I'm glad no one reads this as they would have been disappointed with the last few days! I've been thinking about the "purchase process" for ages and finally sat down and began a series regarding my thoughts and experience with the same.

After an enjoyable couple of hours I hit publish, was redirected to the log in page and promptly lost everything. Oh the head hung low. With righteous indignation I penned a quick call for help to the powers that be at "sailblog" then sat back down to look at the empty box on the screen. They wrote back and said the "trick" is to click "remember me" when logging in........a little detail that matters.

As I sat down this morning that thought crossed my mind as "details matter" is a constant refrain aboard Ohana and of particular importance when sailing with teenage girls :-) To be fair the lesson has sunk in (no pun intended) and I find them now doing little things like finishing a cleat and hanging a line properly among a myriad of other (proud papa).

The simplest things unattended or forgotten can lead to great "adventure" and as a serial procrastinator I personally have to be ever on guard.

Small example-There is a little clam cleat that one finds on the leech of a headsail to control that trailing edge, to keep it from "fluttering" basically, too tight the leech curls in (turnbulance=bad), too loose it flaps away. No great drama, it's generally riveted to the sail and never a worry in the world.

I noticed one day that the rivets had failed (corrosion) and the little cleat was dangling merrily from the back of the jib. What harm could a little 18" of string basically do to a monster jib and a 63' mast? I made a mental note to look at it at some point and that was the last of it.

Flash forward a week or three and I was happily sailing out of Cape May NJ solo heading down to Norfolk VA. Breeze out of the NW at 15, full sail, sun.....what could go wrong? I had settled into the routine of the day and was a happy chappy............until the Delaware river flooding into the Atlantic (wind on tide =big steep waves) and the decision of the wind gods to make some changes in velocity and direction forced happy me to throw a tack in. (I'm writing this with the assumption that dear reader is also a bit of a sailor, if not sure of these various terms do drop a line or google em, happy to elaborate privately).

Well that little 18" of string decided at that moment of 25-30 headwinds to wrap itself around the starboard shroud and hang on! That little 18" of string was no weakling! This prevented the tack in spite of the desire of the massive sail to REALLY want to change sides. This sent poor little Ohana into a bipolar fit of indecision which translated into loads going every place they were not suppose to go. The noise and motion were fantastic.

Really? I fired up the engine and pushed the screaming rig into the wind and went about the business of getting everything down and tidied up. It's no small task to get everything up and pulling (which I had just done not long ago) and the idea of undoing all that work not exciting. In addition I had to go forward on deck to scold the 18" of string which, particularly when sailing alone, I try to minimize for obvious reasons.

The lesson? By not attending to that little clam cleat and bit of leech line at a nice calm mooring I put the rig in danger, hindered my ability to maneuver in what could have been a much tighter situation and put myself in danger.

Details Matter.

That seems like a harsh ending, suppose it should be. Let's lighten it a bit. What I've noticed when folks tell the story of the "passage from hell" is that if you ask a few questions you'll quickly come to the one little detail that was missed that set it all in motion. Best passage in our opinion is the one with no stories of that genre.

Have a blessed day all and enjoy this favorite little poem from Mr. Franklin.

"For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail."


― Benjamin Franklin