Outboard Issues, First Sail, Ghetto Dock.

Today started with great enthusiasm. I was going to go out, get the outboard shook down, run a few errands and sail down to Crescent Shores by the noon hour to get acquainted with my new home. Wishful. Thinking. My first errand, legally disposing of the remaining gas in the previous owners tank took a turn for the worse when the very odd fellow at the Ottawa County Waste Disposal Facility told me it would take 7-10 days to dump my gas out, and give me my tank back. So I resorted to plan B; spend money. I bought a new tank and hose to go along with Linda's 4HP Sailmaster. When I got back to the boat and mounted the bracket on the transom, It was obvious that a ton of wood was going to have to be trimmed to make everything work. after a solid hour of cutting and sanding, I finally got the bracket to fit on the Allez!. When I put the motor on the bracket, It was damn obvious that the motor was too high out of the water. In fact, the prop was barely touching the substance that is meant to make the boat go. I was able to cut down the bracket with a hacksaw and a dangerously crabby jigsaw. FINALLY the motor was reasonably happy on the bracket, so I tried to start it. Nothing. More of nothing. I finally figured out that if you squirted a bit of gas in the carburetor, the motor would run. Must be carb issues. Pulled the carb off, and of course the fuel line cracked. Drive to AutoZone to grab a new bit of hose and scramble back to the marina. At this point it was almost 2pm. I then commenced pulling on the starter cord until my arm was about to fall off. Nothing. Pulled the carb off, and poked, prodded and generally teased the little thing into submission. It took four removals until the thing ran, and I couldn't actually tell you what I did, but it worked. So, happy to have a running auxiliary, I prepped Allez! for the sail upriver.

It turns out that there is/was something off about the outboard. The amount of thrust seems tiny, and about 1 knot is about all that I can expect with the power plant in the current state. Consequently, the poor dock-boy at Eldean didn't know of the sorry capabilities of the outboard. I did manage to back out of the slip without harm to Allez! or anybody else but it wasn't in fine fashion. I got the mainsail up as soon as I could and was happy to shut the stricken outboard down. I've never sailed a boat with mainsail slides; I was quite impressed with their ease of use. Pull up the halyard to make the sail go up, and vice-versa.

Allez! Isn't much of a sailing vessel with out the headsail raised. In fact, the tiny mainsail makes her a yawn without headsail power. After coming to grips with singlehanding with the main up for a bit, I decided to throw up the sail marked "Jib" figuring it would be a smallish heavy air sail. What a surprise. The "Jib" was a 120% lapper, rather than a little easy peasy headsail. Although the winds were varying between 5-15 knots, the "Jib" was plenty of power for the conditions, at least singlehanded. Allez! proved to be a bit hard to balance; it will take a considerable amount of time to learn to sail her competently singlehanded. Although the boat rates much slower than the J/24, Allez! feels far more dangerous and way less stable than the boat I have most of my experience on. Like a 25 foot dinghy.

My slip at Crescent Shores is a singlehanders dream. Nosed into the prevailing wind with a ton of shelter, and a clear run to the dock. Docking was easy, and I was met by a bit of an odd fellow who apparently runs the marina. Although nice enough, the management here seems to be in a permanent state of some kind of PTSD/Bad acid flashback mindset. Very odd, so I say as little as I can and for 300 a month transient, I can put up with a lot.

The guy next to me is Jim. He has a 80's SeaRay 26 Express, just like my Dad's. He seems a nice fellow - he lives aboard during the week because of work and to get away from the wife. Or so he tells me. We're already scheming to get a dock ladder installed so jumping on to my boat won't be so treacherous. Also, he drove me to my car at Eldean.

Jim warned me the fellow on the port side of me. His name is Dave, and he lives aboard his Pearson 23. Jim tells me he's retired, and a hardcore alcoholic. Apparently Dave has place on the outskirts of the marina where he in Jim's words, "Get's polluted, and listens to the baseball game".

B dock here is known here as "Ghetto Dock." All I know is it is FAR more interesting than Eldean.