Well it's been a long time since i updated this blog so here goes. This spring i retired after working 35 years at a coal fired power generating station. Prior to that I had worked seven years in agricultural chemicals. April 17th, 1975 to March 30th, 2017. Two weeks shy of 42 years. I have a few years left in me but we decided it was time to spend more time at home.

And ... we bought a new house in March of this year - a house originally built in 1905! Now if that isn't a fixer upper then what is? In completing the move I sold all of the boats but the Com-Pac 19. Maybe we will get settled down and actually start sailing it a little bit soon. Time will tell. Stay tuned ...

Well, about six years ago (9.17.06) I posted a bit about a fellow commenting on what a nice fishing boat my Aqua Finn would make ... I think maybe I spoke with his mother this morning.

After a long day on the road Wednesday, we stopped around midnight in Birmingham and got a room. Getting back on the road early Thursday morning, we swung by a McDonald's for some breakfast. I stopped at the sign post and made our order, then pulled up to the first window. This nice great grandmother type repeated our order and took our money. While making change she smiled broadly and said "looks like someones going fishing!"

This is the second time I've been out with one of my sailboats and gotten this response. I guess there's just a lot more fishermen out there than sailors...

...............


Still laughing about that comment, I notice a shabby local approaching the truck on the passenger side from close behind. I immediately told the wife, in an urgent tone, "Lock your door! ... quick ... lock your door." Just as she was locking the door the man began waving for her to roll down her window. By now we had stopped at the pick-up window for our order. She gave me a hard stare as I said "roll it down just a little..." The man smiled, pulled out his cell phone and said "mind if I take a few pictures of your boat?"

Somewhat embarrassed and reassured in humanity I pleasantly obliged. He was still taking pictures when we drove off.

Fishing or sailing ... this Angry Bird always gets a lot of attention!

This trip was planned as a week of sailing for me & the wife on the Gulf Coast for some quite rest & relaxation. We were considering either Pensacola (on the big boat) or St Joseph Bay (on the little boat). We were looking at leaving Sunday afternoon and returning by Saturday evening. Sketchy plans. Mine always are.

On Wednesday before our trip I was informed that I would need to work a few hours Tuesday. I called the wife to discuss it. Trip still on! Then on Thursday I was informed that the meeting was on Wednesday @ 10am. Called the wife again. Not a happy camper. After a day of thinking about it she called Friday and told me that she still wanted to do the trip. This was gonna be a really long trip for a really short stay - but we would make it work. Our plan was to leave Wednesday at noon, drive all the way down to Dothan, AL where we would spend the night, get an early start, and be on the water before noon.

We got around and headed out around 1pm. We were about a half-hour from home when I realized I had left the mobile VHF radio at home. Oh well, we were supposed to meet up with another couple who were going to be sailing the bay Saturday and Sunday... maybe we would connect by cell phone. I stopped and met up with the wife at our daughter's house and got out and checked the trailer bearings...104 & 112 degrees. Its about 100 outside so we're good. We load up and head south. After about an hour of interstate driving I stopped just past Memphis and checked the bearings again...112 & 123 degrees. Still good so we head south at speed.


Misadventure #1
The gas gauge alerts me that it is feeling rather empty so we stop at New Albany, MS for gas and such. The wife goes inside for the "and such" part and I pump the gas. While the tank is filling I check the trailer bearings again...114 and...this is not good ... the left side wheel is canted inward, the grease bra is gone, there is more grease on the tire than in the bearing and I can see the bearing needles stacked haphazardly in the skewed races! At least I made it to the station and pulled off before something worse happened. (Thank You Lord!)

For the record - I bought this boat in Fort Worth, TX a little over two weeks ago. I hauled it home from Fort Worth at Interstate speed keeping close check on the bearings. The boat had been hauled half way across Texas and back two weeks before I bought it. I had hauled it a little over a two hour round trip to the lake & back twice since I bought it. This failure was totally unexpected. We had discussed the need for a road kit for the Big Boat in case something like this happened. We had even discussed the possibility for this trip. With such recent and uneventful towing we decided we were okay for now. Wrong.

Fortunately, there was WalMart store near the exit ramp. I unhooked the trailer, drove over and got a cheap jack, two different styles of 1" bearings and some grease along with a few hand tools. I took of the axle nut. As I pulled the wheel and hub assembly off the axle all the bearing parts fell to the ground. All except for the bearing inner race that is. It was rounded over and tight against the axle. To make matters worse, the spindle was 1-1/16" ... these bearings I just bought aren't going to fit. I got on the phone and found a Tractor Supply in Tupelo 38 miles away. It's already almost 6pm. We jump in the truck and head to Tupelo. Tractor Supply had the hub assembly with new lug nuts and grease seals and bearings already installed - nice. A little over an hour after heading to Tupelo we're back with the parts - and the race is still on the spindle. Now for another Thank You Lord moment - a couple of guys from the Waffle House have been checking on us and keeping us company from the onset. One of them calls a friend of a friend - a guy shows up a little later with tools and proceeds to hammer and chisel the inner race off the spindle. New hub mounted and back on the road 3-1/2 hours after we stopped for gas!

Back on the road we weigh or options. We decide to stop in Tupelo for a sit-down supper then drive all night to maximize our sailing time. With supper eaten we head out. It is almost midnight when the wife says "We need to stop." Say again? YOu need to P? "I want to get a room!" Sooo...we're checked into a room by midnight and back up around 7am and headed out on the road. We had intended to make Dothan originally but the bearing issue plus supper put us about 4 1/2hrs behind. When we stopped around midnight we had made it to Birmingham - still a long way to go.

The rest of the trip down was uneventful but after another gas stop, a short stop in Port St Joe to get information on the Scallop Festival, and a stop to check in at the Park and get or Primitive Lands camping pass, we were at the boat ramp and in the water by 4pm.


Misadventure #2
Got to the ramp at the State Park on Thursday afternoon so its not too busy. Not too busy means there weren't people backed up and waiting, and for the most part, only one lane of the launch being used - but there was a steady stream of boats in & out of the water. We parked in the staging area, put up the mast and put everything important in the dry box. I backed the boat down and slid it off the trailer. This a deep & steep ramp. After I got it off the trailer Peg pulled the truck up and drove off to park it. I hopped up on the deck, walked back to the cockpit and fired up the motor. The boat basin was full and there were people everywhere so I headed out of the basin and pulled up in thigh deep water, got out and walked it up to about 2' of water and waited for her. Just as she was getting aboard I felt something in my shorts stuck to my leg. Yep. My favorite Blackberry. This phone has survived one industrial soaking and one recreational soaking before - with a completely successful rehab. That was fresh water. An extended total submersion in saltwater is a different story. That phone is toast.

On the boat, still smiling, we struck our sails and headed north. We had a steady light breeze that carried us well. After about three and a half hours of progress we steered toward shore and dropped the anchor in 3' feet of water about 1/2 mile offshore right in front of some pretty tall dunes. Beautiful anchorage. Quite. Nice breeze. No bugs. We set up the boom tent, inflated the air mattress and settled down for a quite relaxing night at anchor.

Sometime in the night the breeze freshened and the boom tent began to flap loudly. We were anchored on the stern quarter and were rocking just a bit too. Since we weren't expecting rain I had used a 5' x 7' blue nylon tarp to tent with. I left the rear corners attached to the cleats with long bungees and moved the front corners to the side stays about 5' above the cabin top. I also bungeed the front center grommet to the mast. I spun the boat around and anchored off the bow. Laying back down - with the bow to the wind - I had this beautiful blue nylon stay-sail riding high above me illuminated by a bright full moon. It was a beautiful night and I was awake more than I slept just beholding the beauty of it.

Waking around sunup, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. In my haste, I had brought plenty of dried fruit, nuts, etc and enough rations for three hot suppers - but no breakfast! HOW did I miss that? Seeing as neither of us are coffee drinkers, we simply had cold bottled water and fruit & nuts for breakfast. We decided to head farther north and make for the point, then cross the bay to Port St Joe before finally returning to our anchorage by nightfall.

Heading north we still had a fresh breeze. With me sitting to windward and her sitting to leeward we literally flew up the bay. On more than one occasion I buried the rail on her side. Funny thing, I had tried to do this in the boat alone at Greer's Ferry in higher winds but had not been successful. This was easy! Too easy as it turned out.


Misadventure #3
After a couple hours of sailing my wife said, "is that supposed to do that?" I looked down and saw a few spurts of water coming up through the centerboard trunk. Yes, I said, and began to explain to her how the pounding of the waves and the speed of the boat caused that when underway. She then said "is it supposed to do it all the time?" I looked down again to see water slowly but constantly entering the cockpit thru the trunk. What? I thought about it for just a minute and leaned over the stern - the external drain plug was trailing in the wake by its chain! This was not good! Replacing teh drain plug, we immediately headed for shore. I tried on one or two occasions to let out some water thru the bailer but we were not making enough forward progress and the boat was too heavy in the water. By the time we made the beach we had nearly three inches of water in the cockpit. Dragging the boat up as far as I could on the beach I pondered our situation. As luck would have it, the previous owner (thank you David) had put two 5" access ports in the footwell on either side near the stern to attach some hardware. They definitely are water tight. As soon as i removed the port access plate the cockpit completely flooded to the top of the transom due to the angle of the beach. I spent the next twenty minutes bailing the cockpit. With all the water removed and the hull plug considerably tighter we shoved off and headed back north to the point. I intend to replace this boat style drain plug with a screw-in mechanical plug.

We made it to the point before noon and walked the beach a bit. We sat in our beach chairs a bit and enjoyed our lunch of chipotle style chicken salad on flat bread rounds. We even took a picture of our beach chairs and Corona water bottles. Shoving off the beach we headed across the bay for Port St Joe. Very shortly thereafter the wind fell off ... then died completely. We ghosted along for a while then were completely becalmed. Crank up the motor.


Misadventure #4
Boy, I really hate to mention this one. A combination of embarrassment and consternation. I had taken this boat to the lake and sailed it twice. Both times, I motored out of the launch area as the wind was blowing inshore. Both times, the boat was squirrelly as all get-out. Once I attempted to motor some while out on the lake and the same thing. The boat simply would not point in a straight line and was all over the place. Now that the misadventure has happened and I'm back home, there is a new thread on the Sunbird forum discussing this very phenomenon.

These boats came from the factory without a transom mount. When installed - the transom mount is naturally off center due to the rudder & attaching hardware. The produces a vectored thrust when motoring. Since this is a relatively flat bottomed boat with no chines or center V section to the hull they are completely unable to hold a line while motoring. So, here I am trying to cross the bay in no wind, with a 3.5 hp motor, on a drunken sailboat. I'm looking ahead...and I'm all over the place...and the wife is sitting facing the stern. I hear a sudden GRRRRR followed by an opposing GRRR and then a sudden GULP...followed by profound silence! I turned to see my hand gripping air where the tiller once was... I just sat there for a minute staring at my hand and thinking about things...lotsa things. I put the rudder back down, slowly turned and looked ahead and started searching for some wind.

Long story short, it was a very long afternoon. We changed our mind several tmes back and forth over which direction to take, over to Port St Joe or back to the Park ... when the thunderstorms rolled thru several hours later we were no more than a mile from where we had left the point at lunchtime. Heading back toward the park we went thru three or four periods of fresh breezes followed by periods of calm. When the wind finally picked up late in the evening I knew we had to make for the Park if we were gong to pull out in time to make a reasonable return trip home. Bearing off toward the Park, I determined to sail within a couple miles of it before putting down the anchor. Again, we had a bright moon with some broken clouds. I had the tiller in my hand from around 7am till almost midnight. When we finally put the hook down I was a zombie. There was a beautiful moon out and the rain had passed so we slept under the stars - no boom tent tonight.

We felt good the next morning and had good wind. We sailed for the Park and made it by noon. This was at noon Saturday at a State Park ramp - in Florida - WOW! All in all it took us about an hour and a half to get our place in line and get the boat out...but all went well. We were checked out of the Park and headed to Port St Joe by 2pm. We stopped several times and ate seafood on the way home and hoped for no more trailer suspense. We made good time but didn't rush it. We made it home around 6pm Sunday evening. I took a quick nap and went to work at 11pm. The wife went to work 8am Monday morning.

It (the trip) was too far to go for no more time than we were there - and there definitely were too many misdaventures, but all in all, she deemed the trip a success and said she really enjoyed it. I guess its better to learn these things with the little boat rather than in the big boat too.

Now, got to get to work making my Road Kit ...

So, after driving all day Wednesday to Fort Worth, TX and back to pick up Angry Bird, I took her to the lake Thursday afternoon. Just as I was unloading a bit of dark clouds, wind and rain showed up. It was short lived though as within half an hour the clouds were gone and most of the wind with them.

Considering this was my first time to sail this boat, things went pretty smoothly. Stepping the mast was uneventful as was launching. The wind was blowing onshore - so I fired up the Tohatsu and took us out of the launch area. Again no problems. Started on the first pull.

I only put up the main this trip and just lazy sailed around the Old Hwy 25 campsites and the west channel behind there. I took the dog with me and she seemed to like it well enough. She spent part of the time in the cuddy out of the sun and part of the time on the cockpit cushions. Twice I floated her on a boat cushion so she could get a drink and cool off a bit.

All in all it was a good day. In fact, I met an older gentleman who is also a Sunfish owner. He motored over in a Bayliner after seeing Angry Bird out on the lake and introduced himself. He had also seen the video of Angry Bird in the TX 200 that Kevin had posted online and his curiosity got the best of him. We had a pleasant conversation and hope to meet again and sail a bit on the lake.

Here's a link to a few more pics ...

Angry Bird on Photobucket ...

So, I'm boat poor. A Stevenson Weekender that I built in 2004 and that this site is named after, an Aqua Finn acquired in 2006, A Sunfish acquired last Spring, A ComPac 19 acquired this Spring ... and now the Angry Bird!

This is a really cute boat. Long story short, I was keeping up with the Texas 200 online this year and saw this Angry Bird. Nice looking little boat. Nice video too. And then, just a few weeks later, Angry Bird is for sale! I could not resist, had funds available, and now am the new owner.

I still have the ComPac ... that is now the Big Boat. I will be getting rid of the Aqua Finn and the Sunfish. I will be permanently decommissioning the Weekender. I had really thought about using the Weekender II name on the ComPac - but I won't. It is as yet unnamed and Angry Bird is ... so I'm renaming this site. Going forward this site will be Angry Bird!

I'll write more later ...

Here's a link to the previous owner's TX 200 adventure ...

Angry Bird sailing the 2012 Texas 200 on You Tube