10/18/2008 Back on the water

10/18/2008 Ah!!! Back on the water sailing again. It has been almost two weeks since I put up the sails and started moving onto other places. We have now started on the journey south, and not a moment too soon. We have a cold front blowing through and the temperatures have dropped into the forties at night and the winds have picked up.

The past two weeks have had allowed me to work on the boat and finish a few projects. The big ones were setting up the spinnaker for easier single handling and building a Cunningham for the main sail. For the spinnaker I added a chute scoop or sock. It is a device that keeps the spinnaker folded up until after I have it raised or I can use it to collapse the spinnaker before I bring it back on deck. The spinnaker is a sail on a sailboat that looks like a parachute off of the front of the boat and is usually different bright colors. I also moved the spinnaker halyard (line used to raise a sail up the mast) tie off point to the mast. All of the halyards are led to the cockpit of the boat through rope clutches. The problem I was concerned about was that the halyard could jam in a clutch and if I was on the front of the boat lowering the spinnaker and the line became jammed, I would not be able to control the spinnaker when I went to clear the jam and it would end up in the water. Now I can control the halyard and douse the spinnaker from the front deck. I also installed a cunningham. The cunningham is a control line that attaches to the foot (or base) of the main sail and can control the shape of the leading edge of the main sail. I was able to use the spinnaker halyard clutch for this new line.

Another reason I stayed in the Annapolis area was to take my second level test for my ham radio license. I passed that and I am now certified as a General Class Operator (License ID KD0FEA). I can now operate a Ham radio in the HF band which will allow me to transmit in the frequencies that will travel anywhere in the world and provide communications back home on my status. I will also use the radio for cruising information through cruiser nets (voice blog using radios) for daily updates of activities and travel information and most important, off shore weather information.

Last weekend in town was the annual Annapolis boat show. It is the largest sail only boat show in the US. I was able to hook up with a sailing friend of mine from Colorado, Dave Gillespi. I spent a day and a half walking around and checking out the boats. I still would not want a different boat for what I am doing. There are also many stands from all of the major hardware providers along with a lot of smaller niche products. It is a great time and I recommend for all sailors to try and visit is at least once.

On Thursday my crew showed up for part of the journey south. They are my dad, Lee and a co-worker and family friend for years and years Ed Chris. Ed has come on for the trip down the Chesapeake to Norfolk and my dad will stay on to Savannah, GA.

On Friday my I had a boat load of people join for an afternoon sail. They were my brother Tom and his wife Tracey, Aunt Vicki, Uncle Cal, cousin Kate and her son Javin, Cal’s brother Mike and his son Michael. They all traveled down from Pittsburgh that morning spent the afternoon sailing and then drove back that evening. We had a fun time as we sailed out of the creek to Thomas Point Light house and back. As always at family gatherings we had plenty of food and lots of laughs. I am thankful to all of them for traveling down to visit and be able to share with them a little of my adventure.

Ah. Back under sail. We left Saturday morning at 7:00AM sharp with plans to travel to Solomon’s Island and expected to arrive before 5:00PM. They were calling for NE winds at 10-15 knots. After a quick motor out of the creek, we set sail and took off like a rocket. It appeared we were right on the edge of the front as you will see in the picture of the sky. We stayed with that edge the whole way down. With these winds we were able to sail down wind under main and jib. I was working on the spinnaker and decided we didn’t need it on this trip yet. We were consistently sailing above 8 knots and peaked around 11.5 knots. You couldn’t wipe the smiles off of our faces. We made it to Solomon’s by 1:30PM that afternoon. 48 miles in six and a half hours. That was the fastest trip since on the boat. We decided to tie up on the dock at the Tiki Bar for the night.

As we were docking we had our first and hopefully last casualty. As we were along the dock, I asked Ed to jump to the dock to tie off the line. As he left the dock, it occurred to me that this was a bad idea. Ed has just had surgery to scrape his knees three weeks earlier. As he hit the dock, his knees gave out and he went into a tuck and roll and then a beautiful splash. There were many good things that did not happen, including he did not hurt his knees at all, the water was relatively warm, and he did not lose his eye glasses. He did wash the cell phone though and cell phones don’t like to go swimming. I do feel real bad and have learned not to ask people to jump to the dock, I am sure it is a bad habit of mine that I have been doing for years.

After we were tied up, I took Ed’s clothes off to the laundry to dry as they were his only jeans and called my friend Bill McDaniel for some assistance again. I needed a ride to Kmart to find a portable heater as the temperatures are dropping. I was able to get a propane camping heater and it does a good job at warming up the main salon area. Afterwards we all retired to the local restaurant for some local fish dinners including crab cakes (of course), shrimp and crab stuffed fish.

I want to thank you all for the messages and emails I have received while off-line and will keep you up to date as we travel along. I expect we will have another 3-4 days before we reach Norfolk and then we are off to the ICW.