SHIP'S LOG:
It was August today. Perhaps late July, but it was definitely mid-summer. The three "H's" were here early this morning as I brought ABISHAG into a slip. By the time I was through securing here, I was soaking wet with sweat ad it was only 6:30am!
NOAA called for a sunny day(check!), little in the way of clouds (double check!!) high humidity(triple check!!!) and wind in the 10knts range! well, you can't be right all of the time. During most of the day, the wind was a zephyr, occasionally get up enough gumption t ripple the water. sad to say, it is not ABISHAG's element. It is one of those days you want a multi-hull or a small racing boat, something that will, as they say, "move when a moth farts in Montana!" At 11 tons, that ain't ABISHAG!
Still in all, it was pleasant working on her in this weather. A tiny cool breeze wafting through the boat. Then again, that should have been the warning. Hazy, hot, humid and cool breeze mean one thing in the summer, a nasty line squall, probably with thunder and lightning. And as sit here at 7:37pm, some really ugly, nasty black clouds are converging on New London and the rumble o thunder can be heard. The weather radar is showing a squall line of thunder storms heading our way and, since it is in color, it is almost beautiful . . . . except for the purple! I can't remember the last time I saw purple in a color radar scan, but if I have seen it before, it certainly was not a good thing. Nor is it this time either.
As these things go, one can not say exactly where this line of storms is going to hit except for the fact that unless it makes a really radical turn, we are going to get wet at TYC. Hopefully, we will be spared the "quarter size hail, . . . . the torrential downpour, . . . . the 60mph winds," but one has to deal with what comes your way. That means extra lines for ABISHAG ad a nice and cozy spot in the clubhouse for me. Here's hoping it goes south pf us as it appears to be doing.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Can One Day A Summer Make?
SHIP'S LOG:
Yesterday was a perfect summer day. Not a cloud in the sky. Neither too hot nor too cool. Plenty of wind but not enough to make sailing a lot of work. It was just perfect. Strangely, the sound was bereft of boats and those of us who were out there enjoying this perfect day pretty much had the place to ourselves.
Sailing on such a day is rater special. There really is no drive to go somewhere or anywhere for that matter. One simply lets the wind fill the sails and off you go, on one long tack until you get the urge to go in some other direction simply to see what that is like. You do this several times and before you know it, you have eaten up much of the day and so you slowly start to make your way back home. It was wonderful and peaceful and eminently enjoyable. It was a perfect day.
Today on the other hand was/is not. It was a "not enough" day - not enough wind, not enough sun, not enough warmth, and too much humidity. It is amazing how much can change in just 24 hours. Most people probably didn't even notice but those of us who live by wind and wave and sun saw it all too clearly. I am hoping that yesterday and not today is the model for the summer.
Yesterday was a perfect summer day. Not a cloud in the sky. Neither too hot nor too cool. Plenty of wind but not enough to make sailing a lot of work. It was just perfect. Strangely, the sound was bereft of boats and those of us who were out there enjoying this perfect day pretty much had the place to ourselves.
Sailing on such a day is rater special. There really is no drive to go somewhere or anywhere for that matter. One simply lets the wind fill the sails and off you go, on one long tack until you get the urge to go in some other direction simply to see what that is like. You do this several times and before you know it, you have eaten up much of the day and so you slowly start to make your way back home. It was wonderful and peaceful and eminently enjoyable. It was a perfect day.
Today on the other hand was/is not. It was a "not enough" day - not enough wind, not enough sun, not enough warmth, and too much humidity. It is amazing how much can change in just 24 hours. Most people probably didn't even notice but those of us who live by wind and wave and sun saw it all too clearly. I am hoping that yesterday and not today is the model for the summer.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
A Day For A Little Sail
SHIP'S LOG:
The Sun is Out! The Temp is warming. The Sky is Clear. Looks like a perfect day to go for a sail. Now all I need is WIND!
Yesterday, the wind didn't die down until mid afternoon. It eventually became calm, so calm that it didn't blow at all. Strange weather, what? It gave me a chance to do a thorough cleaning of the clubhouse and rearrange everything to a post-gale state. Aside from that, not much transpired.
It still doesn't feel like summer. Yes, I know it is not summer by the calendar, nor by the astronomical measurement, but summer is really when it feels like summer and right now it just doesn't. Here's hoping that it will soon!
The Sun is Out! The Temp is warming. The Sky is Clear. Looks like a perfect day to go for a sail. Now all I need is WIND!
Yesterday, the wind didn't die down until mid afternoon. It eventually became calm, so calm that it didn't blow at all. Strange weather, what? It gave me a chance to do a thorough cleaning of the clubhouse and rearrange everything to a post-gale state. Aside from that, not much transpired.
It still doesn't feel like summer. Yes, I know it is not summer by the calendar, nor by the astronomical measurement, but summer is really when it feels like summer and right now it just doesn't. Here's hoping that it will soon!
Friday, June 14, 2013
And It Sure Did Blow! ! ! ! !
SHIP'S LOG:
We got socked pretty good yesterday, probably another 4-6 inches of rain and wind that clocked at a steady 34mph with gusts to 40! It wasn't a pleasant day to spend on the boat . . . .so I did not, nor the night either. I have spent more than enough nights rockin' & rollin' when I had to do so. Now that I do not necessary have to do so, doing so makes no sense.
The boats that were going to participate in the Off Soundings Series never showed up with the exception of those from the club. Three of the four took of for Stonington about 9:30. They left early to beat the wind and rain and waves. The fourth was unable to get any member of her crew down before 6pm(people do work you know). I was willing to go but there was no way to get back save walking and Stonington is much to far on a good day. She didn't want to make the trip by herself, one smart lady, but she really had to be there as she was running the social and dinner for the assembling crews on Thursday night in Stonington. By dint of a lot of p[hone calling, she was able to find crew to go with her and I went over after they got there to bring the crew back. in the end, it all worked out.
The weather continued to deteriorate all day and the Force 5's even decided not to race. As one sagely noted, "Racing a Force 5(small racing dinghy) in 25- 30 knots, in 3 foot waves is no problem when the water is turquoise blue and 8 degrees, like in Key Largo, Florida, but it is a different, and not a good thing, when the water is slate gray and 52 degrees(off TYC)!"
By morning the club skiffs were filled and needed pumping out. When the wind dies off some more, I will put the porch furniture back outside and get around to picking up the wind-blown debris. The SUN is rumored to be coming out this afternoon and tomorrow is actually supposed to be sunny and warm all day. That's what NOAA says. Me, I wait and see.
We got socked pretty good yesterday, probably another 4-6 inches of rain and wind that clocked at a steady 34mph with gusts to 40! It wasn't a pleasant day to spend on the boat . . . .so I did not, nor the night either. I have spent more than enough nights rockin' & rollin' when I had to do so. Now that I do not necessary have to do so, doing so makes no sense.
The boats that were going to participate in the Off Soundings Series never showed up with the exception of those from the club. Three of the four took of for Stonington about 9:30. They left early to beat the wind and rain and waves. The fourth was unable to get any member of her crew down before 6pm(people do work you know). I was willing to go but there was no way to get back save walking and Stonington is much to far on a good day. She didn't want to make the trip by herself, one smart lady, but she really had to be there as she was running the social and dinner for the assembling crews on Thursday night in Stonington. By dint of a lot of p[hone calling, she was able to find crew to go with her and I went over after they got there to bring the crew back. in the end, it all worked out.
The weather continued to deteriorate all day and the Force 5's even decided not to race. As one sagely noted, "Racing a Force 5(small racing dinghy) in 25- 30 knots, in 3 foot waves is no problem when the water is turquoise blue and 8 degrees, like in Key Largo, Florida, but it is a different, and not a good thing, when the water is slate gray and 52 degrees(off TYC)!"
By morning the club skiffs were filled and needed pumping out. When the wind dies off some more, I will put the porch furniture back outside and get around to picking up the wind-blown debris. The SUN is rumored to be coming out this afternoon and tomorrow is actually supposed to be sunny and warm all day. That's what NOAA says. Me, I wait and see.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
About That Wind!!!!
SHIP'S LOG:
The Off Soundings Sailing Club is running a series of races over the weekend. TYC is the most convenient place to load crew and stores for people coming any distanced and a number of participants from around the area usually head here to dock their boat before heading off. This meant that I had to get of the dock to free up space an normally that wouldn't mean a great deal except for the fact that in this case the wind was really blowing. The readings from Ledge Light near the mouth of the river were 30knts steady with gust to 38knts. The wind was out of the North West, right down the river, and as such it was blowing straight down the river and straight into the slips. This meant that I had to try and back out against a lot of wind. No sailboat backs well to begin with and when there is lot of wind, they like it even less. There is also the problem that if you can get the boat moving backwards, as soon as you start to move broadside to the wind, it is very easy to loose control. And unless you keep the boat straight into the wind, getting swung broadside is very, very easy.
I kept waiting for the wind to ease up a bit and while it seemed to do so at times, it never was quite long enough to get the job done. Finally, Chuck the Launch Driver, came up with the idea of using the launch to keep ABISHAG stern-to-wind during the back out, allowing me to get away from piers and other boats, before turning her broadside and going forward. So I started the engine and waited for a "lull." One eventually came, or the closest thing we were likely to get, and I rushed about, dropping lines and climbing into the cockpit and backing her out. It was a lot less dramatic than a lot of other maneuvers I have undertaken and, with Chuck's help, turned out rather easy. So ABISHA is back on her mooring, safe and sound.
And it is a good thing too as today it is supposed to rain all day, with small craft advisories until 6pm when they will be upgraded to gale warnings. It appears that the next few days are supposed to continue to be crappy as well. This spring and summer have so far been rather crazy weather-wise. I hope it all settles down into something approaching "normal" soon.
The Off Soundings Sailing Club is running a series of races over the weekend. TYC is the most convenient place to load crew and stores for people coming any distanced and a number of participants from around the area usually head here to dock their boat before heading off. This meant that I had to get of the dock to free up space an normally that wouldn't mean a great deal except for the fact that in this case the wind was really blowing. The readings from Ledge Light near the mouth of the river were 30knts steady with gust to 38knts. The wind was out of the North West, right down the river, and as such it was blowing straight down the river and straight into the slips. This meant that I had to try and back out against a lot of wind. No sailboat backs well to begin with and when there is lot of wind, they like it even less. There is also the problem that if you can get the boat moving backwards, as soon as you start to move broadside to the wind, it is very easy to loose control. And unless you keep the boat straight into the wind, getting swung broadside is very, very easy.
I kept waiting for the wind to ease up a bit and while it seemed to do so at times, it never was quite long enough to get the job done. Finally, Chuck the Launch Driver, came up with the idea of using the launch to keep ABISHAG stern-to-wind during the back out, allowing me to get away from piers and other boats, before turning her broadside and going forward. So I started the engine and waited for a "lull." One eventually came, or the closest thing we were likely to get, and I rushed about, dropping lines and climbing into the cockpit and backing her out. It was a lot less dramatic than a lot of other maneuvers I have undertaken and, with Chuck's help, turned out rather easy. So ABISHA is back on her mooring, safe and sound.
And it is a good thing too as today it is supposed to rain all day, with small craft advisories until 6pm when they will be upgraded to gale warnings. It appears that the next few days are supposed to continue to be crappy as well. This spring and summer have so far been rather crazy weather-wise. I hope it all settles down into something approaching "normal" soon.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
A Weekend Of Fun
SHIP'S LOG:
Saturday was beautiful. Actually hot, a little too humid, with a fine breeze blowing. I spent most of the ashore, helping the Junior Sailing Director getting things setup for the Junior Sailing Program that will begin soon. The E-mail Blast that was supposed to go out to members to elicit their help got fouled up and never went out and so it was the Director and myself, with a little help from anyone we could shanghai for a while. The most difficult and longest part of the day was removing the sail tubes from underneath the deck of the building. The sail-tubes are about 12 foot lengths of drainage pipe that are used to store the sails we used on the Junior Sailing Program boats. There are 25 of them and they were screwed to 2 boards, fore and aft, and were set on the sand under the porch. Over the years, they have been semi-buried due to flooding and filled up almost completely by blowing sand. As a result, they haven't really been used and the task was to get them out and to a new location where they could be used. Slowly, each had to be unscrewed, first at the front, then at the back. The front was no problem, but the back-ends were really buried and required that I (the Junior Sailing Director in approaching 80!) crawl under the house, dig them out, unscrew them, and then crawl back out and muscle them out into the daylight. A 12 foot sewage pipe, even made of PVC, half filled with sand, is quite a load! Once outside, they had to be flushed out with water and then carted to their new rack location. Though it doesn't sound like all that big a deal, we began about 11 and finished about 4:30. It could have been worse, it could have rained!
Sunday was another beautiful day and this one I spent sailing, actually racing, with Jim Avery. Jim is a great guy, approaching 82, and sails a NONSUCH, a modernized version of a catboat. It has but one large sail and is touted as easy to sail, and it is, but Jim's daughter, Ellen, isn't happy with him sailing by himself. Actually, I don't think that Jim likes all that much by himself. He enjoys company, hence the crew. It was three great races, the second Sunday of the Chilli Series, and aside from the fact that we mis-read the course for the first race and so were disqualified from it, we did veery well in the next two and won our class in the over-all series. Not a baad Sunda of sailing.
Monday started out gray and eventually turn wet, but nonetheless, I went and helped out Rich Weber get his boat ready to launch. It is an old boat, but new for him, and he had to remove all the lifeline stanchions as all were cracked, a a couple broken.They are a one-piece rod-&-base, held to the deck with four bolts. As seems common on all boats, taking them off was easy, but re-installing them was difficult. You could get to one or two of the boat rather easily in most cases, but there were always at least 2 that you needed to be a contortionist to get the washer and nut on, and most of the time, it had to be cone completely by feel, without being able to see what you were doing. The basic procedure was to put caulking around the four holes on the deck, a line of caulking around what would be the edge of the base, set the base down, insert the four screws, put on the washers and nuts and tighten the whole thing down, the inside make holding the nut while the outside man tightened. The toss-up between being the outside man and the inside man was choosing whether you wanted to be the contortionist or whether you wanted to be out on the deck in the rain. I got the rain!
And it poured all night. Hard rain and lots of wind and it was rock 'n' roll all night long. Ah, the fun of baot ownership.
Saturday was beautiful. Actually hot, a little too humid, with a fine breeze blowing. I spent most of the ashore, helping the Junior Sailing Director getting things setup for the Junior Sailing Program that will begin soon. The E-mail Blast that was supposed to go out to members to elicit their help got fouled up and never went out and so it was the Director and myself, with a little help from anyone we could shanghai for a while. The most difficult and longest part of the day was removing the sail tubes from underneath the deck of the building. The sail-tubes are about 12 foot lengths of drainage pipe that are used to store the sails we used on the Junior Sailing Program boats. There are 25 of them and they were screwed to 2 boards, fore and aft, and were set on the sand under the porch. Over the years, they have been semi-buried due to flooding and filled up almost completely by blowing sand. As a result, they haven't really been used and the task was to get them out and to a new location where they could be used. Slowly, each had to be unscrewed, first at the front, then at the back. The front was no problem, but the back-ends were really buried and required that I (the Junior Sailing Director in approaching 80!) crawl under the house, dig them out, unscrew them, and then crawl back out and muscle them out into the daylight. A 12 foot sewage pipe, even made of PVC, half filled with sand, is quite a load! Once outside, they had to be flushed out with water and then carted to their new rack location. Though it doesn't sound like all that big a deal, we began about 11 and finished about 4:30. It could have been worse, it could have rained!
Sunday was another beautiful day and this one I spent sailing, actually racing, with Jim Avery. Jim is a great guy, approaching 82, and sails a NONSUCH, a modernized version of a catboat. It has but one large sail and is touted as easy to sail, and it is, but Jim's daughter, Ellen, isn't happy with him sailing by himself. Actually, I don't think that Jim likes all that much by himself. He enjoys company, hence the crew. It was three great races, the second Sunday of the Chilli Series, and aside from the fact that we mis-read the course for the first race and so were disqualified from it, we did veery well in the next two and won our class in the over-all series. Not a baad Sunda of sailing.
Monday started out gray and eventually turn wet, but nonetheless, I went and helped out Rich Weber get his boat ready to launch. It is an old boat, but new for him, and he had to remove all the lifeline stanchions as all were cracked, a a couple broken.They are a one-piece rod-&-base, held to the deck with four bolts. As seems common on all boats, taking them off was easy, but re-installing them was difficult. You could get to one or two of the boat rather easily in most cases, but there were always at least 2 that you needed to be a contortionist to get the washer and nut on, and most of the time, it had to be cone completely by feel, without being able to see what you were doing. The basic procedure was to put caulking around the four holes on the deck, a line of caulking around what would be the edge of the base, set the base down, insert the four screws, put on the washers and nuts and tighten the whole thing down, the inside make holding the nut while the outside man tightened. The toss-up between being the outside man and the inside man was choosing whether you wanted to be the contortionist or whether you wanted to be out on the deck in the rain. I got the rain!
And it poured all night. Hard rain and lots of wind and it was rock 'n' roll all night long. Ah, the fun of baot ownership.
Friday, June 7, 2013
It Should Be Summer! ! ! ! ! !
SHIP'S LOG:
. . . . but it ain't! True, it does actually get comfortable enough to wear shorts and t's, but it is still "chilly." Stand in the blowing wind, it is actually cold. Temps at night are down in the low 50's, the water temperature is still official "cold and the wind blows constantly. The again, it is happening in New London as opposed to it happening in Portland, so it could be worse. But really, I don't care a lick as I am here and not there and I can go sailing any time I want!
Then again, I really have to get ABISHAG cleaned up and ordered. I am still trying to figure out where everything goes on the boat. Last year, everything had its place, but so far this year there is still a lot of stuff in the salon and I can't seem to remember where and how I had it stored last year. In addition, there is still more stuff to come, but I can bring it to the boat until I find a "home" for all the stuff that I have now.
I had though that it would take awhile to get into the routine of living on the boat again. Truth be told, it took less than a day. I got right back into the mind-set. As I lay in my berth Tuesday night, the wind was blowing quite a bit. I could hear the "comforting sound" of the wind generator turning. There was, however, a ticking, clicking sound when the wind blew strong. My first, and actually only thought, was that something was screwed up with the generator. It actually sounded as though the blades were hitting a shroud our something. Since it was night and the generator was 40 feet in the air, there was nothing I could do about it so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning there was no wind . . . . at first, so I could not track down the source of the sound. Eventually the wind picked up enough to get the generator turning a good clip so I went to the mizzen mast and put my ear against it. There was some rattling so I gave a gentle pull to the wires running from the generator to see if maybe there were loos and so whacking the inside of the mast. I went into the stern cabin to see if I could still here the sound and . . . .yup, it was still there! Damn! As I "raised my eye to heaven in prayer" figuring now that I would have to go all the way back to Portland so they could fix the problem, I happened to glance out the hatch and could see one of the shrouds really vibrating. Hey, perhaps this is the problem, one that could be solved with a simple tightening of the rig. So it was back up to the Mizzen Mast and that shroud. But it wasn't the shroud exactly. Attached to the shroud is a small flag halyard cleat, on of five on the boat. With no flag attached, the halyard was secured to the cleat and the two bronze clips, used to attach a flag to the halyard, were right at the cleat. And as the shroud vibrated, they beat a tattoo on the shroud producing the clicking/ticking sound. I retied the halyard with the clips up at the top near the block. Problem solve! Huzzah!
All eyes down here are on the 1st Hurricane of the season which came to birth on the first day of the official Hurricane Season, June 1st. True, ANDREA is only listed as a "Tropical Storm," but then so was SANDY and IRENE! Right now she is moving along the coast of South Carolina and head our way. Hopefully, Cape Hatteras and its barrier islands will do their job and send her spinning off into the Atlantic, keeping her far from us. We are already feeling the effects here and the weather today and tonight will be a bit nasty, with lots of rain and some decent wind. It is being pushed by ANDREA, but it is more her influence than her real impact. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to have a storm like this possibly headed our way so early in the season. I haven't been paying much attention to the weather for the past 6 months, now once again, it has to become part of the daily routine. O Joy Of Joys!
. . . . but it ain't! True, it does actually get comfortable enough to wear shorts and t's, but it is still "chilly." Stand in the blowing wind, it is actually cold. Temps at night are down in the low 50's, the water temperature is still official "cold and the wind blows constantly. The again, it is happening in New London as opposed to it happening in Portland, so it could be worse. But really, I don't care a lick as I am here and not there and I can go sailing any time I want!
Then again, I really have to get ABISHAG cleaned up and ordered. I am still trying to figure out where everything goes on the boat. Last year, everything had its place, but so far this year there is still a lot of stuff in the salon and I can't seem to remember where and how I had it stored last year. In addition, there is still more stuff to come, but I can bring it to the boat until I find a "home" for all the stuff that I have now.
I had though that it would take awhile to get into the routine of living on the boat again. Truth be told, it took less than a day. I got right back into the mind-set. As I lay in my berth Tuesday night, the wind was blowing quite a bit. I could hear the "comforting sound" of the wind generator turning. There was, however, a ticking, clicking sound when the wind blew strong. My first, and actually only thought, was that something was screwed up with the generator. It actually sounded as though the blades were hitting a shroud our something. Since it was night and the generator was 40 feet in the air, there was nothing I could do about it so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning there was no wind . . . . at first, so I could not track down the source of the sound. Eventually the wind picked up enough to get the generator turning a good clip so I went to the mizzen mast and put my ear against it. There was some rattling so I gave a gentle pull to the wires running from the generator to see if maybe there were loos and so whacking the inside of the mast. I went into the stern cabin to see if I could still here the sound and . . . .yup, it was still there! Damn! As I "raised my eye to heaven in prayer" figuring now that I would have to go all the way back to Portland so they could fix the problem, I happened to glance out the hatch and could see one of the shrouds really vibrating. Hey, perhaps this is the problem, one that could be solved with a simple tightening of the rig. So it was back up to the Mizzen Mast and that shroud. But it wasn't the shroud exactly. Attached to the shroud is a small flag halyard cleat, on of five on the boat. With no flag attached, the halyard was secured to the cleat and the two bronze clips, used to attach a flag to the halyard, were right at the cleat. And as the shroud vibrated, they beat a tattoo on the shroud producing the clicking/ticking sound. I retied the halyard with the clips up at the top near the block. Problem solve! Huzzah!
All eyes down here are on the 1st Hurricane of the season which came to birth on the first day of the official Hurricane Season, June 1st. True, ANDREA is only listed as a "Tropical Storm," but then so was SANDY and IRENE! Right now she is moving along the coast of South Carolina and head our way. Hopefully, Cape Hatteras and its barrier islands will do their job and send her spinning off into the Atlantic, keeping her far from us. We are already feeling the effects here and the weather today and tonight will be a bit nasty, with lots of rain and some decent wind. It is being pushed by ANDREA, but it is more her influence than her real impact. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to have a storm like this possibly headed our way so early in the season. I haven't been paying much attention to the weather for the past 6 months, now once again, it has to become part of the daily routine. O Joy Of Joys!
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