Rain Day Blues

SHIP'S LOG:

Today it is raining, then again it really has rained, at least a little, all week. Each day we got some rain and there is nothing more depressing that being on a sailboat in the rain. Now it is true that at times, when you have been sailing a lot, that it is wonderful to get a "lay day" as they refer to it on the racing scene. It is a day when you can do all, well at least some, of those little jobs that you have been putting off, general housekeeping chores and the like.  I still have yet to put away last weeks clean laundry. It sits, inconsolable, on a corner of the settee in the aft cabin. Of course, the pile is growing smaller as it gets used up and eventually it will all be transferred to the laundry hamper for a trip to the laundry, but that's another story.

There is of course the "floors" that need sweeping and washing, trash cans that need cleaning, sinks and counter tops and toilets that needs scrubbing, and dishes and cups that need washing. You know, basic house cleaning. I am constantly amazed at the "dust rhinos"  that show up and wonder from where. You would think that a quarter mile from the shore, they would have real trouble "migrating" this far, but they show up in absolute "herds" and in the strangest places. For some reason one of their favorite places is underneath the teak grating that is the cockpit floor.  It is important to roust them out of there for when they get soaked from rain or spray, they cover the scuppers that drain the cockpit and plug them. It takes about four inches of rain to then flood the cockpit and pour over into the cabin below. Clearing the scuppers is easy but handling that hairy mass is disgusting. The rhinos love obscure corners throughout the boat but for the most part tend to congregate toward the aft. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that with the forward and aft hatches open, the wind whistles through the boat fore-to-aft driving the "herd" before it.

Thus a good, rainy day is a day when you can accomplish a lot of need work that seems less important when the weather is fine for sailing. Then again, it doesn't always rain during the day. At night on those nights when rain is forecast be NOAA(Ha!), I usually close the forward hatch and just leave one port open in the aft cabin and the most aft hatch, over my berth, open.  If NOAA gets it right, as highly improbably as that seems, rain will wake me and I get to close the hatch. The rain drums on the hatch and the cabin heats up(body BTUs). The when the rain stops, the silence is deafening, I open the hatch again and go back to sleep often to be awaken by a later shower. The process can go on all night and is not fun.


When I got up this morning and called the launch, I noticed that a boat further down in the mooring field had a small problem. It's Genoa had begun to unfurl and if left unfurled, it would beat itself to death, or cause itself some damage. I had the launch operator take me out and I fixed the problem. The problem was actually caused by the fact that the owners of the boat were new to sailing as were the others present that i noticed when I was on the boat. The furling line was simply to short which prevent the sail, when furled, to be secured with several loops of the jib sheets warped around it. The jib sheets were also led incorrectly and the brake on the wheel, intended to keep the wheel from turning and thus the rudder from swinging, while tightly applied, did not in fact keep the wheel from turning. Just like on a car, the brake shoes needed to be replaced. So I secured the wheel with some line. I have done such rescues" several times over the course of the summer and I am thinking that I may start a "marine service" for the people in mooring field.

It is going to rain all morning, be cloudy all afternoon, and rain again tonight.  What a drag!