Where To Begin?!?!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Well, we have to go back to the middle of July. Somewhere then, Kevin from the sail loft got enough free time to go with me up to Yankee and put the furling system together. The day before, we spent 3 hours literally calculating just how long it should be. The distance from the forestay anchor point at the top of the mast down to the proper hole on the head stem was a known distance - 47 feet, 1 & 3/4 inches. The forestay wire itself had to pass through a series of foils( metal groves that hold the front of the jib to the forestay), through the furling drum which, when a line was pulled, would wrap the sail around the foils so that only the outer, sun-resistant cloth was left exposed. At the bottom of the drum was a fixture to which the forestay was to be attached, which in-turn was to be shackled to the stem head. Clear? Let us just say that we would have only a few millimeters of play to play with so getting the proper length in the finished product was essential. Like I said, it took us three (3) hours to assemble it and we seemed to be spot on. Once that was all done, the whole works had to be disassemble and repacked in the cartons it came in for transport to Yankee the following morning.

     The next day turned out to be a cloudless summer day and one of the hottest of the summer. The second assembly took two hours and boy did we get cooked.  Once it was all done, it rested beautiful on some boat stands right next to ABISHAG awaiting Dean, the boat yard manager who had to attach it to the boat. Strange as it may see, the boatyard did not have a lift or a crane that could reach the top of the mast which was approximately 63 feet above the ground. But Dean had a friend who had a tree trimming service and his friend had a boom truck that could do the job. They had already used it do take down the old system so we knew it would work to put up the new. It would happen within the next 24 hours so Kevin and I went back to the loft.

     The next day, I got a call from Dean say that the clevis pin which attached the forestay to the stem ]head  didn't fit the hole in the stemhead. It was too big. Kevin and Dean had an animated discussion about the situation and after a could of days it was decided to use a hex bolt (1/2") in place of the clevis pin so that we could get ABISHAG of the hard. Then we had to wait for the full moon high tide. Even though Portland is some 20 miles up river from the sound it is still affected by the tides. In addition, it has been a very dry summer and the Connecticut River is down significantly. The yard couldn't and wouldn't launch ABISHAG (5 1/2foot draft) if there wasn't enough water in the launching pen. There was a three day wait for high tide and enough water and when there was sufficient water, ABISHAG was launch and towed to the near by dock.

     That Saturday I had launch duty and so friend Fred went aboard to been on the sails and generally get things "ship-shape." Then on Sunday, we arrived there at 10 with the intention of leaving ASAP. The rig had to be tuned and the lines cleared from the deck.  At 11 o'clock, I checked the engine, put the key in the ignition and turned it. NOTHING! It took only a minute to determine that the batteries had not been reinstalled. So it was a call to Dean, on his day off, and kicked-out a couple of yard workers to find the right batteries and install them.  Thus we got underway about 11:30.

     We had to luck as we hit both of the swing bridges a the moment they were opening and got to the sound at 3pm. The wind was bang on the nose and blowing about 20 which meant a pounding all the way from Old Saybrook to New London. It was not the most fun I have ever had aboard ABISHAG but the 3 hours it took were endurable because when they ended, ABISHAG was on her own mooring and at home. Ah, the joy of boat ownership.