Sunday Afternoon

Had a nice sailing day today with Scott, Suzanna, Celia, and Sam. I might have liked a bit more wind, but we never did have to start up the motor. Finally getting Scott onboard after all this time was fun, and since he understands free body diagrams, he caught on to sailing quickly. Using his GPS was fun for logging current speed, average speed, and position. We topped out around 5mph, so obviously it wasn't quite a white-knuckle sailing day. Celia is a med student from Germany who visited our church today for the first time. She's been here for a few months but is headed out in 2 weeks. Sam and Suzanna have sailed with me lots of times of course. The boat is still sitting on its trailer at the waterfront waiting for more wind for another day. I'll dismantle it for the week on Wednesday morning. Pictures of today's sail coming soon.

Back into it

8/9/2006 update: Cat posted a picture.

Great evening sail today! Didn't get started until about 7PM but wow what a wind. Stopped around 10PM or so I guess. George, Cat, Noelle, Lisa, and Christine came along. Good times. No fuel burned. One set of batteries for the lights replaced. Missed crashing into the breakwater at 10 knots in the dark by at LEAST 20 feet.

Evening Sail

Had a great time with one of the latest starts I've ever tried... started sailing around 6PM. Very strong wind the whole time. It was lightest at the end (9 to 10PM) which was good because strong winds are harder to deal with when you can't see. Brought the motor along but never used it.

I'll cut right to the pictures.

Fireworks Sail

****July 8 update ---- The pictures Lori took. (click here) ****
****July 6 update ---- More pics of the July 3 sailing day over here on Cat's page****

Burlington does their fireworks on the 3rd because people come from all over, and they don't want to interfere with individual towns' fireworks that are on the 4th. We decided to watch them from North Beach, which was cool for me because I could take people sailing from there. So I was sailing from 11AM to about midnight.

A drunk guy on the beach showed me that I could actually beach the boat without jamming the centerboard if I pulled the bow up, left the stern in the water, and tied the bow to a tree. It actually worked 3 times, but the last few times I was lazy and didn't tie it because it seemed to be staying put ok... and the 4th time the boat worked its way sideways onto the beach and now the centerboard is jammed hard, and unfortunately this time none of it is sticking down far enough to grab onto like last time. I'm going to have to unglue the teak on top of the centerboard trunk and try to hammer it down from above. Bummer. :-( But a cool trick learned.

Watching the fireworks from the boat is cool, and the boat traffic wasn't nearly as crazy as I thought it might be.

So anyway, here's the pictures I took. Hopefully everyone else will email me theirs soon.

Nice North Beach Day

I wasn't going to sail this week because I need to cram for a wedding I'm supposed to play the organ for this coming Saturday, but today was too nice. Too hot, but windy and you can always just jump in the water (which happened frequently). So I called a few people and decided to go over to North Beach, which I don't often do, but I figured I'd run into a lot of people I know there.

It turns out I found the Wistrom family there. So Rich and the 3 boys came along impromptu which was way cool. Unfornately I had the sail reefed because of high winds, and by this time they weren't quite so high, but it still neat. They only had a half hour anyway. Now I'm thinking I might do that on Sunday afternoons more often. Just sail over to North Beach and see who I find there. Sometimes living in a small town is really neat (even if it is the largest town in the whole state).

The other people were Pam, Seth, Noelle, and Christine.

I saw a boat for sale today, called the Freudian Sloop! What a hilarious name! Looked like a neat boat too. I might have to check it out. I still think I probably shouldn't buy just now though. Gotta stay focused on that downpayment for a home! But for educational value, at least.

Sorry, never did break out the camera today. Just had my hands too full with so many short trips.

4th Time Out, and Best

A very successful day of sailing yesterday! Started sailing about 2:30PM and stopped around 10PM. Passengers were Paul, Dan, Peter, Sam, Christine, Becky, and Megan. Lessons learned: 1) Don't circle Juniper Island, it takes all the wind away. 2) If you want the wind to come back, threaten it by attemping to start the engine. 3) Get an electric trolling motor instead of this noisy, messy gas engine. 4) Sailing is fun!

I think I'm going to make some mods to my jib sheets so they don't take up precious cockpit space. Bought some new cleats at West Marine today to try to make that happen.

Anyhoo, here's the pictures:
click here or here or here or here

Finally Some Wind!

Tuesday was a beautiful sailing day, and my planned day, Sunday, was a no-go, so I decided to go. I called everyone I knew who could possibly have Tuesday off, and three people were actually able: Noelle, Cody, and Lisa. It was a south wind about 10 mph, so it wasn't a thrill ride, but a nice relaxing sailing day and we moved along at a pretty good clip. Actually, at the beginning when I was alone in the boat, I wouldn't have wanted much more wind (I think it must have been a little more than 10mph at that point) but it calmed down a bit later.

Anyway, it was beautiful and also I finally, after all these years, got some pictures of the boat under sail. Noelle took the pictures with my cheapo camera from the dock. They're not ideal because the sun was in the wrong place and the wind was a little calmer by this point so the boat isn't heeled very much, but nonetheless, here they are!: Here's the pictures!

North Beach Picnic and Sailing

Had the best no-wind sailing day ever! Do wish there was wind though. But I'm just glad the 2 weeks of rain seem to be over. We put a couple tankfuls (only about a third of a gallon capacity, so not so bad) through the venerable Mercury 3.3, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Well, except for a couple of unnamed individuals who were slobbering over the gas-guzzling behemoths we saw speeding across the lake while we sat there sort of bobbing around waiting for a breeze to come up. No, we won't mention any names, but spelled backwards its yoj and nwaf. ;-)

Everyone hung out at North Beach for picnicking and whatever else they did and I picked up and dropped off each boatload right from the beach. I was on the water from 2:30PM to 9PM! Yikes! Sunburn city! And I had #30 lotion on too. I hope it wasn't TOO bad... guess I'll know tomorrow.

I launched from Perkins Pier after purchasing my 2006 season parking pass there, and Brenten came along and steered toward North Beach while I did some housecleaning and prepared the sails en route.

Sarah and Stephanie were the first to board from the beach. Stephanie did a lot of the steering while I did a bit more housecleaning. I think Sarah got to steer some too.

John, Heather, and Noelle were next, and we actually sailed most of the time, the only time there was really any wind.

Nick, Joy, Becky, and Fawn: I think these peeps are pretty much power boaters :-) Well, Joy anyway. There may be hope yet for at least Becky and Fawn. I ran the little Merc as loudly as I could for this group. ;-) But they'd like it if there was a good wind. I think.

Christine, Alyssa, Brenten, and Logan: Definitely sailors! (though I don't think any of these besides Christine had done it before). There was no wind at all but they didn't mind. They just wanted to talk and check out the scenery. We explored the tip of Lone Rock Point and discussed its marriage proposal potential as we observed the two couples hanging out up there.

Forgot to take pictures, but at least I remembered to BRING the camera this time. Maybe next time I'll remember to use it. Someone else got a couple pics though, I'll post them when I get them.

Windfall's condition doesn't seem to be quite as dire as I thought. I think I'm going to take it slow on replacing her. Still needs to happen, and likely this year, but I'm going to take it slow and edumicate myself on the options. I know more about boats now than when I bought mine so I hope to get 20 years out of the next one instead of only 6. I'm starting to think about possibly switching to an O'day 17. I see a lot of them for sale in the price range I'm looking for. I cringe slightly at going with something so mass-produced, but it appears to have a lot of advantages. One of the biggest problems with the Tanzer 16 is extremely uncomfortable seating. The O'day appears (in pictures) to have VERY comfortable seating. I'm checking out an O'day tomorrow that sounds VERY nice but I've already made up my mind its an educational visit only. Not buying. Reason being that it is difficult to step the mast, which I do every time I sail because I trailer instead of moore. There are conversion kits that make it easier, but this boat is not equipped with that and there are enough of these boats around that I'll bet I can find one that is. The ease of setting up the Tanzer is going to be hard to beat.

Here's some pictures of an O'day 17: click
Notice the long bench seats with smooth backs, and no crossmember for the centerboard trunk.

Hmm, but here's another one that does have a crosspiece (less desireable, though probably stronger) but also has a more open cargo area, which I like: click

Here's some Tanzer 16 pictures: click, click, click
I'd say the Tanzer is the better looking boat, but the deck that sticks into your back when sitting on the benches is most unpleasant. Then again, it looks like the O'day is less suitable for hiking out. Hmm. Well, we'll see.

First Time Out in 2006!!!

Windfall has sailed again! Monday morning I started working on the boat and finding all the pieces (rudder, sails, etc), Cleaning the leaves and muck out of it, etc, etc. Never did find the tiller, so Doug and I made one out of a hickory shovel handle. It actually works better than my old one, which I had made out of two old canoe paddles after having lost the original teak one that I assume wound up in Shelburne Bay somewhere because there was a northwest wind that day. Guess I owe Doug one hickory shovel handle.

Paul, George, and I went out and of course the wind died right around the time I was on the way to the water with the boat, about 4PM. Ah well! We decided to put in anyway and it took about 1.5 hours to sail from the Coast Guard station to the breakwater and back, and that included some paddling. This year I intend to make a point of making sailing more of an intentional ministry activity, so after some small talk I asked Paul if he'd tell us his testimony, which he did, and then so did George. Both pretty amazing stories. I didn't really realize how recently each had come to faith. We were out of time by the time it came to my turn, so we have to go again next week to continue. Hopefully with some wind.

Poor old windfall's rotting hull deteriorated still more this past winter. It goes squish squish in the rear now too when you step in it, and the old right front squish squish area has grown, as it has each year. I could fix it, but since I can buy an equivalent boat in good shape for about the price of a 15-year-old Ford Escort, I think this is the year I'm finally going to go shopping for a replacement. Otherwise I may lose an entire summer to grinding and laying fibreglass. Basically would have to tear out the entire floor, replace the marine plywood therein, and form a new fiberglass floor. Would be a neat project, but no thanks. Would rather be sailing!

Can't complain. I paid $1100 for the boat like 6 years ago. I think I'm close to getting my money's worth out of it, wouldn't you say?