Saturday, May 30, 2015

Mast Raising, Wind, and Ducklings

Saturday 30 May 2015

I spent the day raising the mast, figuring out what line went where, and tightening the rigging.  Lots of trial and error.  After a bit of google foo, figuring out that “this line is too short to fit here so it must go over there!” and just plain luck, I got everything mostly connected.  Got the main on and covered, no headsail yet installed on the rolling furler.  It was about 5pm, I hadn’t gone out for a spin yet, and Theresa was waiting for me at the campground.



 I almost blew off going for a ride until Suzie Q piped up and said, “Well?  When are we going for a ride?” My face cracked into a grin and we launched for our “Booze Cruise”.

The “Booze Cruise” consists of slowly motoring through a very windy 2nm canal system.  The first nm is all piers, boats, and branches off the canal.  The 2nd part near the bay entrance consists of piers and expensive boats on one side and a marsh on the other.  The entire thing is a no wake zone.  My dockage is literally on the very last canal from the bay.  It’s all very slow and relaxing, couple of beers and about 45-60 minutes round trip depending on your speed.

Today winds were about 25 knots gusting to 30 and it was low tide.  Lousy conditions and I got my first taste of how bad wind can push a boat around.  During high tide boaters tend to stay on the North side of the canal due to the marsh and very low water on the south side.  During low tide you have to hug right up against the boats and piers.  It gets awfully tight. 

I never even managed a single beer as I was fighting the wind the entire way, trying to avoid hitting the docks or God forbid, someone else’s boat.  Made it to the bay, saw all the white caps, turned around and motored back home.  I couldn't even get so much as a single photo.

Arrived at the dock and had so much wind blowing us that we came to a very quick and sudden stop on the dock.  Thank God Keith already had his big boat bumpers out or I would be doing fiberglass work already.

Some ducklings came by for a bit of bread.  Sparky (the dog) couldn't figure out why we weren't feeding him instead.







Lesson learned.  There can be too much wind. 
Motored 4nm

Total distance 14 nm


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