November 24, 2008, 10:11 am, Colorado Springs
Yesterday, it was sunny, warm and breezy, for a November day in Colorado. The temperate was in the high 50s and low 60s most of the day.
JoAnne decided to run to the store to pick up some items for the Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter's house on Thursday.
I, on the other hand, begged off of shopping and stood up the six foot ladder, and climbed aboard "Winds of Change" for some rope work. Ok, well, Mast Work.
Over the course of the last week I manufactured a gin pole, found some good rope and prepped that, found some double pulley blocks, brackets and assorted hardware and have been assembling, drilling, and generally laying things out.
Yesterday, once aboard the boat, I turned on the radio to some country music (we don't have a "Sailing Music All the time" FM station in Colorado Springs for some reason, and I just didn't feel like dragging out the iPod and Jimmy Buffet right then...) and started putting things together.
After awhile, I was ready. JoAnne was due back shortly, so I called my buddy Steve, whom I've known for about 25 years. We worked together in Washington, DC many years ago during the Reagan and Bush years at the White House Communications Agency. Steve lives a couple blocks away from me these days.
So, with the Admiral arriving with groceries, and me as the Skipper - and very shortly, the "First Mate" arrived and I gave Steve the most difficult job... sort of.
I asked him to pin the front stay when the mast was raised. He seemed disappointed when I told him JoAnne would be raising the mast, and I'd be ensuring nothing hung up, and the mast went straight into place.
So he positioned himself at the bow, I positioned myself under the mast to hold it in cast something "let go", and JoAnne stood on the port side of the cockpit with line in-hand. Once I double checked (for the fourth or fifth double-check of the day) all the shrouds, stays, connections, bolts.... I told her "Hoist away!"
She say "Aye!" and began to pull on the rope. It moved easily, and rather quickly. The mast raised into place and settled into position.
Steve had problems. The forestay bracket was almost exactly one half and inch too short to make it to the front bracket. He suggested laying the mast back down. I told him to stand by a minute.
JoAnne tied off the line for the block and tackle and Steve remained there to hold the forestay to keep the mast in place. I climbed down, surveyed the problem and realized that we were pulling on the mainsail halyard (used it to haul up the mast actually from the end of the gin pole). I saw that the jib halyard pulley is about 3 inches above where the forestay connects to the mast. So, I told Steve to prepare to pin the bracket.
I climbed aboard, had JoAnne give us a tug on the block and tackle, I tied off one end of the jib halyard, grabbed the free end and pulled. The mast bowed slightly in the middle, gave Steve the half inch and a bit more he needed, he bolted the pin into place and viola! We had mastage!
Ok, well, we're all happy, it is the first time we've actually raised a mast on a boat and it demonstrates that any of the three of us could have accomplished this alone... something I needed to make sure I could do, or JoAnne could so.
The mast will remain in place for a couple of weeks in the yard while I check sails, pulleys (have checked them on the ground, but need to make sure it all works as it should).
I know there is at least one issue with my jib - and might have to replace it, we'll see though. Perhaps it will be usable.
Anyway - we raised a cup of coffee since we didn't have any wine handy at the time. But, I'm very happy we were able to bring the mast up so easily.
I'll add some pictures later today when I get home.
Rick
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October 25, 2008, 6:31 pm, Somewhere in Colorado
We decided, as I mentioned on a previous post on a Venture 25 built my Roger MacGregor in 1979. The boat is 29 years old, one year younger than my eldest son who turned thirty years old last August.
Phil Ward, the owner and myself had been emailing all week and conversing in the evenings to decide the best way to transfer the boat. He of course was making sure he got his money and me making sure I got a decent boat.
I was less interested in making a "deal" than I was getting a boat that floats, and can use used for learning. According to some of the friends I've made on a couple of sailing forums, this boat is considerably better - by some standards than the later MacGregor boats -- especially the water ballast boats.
This one has a 625 drop down keel - which is good with me. I can trailer it to the reservoir. I am not on the coast, as most of you have figured out, and am land locked in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We're right on the base of the Rocky Mountains.... about 8 miles perhaps as the crow flies from the top of Pikes Peak.
Phil lives in the small college town of Gunnison, Colorado. That's 185 miles as the Jeep drives over several highways to get there, or to me.
To get to Gunnison, you travel from Colorado Springs, down the main drag, Academy Blvd - the same one that makes its way to the Air Force Academy, about 19 miles north of me - and where my wife works.
Once you get to highway 115, you take that southwest, and then hit highway 50. 50 takes you though Canon City (pronounced Canyon) where several large Prisons live - including "Big Max".
Eventually, you pass through Salida, and Poncha Springs - then begin the long, somewhat scary climb up to the top of the Great Divide.
Once on top, it's about another 60 miles or so to Gunnison. So, Phil and I worked out a deal where he would bring the boat with his vehicle up to the top of the pass. I'd meet him there - with my son's Dodge Ram since I don't think my Jeep Cherokee can pull the boat.
At approximate 11:30 AM myself, my wife JoAnne and my son Patrick made it to the top of the pass and there was the boat and Phil sitting there waiting on us. It was cold, so he'd managed to find the coffee shop at the top of the pass.
We went over a few more things, rechecked the boat with clear heads and asked a bunch of questions. Phil walked me through the rigging, sheets, the sails, and a few other things. I asked him a few questions and we retired to the warmth of the coffee shop, had some coffee, discussed the registrations of the boat, the trailer and Colorado laws. Phil is a native of Louisiana so I explained the trailer plates are his and I have to ship them back to him. Technically, I'm supposed to get a temporary tag, but without the title, the DMV in Colorado will no longer issue you a temp tag. /sigh
So, we used Phil's plates to get us home.
The registration for the boat in this state is December 31 - through December 31. No prorating, no nuttin' - meaning I get to register it in December and not as soon as I have the boat. Why? Because I pay the registration fee now, in October and the thing expires ANYWAY in December.
Phil wants the original copy of his registration back, for his personal records - for which I do not blame him, obviously. He's a boat guy. He's had boats before, and he keeps his paperwork going back a long way it appears. That's good with me. I want to know about the boat, her history and what she's done in the past. We can only go back to 1991 at the moment, and I suspect she came from California on her trailer - but, that's suspicion only at this point. Someday, I'll trace her genealogy just as I have traced my own.
The picture above is the boat on the back of the vehicle which will likely pull her to the first place we put her in the water - Pueblo Reservoir around March time frame in 2009.
So - we completed the paperwork, signed the trailer title, the Admiral signed the check, we passed papers back and forth for hours (ok minutes) and then we waved good bye to Phil... who lingered and looked back at the boat a couple of times. He actually stopped twice before he hit the highway to roll out. I think he will miss the boat. I hope he misses her - she looks and appears to want to go back to the water soon - and soon she will.
My wife walked over to me - and in the most amazing thing of the day, put her arms around my neck and said, "Here's your first Kiss as Captain." She kissed me in front of the boat, mountains and my son - whom I think perhaps, blushed a little. (What can I say, he's Army....)
The next four hours was spent in sheer terror. I haven't pulled a load that heavy in nearly 20 years. When I was in the military, the active duty, I've pulled many towed loads of many thousands of pounds, in big trucks. I've pulled trailers on cars. I've pulled forty foot trailers on tractor rigs.
Oh MY GOD... I've never pulled a 2500 lb load DOWN an 11515 foot mountain pass before. My son, who was uncomfortable enough riding in his own truck was holding on for dear life, telling me to "let up on the clutch" more than once, and "gear down Dad, for God's sake!" at least a few times. My wife giggled all the way down the mountain... I think she found my son's rum stash in the back seat, but I was never sure about that.
I was white-knuckle gripping that wheel and over driving the engine and the tachometer more than once.
After about 50 miles... I chilled out and it came back to me, though we were starting to level out and get towards the bottom. Either way, I stopped sweating, started drinking my now-cold-coffee and making chitter chat with everyone.... of course, my son never let of the "Oh Shit handles" on the passenger side of the truck.
At last, we made it home and I managed to push the vehicle up into the side of the house.
Wow.
We have a "Yacht"!
I'm amazed.
My wife completed the day by looking at me and calling me "Captain D".
For the record, I hate Captain D's (the fish food place)... /sigh but I think it was a compliment because my students used to called me "Mr. D"... so I shall take it as a complement.
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October 22, 2008, 2:34 pm, Colorado Springs
The "Nexus" pictured above with the owner working and showing me the boat.
Over the past few days we agonized over a couple of different boats.
Both of them were MacGregor made. One was a MacGregor 26, newer, and was pretty and nice. Has the interesting water ballast system in it and a non-weighted keel that drops down and is called "Nexus".
The other is the 1979 Venture 25. The pricing on both was good - the first a bit more expensive, but close to home. The other less expensive and would give us some money left in our little budget for boat buying to do some work on the boat if necessary.
Since I'm both very new to this and a bit wary of a boat weighted with water instead of a keel - and to be completely honest, a bit scared of a boat without a fixed keel and sails we compromised on the boat and chose the Venture 25.
We've made a deal for the boat, trailer and one motor (he had two for sale) but one is fine, and he kind of wanted to keep one himself. That's fine with me. A small motor is all I need, and the one we examined works. Sufficient for me. If I have to replace it at some point, well alright.
I am still researching whether my Jeep can handle the towed load, so Saturday I'm taking my son's big Dodge Ram truck over to meet the current owner, Phil. Also, well, I don't even have a tow bar and hitch on my Jeep....
Phil has been just awesome in talking to us, emailing and being forthcoming with information, good and bad, about the boat.
At one point I was getting the impression he wasn't really wanting to sell the boat, but he explained that he couldn't see leaving it sit in the snow and not be used. Well, it will still sit in the snow and not get used until this springtime with us, but at least we'll be doing something with it over the course of the next few months.
I just finished speaking to my wife a little bit ago who has taken care of the important, and legal junk, like making sure we've got insurance on the boat and it's covered on the trailer, being towed, sitting at home or on the water.
So, our plans of getting our first sailboat are coming together quite quickly and with ease - so far.
Things I've not done but will do in the future.
1) Hire a broker to find our "big boat" - the one we will cruise in.
2) Hire an independent surveyor to examine that boat.
3) Personal inspection of the boat, after having done it a few times myself - with a second and perhaps third pair of eyes before I even bring a surveyor out.
4) Remember to KEEP my current Insurance Agent for the rest of my life... they are the coolest people in the world. Thanks to Vance and Mikki. (I didn't KNOW that a boat is AUTO-MAGICALLY called a Yacht when it is 1 inch over 25 feet.......)
Now... we're checking on dates for courses through the ASA.
Rick
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October 20, 2008, 5:09 pm, Gunnison Colorado
This is the boat as we first walked up on her and viewed her.
About right here I said to myself, "This is it!"
Remember, this is our first boat, it's for training and learning and will live in Colorado in the Lakes here.
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October 20, 2008, 1:57 pm, Colorado Springs
A while back my wife and I started discussing things like retirement, travel, money, the stock market crash... you know the usual things.
Anyway - to digress a bit, when I was a child I was afraid of the water. But I liked boats. I never really got around to sailing either. I know this was a very disjointed paragraph, but to me it makes logical sense.
The discussion my wife and I had led us both back to something that we've both been interested in since we children, boats. I've never owned a boat, have canoed and driven power boats before. I even took the wheel of a big paddle-wheel boat once for a short time as a kid on the Detroit River. I was pretty little, and don't really remember that, but hell, I skippered the boat for at least a minute.
Anyway - where this is all leading is to sailing, retirement and cruising.
JoAnne - my lovely and gracious wife of thirty-plus years who has put up with me, my hobbies and my childish ways for so long decided that we didn't want to grow old, decided we didn't want to "retire" in the traditional sense.
We decided that before we turn old and can't do anything any more we want to sail. Not just sail around the lake, but sail the world, or at least sail the Caribbean. We don't want to sell our home and move to some stupid condo where our kids visit us once in awhile. We don't want to draw our retirement pay and sit on our asses doing nothing, or buy a dumb RV and go all over the US - we've pretty much been all over the US now.
No, we want to try our hand at sailing. Do we know how? No. Have we ever sailed? No. Do we think we can? Yes, certainly. Will we like the ocean when we get in it? We don't know, but we're going to find out.
Those of you who sail probably know what I am talking about. You know that sailing gets in the blood - and even reading a book can grab at you, even if you've never been on a boat. There's something about it, the romance, the water, the salt-air, the sea, the utter, blind terror... but again I digress... so, every sailor starts somewhere. Every sailor is a landlubber at one point in his or her life, and perhaps for their entire lives.
We've decided to change that. This blog is about that change.... the Winds of Change. Changing winds blow through Colorado all the time ??" yes, Colorado, a place of little oceans, huge mountains, magnificent storms (on a meso-scale anyway), snow - ok blizzards. But, we have a few nice lakes. Very few. In fact, I can think of only about four or five you can splash a sailboat into at this point in time.
But the bright side of being in Colorado is the beauty and awe the mountains provide, something few true sailors (those who've rarely left the coast) would appreciate. They see the beauty in the seas and oceans, and know what it is that I'm only just learning. Perhaps I'll trade places with one of them and let them see what I've looked at for the last twenty years, the Front Range of Colorado, the greetings of the Rocky Mountains, Pikes Peak who stands there mute and humbles mankind every morning in the beautiful sunrises. Then at sunset hides the waning sun, and places a shadow upon all of us on the Eastern Plains.
But for me the majesty of this mountain holds many sayings, and inspiration - just as it did for Cathrine Lee Bates so many years before, the author of "America the Beautiful".
The time has now come for Change for my wife and I. We've decided that within the next three to five years we're leaving this life of living in the mountains, and taking up the Sea. To sail the Gulf, the Coasts of America, the Caribbean and to travel in places where once only brave men, and no women dared to travel. We will follow the footsteps... pardon me, the wake of people like Henry Morgan and other 'pirates'.
For us, the "Winds of Change" has blown through Colorado. This week we've found and are purchasing a small sailboat. She has never had a name in all her 29 years. There were no records kept, not one of the owners bothered to name her.
When JoAnne and I walked up to the boat, in fact at first glance (after having been researching for weeks now) and having looked over other boats that "just didn't do it for us" we both KNEW this was the one, before we'd even met the current owner.
I said, "Wow. This is pretty nice for an old boat" - met Phil, the current owner and then we crawled all over the boat, inside, outside, under, took pictures and visited with him awhile. He's owned it a year, has never kept logs for this boat and was originally a Louisiana resident. He's sailed several boats and liked this boat and stated he'd keep it were he living in LA still.
Previous owner was a Doctor - who sold it to Phil. The owner before that also lives around the Blue Mesa area in Colorado, but Phil was not familiar with him. The lake resident's apparently knew the boat well for it had been there a few years. Phil was very nice and helpful.
Last night we made the decision on which boat we wanted after weighing all the reasons, the prices, the boats, the stats on the boats, our "perceived abilities" to sail and many other questions we asked ourselves and each other. Both boats had advantages, disadvantages and reasons to buy or not buy.
In the end, the boat we saw when we walked up and knew in our hearts it was going to be our new teaching equipment - and perhaps even home on and off for the next couple of years. The boat was comfortable, and it just gave us a "feeling" we were welcome aboard.
The boat is a MacGregor Venture 25. She's white, with red trim. She is currently living on a trailer and is asking us to take her back to the water - the sooner the better.
We will officially name her "Winds of Change" after we clean her up, do some rewiring, change some cushions and put some good life vests aboard - and add her new name to her side over the winter and we promise to take her home, back to the water as soon as is humanly possible.
This blog will document our journey from Mountain Folk to Sailor. With luck, God's Will - and a wee bit of tradition, learning and experience, we hope to take the "Winds of Change" to another place and another time sooner, rather than later.
JoAnne and I look forward to hearing from folks out there who've been there, done that - or are sharing this vision for "Change" themselves. Wish us luck.
To everyone reading we wish you Smooth Sailing....
Rick
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