The race went well, we placed middle of the pack. Not too shabby. The trip to the starting line was a little rough, we pulled out of Little Creek into 2-3 footers. We made the trip to Norfolk closed hauled just before the wind died. By race start the wind had come around to the east and we began the two-leg race on a run. The big drifter came out, joining the acres of sail as the fleet sailed wing on wing or, as in the racing class, flew spinnakers. We rounded middle ground light and beat windward on the #1, finishing the race 5th in the cruising class of 11 or so.
The trip back to Little Creek was dicey, the afternoon wind building quickly to a strong ESE blow. The first bit of breakage happened about 10 minutes after leaving the dock party; the starboard jib track bent 90 degrees up as soon as we put strain the working jib. Several screws had pulled out of the toe rail, rendering the starboard sail track inoperable forward. The starboard sheet was rerouted quickly to the remnants of the self-setting jib track, and we continued on. Winds were strong enough to keep us well heeled all the way back. A few puffs of 25+ put the rail well into the water. We discovered that the loop in the bilge pump discharge is NOT above the maximum heeled water line, the result of which was a bilge pump constantly running to try and keep the siphon from filling the boat.
We had fun, to be sure, and our two newbie crew members got broken in. All in all a pretty good day, but...
- Stainless Steel sail track pulled out of toe rail and bent 90 degrees.
- Chartplotter will not power up (found it like that in the morning)
- Bilge pump plumbing needs complete overhaul to include vented loop and new hose.
- Bilge pump switch still not wired in. Need to fix that while I'm working on the pump.
- Need to remove and reinstall all sail tracks with new hardware.
- Still no flag halyard, need to fix that
- Pre-race power wash stripped old, crappy teak off. OIL!
I think that was about it. So, I had a pretty good grocery list of things to do.
To date:
- Refurbished Chartplotter received from Garmin.
- Bent sail track straightened, began work removing others.
- Bilge pump discharge re-plumbed. New hose, Vented loop installed raising high point about six inches on the centerline.
- Bilge pump wiring redone, switch wired in above chart table.
- Teak oiled a couple times, sanding begun.
- Flag halyard installed on backstay :-).
I'm off!
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Racing this Saturday in the Around the Light race. At least that's the plan. IF I can get out there and race it will be the first time since 1991 the boat has raced; that's 22 years!
Found a loose ground yesterday, and got a bunch of sanding done topside. Powerwashing this week.
Gotta look good when I win on Saturday :-)
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Well, that was close! We made an intelligent decision and waited a day for weather to improve, only to end up motoring for a day and a half on a glassy Chesapeake Bay. As we were crossing the Potomac, however, a big wind came up and gave us some fun before settling into Reedville, VA, a small fishing town just south of that big river. Farther south the confused season (this spring has been insane!) threw another unannounced winter storm in, tossing the seas to 7' (2.5m) according to official reports and keeping us pierside. All worked out reasonably well, though, as I motored into port a few days later with a 12 knot wind in my face.
I'm here. I made it. My third (Christy Lee's second) voyage on the bay.
pic: Christy Lee motoring out of Holiday Hill Marina for the last time :-( .
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Well, I picked up this polyethylene dingy for free. Problem is it had a hole in it. Digging around I found a patch kit. Took about an hour to fix, another 45 minutes to figure out how to rig it (upside down to keep water out). End result: one step closer to getting underway!
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Things are coming to a head. My to-do list is dwindling. Got confirmation from two of my transient marinas today, just need to get hold of the third. Installed battery box for starting battery a few minutes ago. Things with my soon-to-be old job are almost wrapped up, completed my inventory today and will ship everything back tomorrow.
Weather is still a big question for next week, there's a winter storm rolling down from Canada which is threatening the departure date. The closer we get the more it looks like it might go north, though. We'll see. Tomorrow I'm up early, have topside work to do on the dingy and cabin ports. Ports, my ass. They're windows. Have you ever seen these things? :-)
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Oil and oil filter changed.
Fuel filter changed.
Looking good, engine purrs like a big, diesel powered kitten...
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