SNOW! They Are Actually Calling For Snow Tonight!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Lethargy can get you into some uncomfortable situations. I took yesterday to "finally" start emptying ABISHAG. I had taken a load of stuff up to Russ' basement last week, but surprisingly it didn't seem to make much of a dent in the nautical collection aboard. It was simply a "stripping of the surface" and yesterday was much more a plunge below the surface as it were.

     I started in the forepeak and I found stuff that I didn't recall that I had aboard. I found a set of the most "garish" bed linens that you have ever seen. Pier 1 Imports would not have carried them. I also re-discovered the drogue. A drogue is pear-shaped device made of webbing that one trails behind one's boat should one want to slow down in bad weather. I knew I had it, I just didn't know where it was. But Sunday's exploration and packing turned it up. In addition to the drogue itself, indeed stored with it, was 300 feet of 3/4 inch line (seemingly brand new) and 12 feet of 3/8 inch chain.  The idea is to attach the drogue to the chain and the chain to the line and the line to the stern of the boat and toss the whole mess over-board. The drogue pays out to the end of the chain&line and creates a drag which slows down and stabilizes the boat. According to all that I have read it works wonderfully well. I can't confirm this from personal experience as I have never used it.  And that is just as well as the worst weather incident I experienced, aside from the trip down the New Jersey coast where we actually were well in control of speed, was the micro-burst at Fort Pierce.  In that case, I wasn't even moving, less you call being pushed slowly down in the water at anchor "moving." Get the drogue itself to the stern of the boat would have been no problem. The problem was trying to drag the 300 feet of 3/4 inch line and the 12 feet of 3/8 inch chain from the fore peak, through the salon, up the ladder, across the cockpit, over the back deck to the stern without giving myself a hernia. I don't know how much it weighs, but even carefully tied up, it was a pain to move and Sunday the boats was still and on land. The thought of doing it in a blow was, shall we say, "most uncomfortable." Me going out in bad weather is anathema! Not that ABISHAG can't take it, or even me know that I have don it, but rather I don't look at sailing as a survival sport. If the weather is bad, I stay at anchor. So the drogue is going to the Consignment shop. The chain and the 3/4 inch line stays here. Where exactly I don't know but that stuff is something I can realistically use.

     Ah, lethargy! If I hadn't been afflicted, this is something I would have done right after ABSIHAG go hauled. Then again, the need for gas for the car and the lack of funds to fill the tank, even part way, put a real crimp in my plans. Now, it is a rush against snow and it appears that the snow is going to win! Damn!!!!

     I received a couple of emails from club members who have made the trip to sunny Florida. I must be infected with "powerboat-itse" for while  wouldn't mind being there with them, the prospect of the trip, with all the motoring and anchoring and all that stuff down and back was the real deterrent. They all sound like they are having a great time. At least they have the weather this year. Truth be told, I wish that I could start working on ABISHAG today to get her ready for the Spring. I really must be getting old or something for as much as I complain about the maintenance, I can't wait to start!