Not much decided yet - but here are some early plans
Launch on May 25th
May 28 - 31 (Memorial Day):
Menemsha - hoping to meet up with the Tiverton crowd
June 23 - July 9:
In the UK - Vacation and business.
July 24 - 31
Mattapoisett Yacht Club Cruise to Nantucket.
August 20 - September 6:
Maine Cruise. Return from Maine and hook up with Tiverton crowd in Martha's Vineyard for Labor Day
October 8 - 11 Columbus Day in Oak Bluffs and beyond.
We'll also be racing - with our new Toodle-oo! teamwear at Mattapoisett Yacht Club's Wednesday night series from Mid June through August.
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So, it's been a while again...
Boat projects are coming along slowly. The instruments are a bit more involved than at first thought - requiring some modification to thru-hulls to accept new transducers. The old ones are out, the new ones are prepared, but I've enlist Kyle Medina to actually do all the glass work associated with this - don't want the boat to sink because I don't know how to fill the old holes! I'm relocating a Dynaplate - which was located right in front of the depth transducer such that as the season progressed and barnacles built up on the Dynaplate, it would cause turbulence over the transducer and give fluky readings. A Dynaplate is a lump of bronze - made of sphere's which are compacted together - it's tied into the boat's earth and provides a relative large surface area. This enhances both lightening protection and provides a better ground for the SSB (long distance radio).
With the instrument installation there's also lots of wiring to be done again this year - but that's coming along too. Once the instruments are finished, I should be able to button that up quite quickly - in the new dash fascia.
The other change is a new lining in the fridge - to help keep it clean. I've cut a bunch of shiny white Fiberglass reinforced plastic to size - now I just have to glue it in place.
All our sails are at Quantum in Bristol - getting cleaned, inspected and fixed. The main is going to have a couple of inches shortened out of the leach - to prevent it hitting the bimini. The staysail needs work on it's cover, which gets brutalized by the jib sheets when tacking.
Launch date - yeah, we couldn't bear not sailing this year - will be May 25th. Seems a long way away - but since I'm writing this in India where I will have been for 3 weeks this trip - and I'm going again in May for 2 weeks, the launch will come sooner than we know it - and we'll have to rush to finish things. Once again, I doubt the exterior teak will get any TLC this year :-(.
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It's been a while... sorry...
Toodle-oo! is parked at the bottom of the garden, and it's entirely possible she may stay there all year. There are numberous projects to complete, and with the potential of extensive travel to and from India for my job, maybe it's best to take advantage of the situation and get some of those projects completed.
What projects?
All new instruments have been purchased. The install is not quite as striaghtforward as some would make out - and may involve drilling new holes in the bottom of the boat. Not something I relish.
A new battery monitor has been purchased - which means that much of the wiring I spent ages doing last year is for nought!
With new monitor and instruments, the nav station needs changing - again, much of last year's work up in smoke!
I'm already in process of fixing up the fridge - getting rid of the skanky old covering in favor of new easy clean surface - we'll see how long that lasts...
Then there's the quarterberth cupboards to install, the galley sink to replace, the shower stall grate to repair, etc, etc, etc...
On the other hand, a trip to Bermuda sounds like fun...
Happy New Year!
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We hauled Toodle-oo! on September 26th - then flew out to India the following day, returning just yesterday - 3 weeks later. I guess you can say our season is done!
She now sits at the bottom of our yard - awaiting updates and repairs!
We had a good season in 2009 - but no major passages. Not sure what lies ahead for 2010, but will keep you posted.
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It was great to be able to set out on Saturday morning with the new gearbox working well - much easier gear shifts than with the old one.
Good job too - since the forecast I have seen shows the highest wind speed at 8mph right through Tuesday! There's bound to be a lot of motoring...
We decided to head through Woods Hole for Falmouth - in search of Peter and Dianne Sterret - friends we knew would be there... We got a slightly later than optimal start (10:30am) as the current in Woods Hole turns against us at about 11:30 - and Woods Hole is 2 hours away...
We arrived at Woods hole in a procession of boats and motored through - but the current right at the center of the passage was fierce and we could make no headway. A traffic jam was piling up behind Toodle-oo! which included an irate fast ferry! So we managed to ease ourselves out of harm's way and make a quick U turn. Falmouth would have to wait until another day.
We headed in to Hadley Harbor to lick our wounds and regroup. The place was full! So we tried halfheartedly to anchor on the outside of Hadley's - but couldn't get a decent set - so we quickly decided to get out of there and head for Cuttyhunk.
Fortunately, the wind had come up a little so we sailed most of the way there and arrived at a very full location. The inner harbor was clearly packed - we didn't bother even going in - and so decided on the outer harbor - as far from a bell as we could reasonably get.
There's some nasty shallows in the harbor - which we managed to find - briefly running aground - a rarity for Toodle-oo! - which had the admiral upset with the captain! No harm done - we were going very slow and managed to back off the obstacle quickly. Our depth sounder - which works sporadically at best, was actually working at the time - and announcing 7'3" feet of water - our 4'11" should have fit easily! I'm guessing it was a rock on one side of the keel.
No matter, we managed to find a nice spot to anchor - in 11' of water, right behind 'Imagine" from Mattapoisett. We invited the crew of imagine for drinks - and embarrassingly found out that we have competed against them in the Wednesday night series! Unfortunately they had other plans... maybe tomorrow....
Maybe not.
We had an interesting dinner - Laurie prepared pizza - which I burned! Fortunately, the grilled scallops were really good though! We went to bed quite early and Cuttyhunk was a mill-pond.
Maybe not.
At 1:30am, it began to shake rattle and roll. The halyards were clanging - so I went up and bungied them off. The wind was upto about 15kts. I'd missed this forecast.
Back in bed, I'm thinking about the anchor. I did a really good job of anchoring - as Cuttyhunk is a little notorious for a weedy bottom - but I didn't have much scope out - about 40' plus snubber. I'd anchored in 11ft - but wasn't sure what the tide was doing - if it were set when at low tide, I could potentially have less than 3:1 scope. In view of the wind, I decided to add some scope - so I got up again. I ended up putting 65ft feet plus 20ft snubber out... and then I noticed... There were boats re-anchoring everywhere - the harbor was alive with activity. One boat dragged right between two others, owners oblivious in bed - despite hails and horns. Finally one guy dingied over to them and apparently got them up.
Throughout the evening, I watched the circus of activity. One boat attempted to anchor for two and a half hours (I went to bed then). In the morning, the wind was still up - 25kts with gusts to 35 - and there were two boats aground - one perilously close to the rocks. The outer harbor had emptied out - most people deciding it's safer in open waters. Others headed into the inner harbor and circled all night - no room in there.
We watched as Tow Boat US rescued various boats - including the one by the rocks - quite eventful.
We finally decided to leave about 11:00 - headed for home and a protected mooring. The wind was still up so for a while we were on double reefed main and staysl. However, we brought out a reefed Genoa in order to help us power through the 4 - 5' waves.
We tacked all the way across Buzzards Bay and then back again, getting close to Woods Hole - and then decided to head for Quisset instead of home. We picked up a mooring there ($30) and enjoyed a beautiful evening in calm waters. Lamb chops, corn and asparagus!
On Labor Day Monday, we headed to Oak Bluffs for lunch - taking advantage of favorable currents through Woods Hole - both on the way there and the way back.
Lunch was OK at our favorite pub there, but honestly a bit of a disappointment. Just before leaving, we saw Mike and Jane from Jamin in their dingy with a couple of friends (Bill and Sue?) - sorry we missed them earlier - and then as we were coming off the mooring, we watched Wind Blue (Don - the race commissioner!) head out of the harbor ahead of us.
We tried the spinnaker for a little - but quickly gave up and motored the rest of the way home.
Just a few miles out from home, I decided to try fishing - right up until this huge motor launch decides to come real close to the stern... I guess I caught a REALLY big one! There goes that $45 lure! Shortly after that, we noticed the speed had dropped dramatically - and feared that the transmission was at fault, so we babied the gearbox, and poured ourselves some wine!
So I'm sitting on the foredeck, enjoying a nice glass of Pino Grigio, when I notice that the motor launch is headed back to us - and he's on a collision course! Then I realize he's coming alongside... Oh jeeze another power boater got lost? Nope... "Hey buddy - did you know you're dragging a lobster pot?"
Sure enough - we were dragging the whole kit and caboodle!
After a quick swim to free the rudder, we were on our way again - thanks to Dan and Sarah aboard Trawler "Tortoise" (see their comment below)
Certainly an eventful Labor Day Weekend...
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Further to my last post, I did a bit of digging about how to replace the gearbox... On Friday I bought a new gearbox and managed to have it installed by Saturday morning! We salvage a three day weekend!!! :-)
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Sarah and I were the ones on the Trawler (Tortoise) that you almost reeled in yesterday! (sorry if you lost your lure).
We were wondering if you were able to release Toodle-oo from the lobster pot you picked up? Hope you made it back to your mooring before the wine ran out!
Cheers!
Dan.
