Thursday, December 4, 2008

Ann and I arrived in St. Marys at 10:30AM and went to the boatyard to find the boat pretty much as we left her except for more mildew. The cover did a great job of keeping out the UV but we definitely need to add a dehumidifier for summer storage.

We removed the cover and began cleaning her and installing the sails.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Boat in the water at 4:30, docked at St. Marys about 5:45PM and it was pretty dark but that was a quick-getaway from the yard. About 5 minutes from in the water to steaming away.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Somehow things never quite as smoothly as planned. Our new cutter sail which we picked up in Jacksonville was not cut correctly such that the clew hung below the boom. It had to be recut and sewed. Considering that the sailmaker had the old sail to work from we were very disappointed.

The weather has been blustery and quite rough so the fact that provisioning took much more time than expected is less frustrating. We had a wonderful dinner at our friends, the Chalkleys on Wednesday night, did some provisioning until 4AM at Wal-Mart, loaded our boat and then returned our rental car to the airport using Christian and Mary's car for the shuttle which they had loaned to our friends Chuck and Allie since Mary broke her foot, cannot use it, and they are super folks. Thank goodness for the car later on Thursday because the rental agency called to say that we had left something in the car (noise-cancelling headphones) so out to the airport we went for the last time.

We did some more provisioning with me still grumbling because I didn't believe we had a bit more room but we did. Ann believes in shop til she drops especially while you have access to a vehicle!

Friday, December 12, 2008
Finally, we left the dock at 11AM with Northwest winds and mild,clear weather. We exited the St. Marys inlet to the Atlantic about 12:30 and had following winds all the first day which changed to dead astern about midnight. The problem with following winds are accidental jibes so after one too many we pulled in the main and sailed with jib only. Ed was leery of running with our light-air spinnaker all night and feeling queasy.

After Ed's watch until about 1AM, Ann came on watch. By then we were motor sailing because we like to keep moving above 5K if we can. At some point she reported that the engine rpm's were surging which usually means that the fuel filters need changing. Given the lumpy conditions and that Ed did not want to vomit on the engine we lived with it.

Mid-morning on the 13th as we're motor sailing along Ed notices that the roller furler and jib are flapping in the wind. Not good news as the bow stay holding the roller furling unit should be attached at the bow. Now our sick Captain and safety officer/admiral have a dangerous situation because the unit naturally comes back and forth to attack the boat. So Ed goes forward at which point Ann wisely insists on his lifeline (they are already in life-jackets). Ann also clips in and goes forward.

With the jib flapping in the breeze and therefore taking a lot of strain the next we new she had ripped along the foot and 1/2 up the leech. Aargh! We had her repaired in the same place before last season so we knew that repairs might be good money after bad given the age of the sail.

We discovered that the clevis pin holding the furler unit had backed out because a cotter pin had failed but was miraculously sitting on the bowsprit so Ed saved it for later. We were then faced with getting the sail down while the unit flapped in the breeze with large waves. Ed's stomach decided to color the sail green several times during the process of unfastening the sail from the furler and pulling the sail down. We were then able to more of less stabilize the stay although the stay and furler were hitting the radar unit, but not too badly.

Ed probably could have fixed all this at sea had he been familiar with how to tension and untension the front stay which requires partial disassembly of the furler unit to get at the turnbuckle which is part of the furler unit. There is not way with two moderately strong people to put enough tension on the stay to put in the clevis pin, one simply must untension it and retension it using the turnbuckle. It is possible to untension it when not installed which would at least allow inserting the clevis pin to hold the stay in position albeit loosely.

Another danger of the bow stay coming off is danger to the mast. we had several things in our favor because we were in following winds and not sailing with the main. It might be that the clevis pin was only able to slip off because their was not tension on it.

After stabilizing the situation which was only possible because Ann was cool, calm and lead the way with sound decisions as Ed was not thinking in his usual manner due to the effects of being sick. She surprised both of us!

We headed into Port Canaveral for repairs and went to Cape Marine for a night or two. So Monday we called Doyle Sails in Stuart, Fl and Ann got several referrals for sailmakers one of whom was right in Cocoa just a few miles away. We took the sail in by Taxi, met him and discussed the sail and schedule with him. Scott of Sails By Morgan said that overall the sail needed about $700 of work but that he could not guarantee the length of time that it would hold but a new sail would be about $2800. No use putting money into something unreliable so Scott set to work on the new sail which took Tuesday thru Thursday. He also sewed a sailcover for the staysail given that the old fabric was rotten. Friday morning we brought the sail out to the boat and Ed and he hung it in the very light breeze to see that all was right and it was.

Friday afternoon we left Cocoa for the trip back thru the bridges, the lock and out to the Atlantic. Winds were non-existent so we motored in the darkness all night south towards Stuart. For the crossing Ed chose to go east as soon as possible heading east from Delray towards the Northwest Channel. Given the dead calm seas we motored thru the night with Ed helming until about 3AM. He then noticed in the morning that the engine hour meter had stopped working, another item to replace. Given that we guage fuel usage by that he then realized we needed fuel so we headed into Great Harbour of the Berry Islands for fuel, having lunch and clearing customs. A couple of hours later we were on our way.

We were off the East end of Providence Island about 2AM on the 23rd in flat seas. Rather than take the passage thru the Rose Island Rocks in the dark we decided to float about until daylight. We set the radar and anchor alarms and just drifted. In the morning we went in to the achorage at the south side of Rose Island where we cleaned, slept and fed ourselves before proceeding to Nassau Yacht Harbor in the afternoon under a nice easterly breeze.

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