Woke up and discovered that somebody tried to steal my crappy 50 dollar Yakima rack off the trunk of my car. Ghetto dock indeed.Dave the drunk asked if I had tie-downs in my car so I could help him move a couch he spotted to his boat. How one can make a couch fit on a 23 foot boat is beyond me, I can barely fit my bare essentials onto a 25 footer. Waited out a morning storm, and pulled out of the slip around noon. It was an easy sail up to the harbor entrance and I decided to sail through the breakwater with power, even if it appeared to be an easy reach through to the lake. I was happy I did this, as the winds through the channel went a bit crazy. Experience duly noted. It was a bit intimidating to be out on the lake, but it was a nice easy day with steady 10 knot winds. What I noticed the most was the color change of the water leaving the river and on to the lake - muddy brown changes to a brilliant dark greenish blue.
after sailing on the lake for a bit, I felt a bit hungry so I decided to rig up some self steering gear. I found that if I rigged a bungee from the weather side of the boat to the headsail cleat,a normal lashing to the lee rail and a messenger line from the tail end of the mainsheet to the middle of the lashing Allez! would sail herself very nicely. The development of the self steering system will be a point of constant discussion on the blog from now on, but it's VERY encouraging to see Allez! so willing to take direction.
Feeling a bit adventurous and with the wind steady at about 10 knots, Allez! was begging for more sail. The first headsail change on open water was a bit unnerving but it went off without a hitch. The headfoil fore-stay allows you to raise two headsails at once during a change, but I opted to drop the jib and then raise the genoa after switching the sheets over. I think to do the change correctly with 2 sails up at once would require 2 sets of sheets (which I have), and 2 sets of snatch blocks (which I don't have). It was interesting to work on the foredeck with a harness and jackline. It's a bit difficult to navigate around when you're attached to the boat but it's nice being clipped in on such a big piece of water.
More to come, enjoy the crappy cell phone videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment