Kaimusailing

Sorry about the delay in posting. All will be explained.
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I did laundry in a nice place with internet and lunched on a cheesesteak sandwich. I went over my to-do list and found I could check off two items, rig tension and autohelm. There were several woodworking jobs which would entail mixing epoxy, so I wanted to do them all at the same time, gluing the captain’s chair back together, replacing a portion of the sheer stringer that the starboard chainplates bolt into, and repairing the bow of the dinghy. To get the dinghy on deck required one of the forward halyards, none of which were operational.
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I had to go up the mast. The steaming light wasn’t coming on, I had to check the jib halyard block to see if it was broken, if not rethread the jib halyard through it, the genoa halyard block was jammed, and if I could get high enough, the spinnaker halyard block was also jammed. Although I didn’t have a spinnaker, having that extra halyard would be helpful.
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I used the jammed spinnaker halyard as a safety line, threading it into a Petzl descender, a kind of mountain climbing device that lets you control the line as you rappel down, I’m using it in emergency mode, if the electric bos’un’s chair fails somehow. I had put the brick battery on charge from small solar panels and it was up to 13.3 volts, so let’s see if that is enough to go up to the top of the mast.
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It was a cool Sunday morning with a light 5 knot breeze from the East, so I began ascending, taking a break about every 1 1/2 feet to take up the slack in the safety line and keep the chair balanced and lined up with the line.
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Now I was acutely aware of how many power boats come into the marina next door, on a Sunday. Each time one passed I had to hold on to the mast as we danced to that boat’s wake. What wouldn’t even annoy you on deck becomes amplified up the mast. The motion up in the air is like being the bait on a fishing pole, whipping back and forth.
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First was the steaming light, I opened the fixture and removed the bulb and socket and removed the bulb. The bulb looked dry and unblown, the electrical contacts didn’t look too bad. Maybe the problem is not up the mast. Next came the jib halyard block that was intact and thus getting the entire jib halyard on deck was my goof tying things off in the night. At least no repair is necessary, just thread the halyard back through the block and continue upward. Up at the headstay the genoa halyard block was definitely damaged. One cheek had failed, allowing the line to jam between the cheek and the sheave. I removed the block with its line and lowered it down on deck. I would have to install a replacement genoa halyard block. As expected, the spinnaker halyard block was too high to get at, but maybe I could get at it another time. Now it was time to descend and the winch would free wheel and things went quickly and we were down on deck and it was proof that the battery would do the job at 13.3 volts.
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I called Bacon’s Marine where I had purchased the genoa and asked if they could repair it. I drove down to Annapolis with the sail and gave it over, but the sailmaker wasn’t in, so I will get an estimate by phone after he looks at the sail. It turns out they are busy with the Annapolis boat show and now, almost a week later, no estimate.
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Webb Chiles had sailed up to St. Michaels to give a talk at the small boat gathering there and was scheduled to give a second talk later in the week. I will unfortunately miss both. He seems to be having a good time there as maybe the best senior small boat sailor ever. He intends to sail back to Hilton Head in his little Moore 24, Gannet.
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The estimate came in on the sail repair and it was almost as much as the sail’s original cost. I deserve to pay because of how I abused that sail.
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I had a big delay in everything due to some minor surgery that put me out of commission for a while. This is why I missed Webb Chiles talk in St, Michaels, and why I missed his second talk later the following weekend. The blog didn’t get posted. I ended up in emergency room and afterwards I was flat on my back with only a wonderful NY Jets win over the Denver Broncos and an awful loss by the NY Yankees to the Boston Red Sox to keep me company. Fortunately I am a Jets fan and not a Yankees fan.
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Webb set sail for Hilton Head while alerts were coming in for Hurricane Michael. The lower Chesapeake Bay was in for a big hit, NW at 40-50 knots. I went out on the dock and doubled up Kaimu’s lines. We would be fine here, it is an excellent hurricane hole. Invariably, dying hurricanes pass and they leave winds from East to Northwest. We are sitting behind a high knoll that is North, so any wind from the north just goes over us. East would make big trouble in an East-West inlet, but the inlet is about a mile long and at it’s mouth it bends North to the bay. So it provides little fetch for a wind and the land of the Bodkin shelters all the boats it its lee. A short way up the south coast of the Patapsco, the inlet to Baltimore, is another inlet, Stoney Creek, and if your can get in there through the lift bridge, there are high hills all around, so in Stoney Creek you could make a hurricane anchorage.
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It is now more than a week past and I am only posting this now, The NY Jets had another win and Webb Chiles set sail South for Hilton Head. I have spent the time “not walking too much”, and will get my stitches out in a couple of days, and see what I have to look forward to. The photo is of dusk on the Bodkin Inlet as the spent hurricane sends rain clouds over us.