settled into a nice gentle rain - good for lawns which did not to remove any of the humidity. It continued up to the ALL-Star Game at 8pm.

I did learn two things: 1.) the leak I have been tracking down in the aft cabin has evidently been correctly identified and fixed: 2.) I have to find a better way to ventilate the boat. Closing down all the hatches and ports keep the rain out - mostly - but can make the boat an oven.

The awning which I found the other day and put up worked great against the intrusion rain into the cockpit. A good thing too as it was to muggy and warm to stay below with all the hatches closed.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

It is getting more and more comfortable on the boat. I suppose when you really have no place to go it gets easier. I have established an "in port" routine. Next will be to establish a "cruising routine" and star cruising .