Wow, is it Monday morning already again? Seriously, where does the weekend go? With eyes, barely open and my butt dragging I made my way into work after a quick stop for gas, ding dongs, and a package of zingers that I washed down with coffee to get myself woke up. The weather is really low outside so I can't take off yet which gives me a few minutes to chronicle this past weekend's fun adventures.
Once again I had to work Saturday finishing up the annual inspection on the plane. It is all but done now, just some paperwork to finish up. I had a few minutes to work on the boat projects when I got home so I put the finish on our new binocular holder and worked on the first parts to our new counter top drawer unit I am making for the boat. It seemed like every time we went out Cindy would mention how we needed to get some binoculars to have on board so while she was getting a hitch for Pearl, her new Rav 4, at Harbor Freight Friday I had her pick up two pair of 10x50 binoculars there. I know, Chinese binoculars, how good can they be? Well, for 20 bucks, they are pretty darn good! They got all 5 stars reviews from previous purchasers so I thought it was worth a shot. Plus if we drop them over board or they get stolen out of the boat we will only loose 20 dollars worth of sleep instead of 200 or more. I made a holder that we mounted on the aft wall of the cabin to holder them in the boat so we always know where they are.
As with most of my projects I probably went a lil over board with it but it works well and seeing how I made it out of some scrap wood in the shop we had noting invested in it I did not think going a lil over board was a bad thing.
We headed over to the lake early yesterday so we could work on the boat installing some new toys before we sailed. The weather was cool and cloudy and there was a breeze, along with some showers to our southwest but we hopeful we could sail for a bit. Being optimistic we packed for the day and took dinner to grill with us.
Arriving to see our boat sitting there waiting patiently for our us to return to her reminded me of coming home after a long trip and seeing our boys waiting for us at the top of the drive. Like an old friend who knew we would come back to see them someday our Memory maker was just as we left her. We got busy installing our binocular holder and test fitting the new countertop to make sure I had made the patterns correctly. It fit really well so I took some more measurement so I can build the drawer for it next. We are both really looking forward to the completion of this project as you can never have enough storage in the cabin and to be able to keep our plates, silverware, and other utensils all in one neat organized area will be sweet. Plus to have a flat workspace to boot will be a really nice addition.
Next I got busy installing a sweet lil find that I just happen to walk past Saturday night at Rural King. They were having a big 4th of July sale and they had a 12 volt oscillating car fan on sale for 9.99. I walked past it at first then turned around and went back as the wheels started moving inside my head. I thought for 10 bucks it was worth a shot. So I picked it up and surprised Cindy with it when I got back to the car. I went in for stainless steel screws an a bushing for the new tow hitch but came out with the bushing, no screws, a fan, and some pepper spray for Cindy and Libby. Rural King's marketing department can pat themselves on the back today as I total fell for their impulse buys LOL! After checking the amperage draw of the fan yesterday morning, which was only .6 of an amp, I was really pleased with my find. I mounted the fan in the very front of the v birth with it blowing back over us. After running the wires and mounting the switch I tested it out. It makes a bit more noise than I hoped it would but I think I can put a rubber isolator under the mount and quit it down a bit but it moves air and on a hot sticky night with the hatches shut up to keep the bugs out it will be a life saver!!!
While I was busy with the fan Cindy was prepping the boat for a sail. She has really come a long way since we started as now she can install and rig the jib sail and is ready to tackle the main sail next, which can be a bit of a pain by yourself. She installed the grill on the mount and just about the time we were ready to sail the rain started. Crap... So we took the jib off and stuff it back in the cabin and headed into Bloomington to go antiquing for a bit while it rained.
We made it as far as our favorite lil outdoor adventure shop in Bloomington, J L Waters & company. It is really a neat lil store and if you ever get to Bloomington we highly recommend you stop in. It must have been bring your puppy to work day as there were two pups going from shopper to shopper to get an ear scratched. You have to love a store that has dogs strolling about. The rain was done when we finished shopping there so back to the lake we went!!!!
We hooked the Memory Maker up to the new hitch I got Cindy for Pearl. She just idled away with the boat in tow. Although Pearly only has a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder in it she is full of pep and I knew she would have no problems moving the boat back and forth to the ramp and launching the boat. Cindy stopped to let me pull the pins so we could extend the tongue, love that modification, and off to the ramp we went. As we headed out the gates of the sailing association Cindy was saying how impressed she was with Pearly and how easily she seemed to be pulling the boat. Just as I started to say how I knew she would do fine we heard a very odd, metallic, crashing sound come from behind the boat. Cindy turned to me saying "What was that?" I looked in the passenger side mirror and saw the grill laying in the road behind the boat! I ran back to rescue the grill and to find the hold down bolts that fell out. I recovered the bolts in short order and just sat the beaten and bruised grill in the boat. I got back in Pearl laughing and reassured Cindy it would be fine. I had to chuckle as the first words out of her mouth when I told her it was a bit beat up were "can you beat it out?". I guess she has seen me straighten more than a few bent pieces of metal LOL!
The grill must have landed right on the handle which was better than had it hit on the regulator. I am pretty sure I can straighten it back out and repair the handle. That is one of the reasons I got us a 20 dollar grill instead of a 200 dollar grill. I figured if it ever fell off it would be in the lake and sink, not on the road to the ramp. There are a couple of holes on the underside but only two have nut inserts in them. Cindy but have put the bolts in the other holes. No big deal and it is fixable. I bet she doesn't make that mistake again LOL!
Arriving at the launch ramp we had the place to ourselves so I told Cindy to go ahead and try backing the trailer down. She was a bit nervous but driving Pearl made her feel comfortable enough that she went ahead and gave it a go. Backing a trailer just takes practice and I really did not expect her to get it on her first go but she got it close enough that we went ahead and launched her anyway. The boat entered the water at a bit of an angle which while it did make getting off the trailer a bit of a chore it also meant that I did not have to do a 180 turn once I got in the water so that part was nice. A sailboat with a self draining cockpit tends to take on water when you are backing them up in the water so the less time I spend backing her up the drier my feet stay. We got her launched and that is all that really matters so all was good. I headed to the boat dock to retrieve Cindy after she had parked Pearl by the high wall and in no time we were headed out into the lake.
With this being our 6th sail we are starting to get our routine down pretty well. Cindy hops aboard and takes the tiller as I head down below to drop the keel then up on top to raise the sails as we clear the buoy filed. Seems like we get the motor shut off a lil sooner each time out. We had a nice breeze out of the west southwest and we were making good speed as sailed close hauled across the lake. I went back down below to get the Capt. a beverage when a few gust hit us. I looked back to see Cindy turning into the wind and I had to remind her to stay the course and hold heading. Cindy is a still lil apprehensive when the boat heals up a bit but she is getting better. I reminded her that if it heals up too far she can release the mainsheet to help stand her back up. After I told her that she was letting the main sheet out with each lil puff of wind. Funny thing, we saw a shirt in a magazine that said "We ain't leaning till someone is a screamin!" I need one that sys "We ain't leaning because Cindy keeps letting the main sheet out!" LOL! I assured her we would be fine and that we were barely healing, maybe 10-15 degrees at most. It can be a bit un nerving to feel the power of the wind when it hits the sails but it is really cool to feel the boat surge ahead as the sails reacts to a gust long before I can even feel it. Cindy calmed down in short order and we soon ready to tack back across the lake.
The weather goods were really staring down on us as it turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. There was a nice breeze and the lake was not too crowded. We sailed back and forth working our way closer to the "Narrows". I took the helm as Cindy stretched out in the cockpit seats to relax. I kept trying to work as close to the wind as I could in hopes of making as much progress down the lake as possible with each tack but with all the surface friction of the trees and hills it was slow going. Finally after about 2 hours of sailing we made the turn to port and realized that we had made it into the "Narrows"! What do you know, the world is not flat and we did not just fall of the edge like we joked that we might if we ever got past that point LOL! It was after 6 but we still had good wind so we sailed on. I thought we might be able to clear the point at the mouth of Allen's Creek but we were just a few degrees short of being able to do that. Sailing is definitely a game of give and take, mostly give on our part. Everything is on the wind's terms and getting past the point was not going to happen on that tack. It was getting late and I was getting hungry so we turned back to the northeast and headed back up the lake running with the wind
Running with the wind is kinda neat as the sails swing out wide with one on each side. Our sails are pretty small so they don't look as impressive as some other boats do but it was still pretty cool to see. Everything I read about running said to do so with great caution as the boom can jibe very quickly and without warning if the wind swings to the other side. Well, they were right. I kept reminding Cindy to watch the boom as she was standing up trying to take a selfie with running sails in the background. She had just sat back down to check out her pics when the boom jibed from starboard to port in the blink of an eye. I had just looked off the stern for a second and when I looked back it had already swapped sides. Had she been standing up I would have probably heard that familiar "Boom! Crap!" sound I know so well myself!
While it took us two plus hours to get to the narrows it was only a 20 min running sail to our favorite anchorage spot. Cindy swung the boat around into the wind as I dropped anchor and then helped me secure the sails so we could have dinner. I fired up the grill and it seemed to work just fine so I think we will be ok once I straighten the lid and fix the handle. With the corn on the grill it was time to pop a cork and enjoy a bottle of wine. Cindy had gone wine tasting with the girls this past week and I clearly remember her saying " I am not giving 15 bucks for a bottle of wine as that is crazy". Well I am glad to report she did not give 15 bucks for a bottle, she gave 30 for two!!! But it was very good and we were enjoying a glass in the cockpit when I noticed we had a visitor joining us for dinner.
She is a bit hard to see as phones don't take really good distance shots but a small doe walked out of the woods to get a drink and snack on the plants growing by the waters edge. She kept sniffing the air as the smoke off our roasting corn drifted her way. I know she would have loved to have had some. By the time we finished dinner we had three deer down by the water snacking and watching us.
Dinner was delish as usual and after a yummy dessert of Twinkies covered with Michigan blueberries topped with whip cream it was time to try a lil fly fishing!
Cindy's sister Dottie got me hooked on fly fishing last summer and I love to do it every chance I get. A sail boat with all the lines and shrouds is not an ideal fishing boat so I hopped into the water and swam into shore holding my rod above my head as I swam
Which by the way is a really awkward way to swim. Once I got to where I could stand up I starting working my lil yellow popper along the bank and it was in just a few cast I had landed my first whopper! Ok, so it was just a small bluegill but when you fish with a 3-4 weight fly rod a minnow feels like Moby Dick!
While I fished Cindy hopped into the water and floated around the boat to get all the sunscreen washed off of her. The sun was setting and the air temp was dropping but the water felt great. It is times like this that just never seem to last long enough. I watched the sun set and gauged the speed of it's descent based off it's position to a tree limb and it always surprises me how fast the sun moves across the sky. I know most never think about it as we are just way too busy to make time for such trivial thoughts as the speed of the earth's rotation in relation to the sun but as I age I swear the earth's rotational speed is picking up!!! I caught a few more fish then swam back to the boat as it was getting late and we needed to be heading back in since I had to work today. As I boarded the boat and turned around this is the view that welcomed me back aboard
How could one ever tire of views like this? As we stowed things away and prepared to get underway the sun's last rays of light faded away behind the distant hills. With Cindy at the helm I raised the anchor and after washing all the bottom muck off it stowed it away. We crossed the lake with our lil motor happily humming along in the background. We stood side by side sharing a warm hug with the tiller between us and used the gentle swaying of our hips to guide our Memory Maker back to her home port. It almost seems like a cruel ending to such a wonderful day to have to go back in and head home in the dark. Oh how we wished we could have crawled up in the v birth and snuggled together for a nice night's sleep on the water.
Arriving back at the dock Cindy dropped me off so I could bring Pearl and trailer over to retrieve them. As Cindy motored away from the dock enroute to the boat ramp I took one last pic for the day.
While it is not the best pic I have of Cindy as I look at it today I am just so impressed with my lil lady and how far she has come in such a short span of time. This time last year she knew basically nothing about a boat other than they floated and she loved being on them. Now look at her go, at the helm of our own sailboat, heading off into the darkness alone, and in control. We laughed on the way home as she said that just when she feels like she makes progress something happens that makes her feel like she took three steps back. We are learning together and together we are making mistakes. Even though we have a few setbacks here and there we are enjoying it all so very much. I am just very proud of Cindy and how incredible she is doing on the boat. While it might be a while before we get her to where she can launch and recover the boat on her own as it is not the easiest of boats to launch and retrieve, I have no doubts that she soon will be capable of rigging and sailing the boat on her own in the not too distant future. That was our agreement from the beginning. This was going to be something we did together, and together we are doing it. I would never have started this adventure had it not been for Cindy's blind optimism and over flowing enthusiasm to have fun and to live life to it's fullest. Today I look back on what I would have missed out on and I am just so glad she talked me into taking this huge leap with her. Thank so much Sweetheart, I love you....
No comments:
Post a Comment