Sailing into the night

7-6-2015

 With the fourth of July quickly approaching we had hoped to spend the night on the water so we could watch fireworks again but sadly they decided not to have them on the lake this year. Since the lake just gets crazy busy on holiday weekend we went over on Thursday the 2nd to sail and enjoy the lake before every boat in southern Indiana descended up on it.
 It was a perfect evening to sail with the wind out of the north by northeast at 8 to 10 mph. After getting the boat ready to head out and leaving the slip Cindy wanted to go forward and raise the sails as that is usually my job. She handled the new task very well and soon we were setting into a nice broad reach across the lake.
 I had just made a new Go Pro mount pole that slips into a piece of 1/2" pvc conduit that I clamped to the solar panel support rod. After a few test I finally got the camera leveled on the rod and turned it on. I think we captured over an hour half of us sailing back and forth across the lake that probably only Cindy and I would enjoy watching. I am not even sure about Cindy as she feel asleep with her head on my shoulder a few minutes into watching it on the laptop! Not a whole lot of excitement on a night like this to keep the viewers entertained.
 It was a wonderfully relaxing evening to sail and soon we were sitting on the port bench in the cockpit with me leaning back into the pulpit with Cindy leaning back into me relaxing as we sailed along. One advantage of being tall is I can see over the cabin as we sail like this so I can make sure the area is clear in front of us. We were in our happy place and loving every lazy minute of it!
 We finally arrived in our favorite cove where we proceeded to drop anchor and pop the top. It was about now we had our first bug issue of the season as it seemed like every fly in the county was flying in our around our boat. They particularly liked my pale legs as I was swatting them off right and left. I quickly got Cindy's inflatable paddle board out and aired it up so she could go exploring as I stayed behind to deal with the flies.

 There goes my lil Lady on her inflatable board for the first time this season. Now it was time to kill some pesky critters and install new line on my spinning reel.
 With new line installed and a trusty beetle spin attached to it was time to do a little fishing, with the fly swatter nearby on the solar panel. It was not long before I landed a whopper!

 Ok, so it wasn't a whopper but he was a fighter LOL! I guess the size of the lure compared to the fish kinda gives his real size away. I caught several striped bass his size. I think they like the rock bottom in this cove as I am usually able to catch a few each time we anchor there.
 It was not long before it was time to light the grill and start dinner. With Cindy still out exploring on her board I got the corn on the cob on the grill. We really love summer evenings on the boat, especially the ones that involve food! Nothing beats fresh corn on the cob on the grill. We leave the husk on it and cook it on low heat. The natural moisture of the corn steams it inside the husk and once you slather it in butter and a little salt it is just to die for!
 Cindy returned to the Memory Maker to find me still swatting at flies. She proceeded to get a beverage and her book she had been reading then took her normal place on the port cockpit bench. The flies hardly even noticed her. I looked like a windmill I was swatting at so many of them hovering around or landing on me!!!
 Soon the pork tenderloins were done and it was time to retreat to the cabin for dinner. Not that was much protection for me as the top was popped and all the hatches were open. Slowly the number of flies dwindled to just a few stragglers and we enjoyed a nice dinner on the water.
 With dinner done and dishes put away I asked if I could use Cindy's board to go fish a bit. I had fly fished once on it last year late in the season and it was a real trip to balance myself on the board, cast a fly rod, while keeping track of the drift and the paddle laying across my feet. I remember my core muscles being really tired when I got back on board the boat after about 20 mins of fishing. Thankfully I did not catch anything that day as I am sure I would have went for a swim. But this time I was much more relaxed and after a few minutes of fishing sitting on the board I stood up and casted away. I guess after doing it once already my body was able to relax more and I really enjoyed it. I did manage to catch two small bluegills on a popper. While no huge bass it was still fun to catch fish standing up on a paddle board.
 While I was fishing a 26-28 foot sailboat came silently slipping into our cove under sail. It is so neat to look up and see a boat moving silently across the water. He drove the boat deep into the cove before turning back out and passing just off our starboard side as Cindy sat in the cockpit and read. He said hello as he passed by her and told her we should be out sailing as the wind was still blowing. I headed back to the Memory Maker and proceeded to deflate and store the board so we could head off.
 I don't think either one of us really thought about sailing into the night when we raised the anchor but once we cleared the point of the cove we feel the wind. It was out of the northeast, cool, and still had good speed, so up went the sails and off went the motor. The sails instantly filled with air and off we went. We never did see where the sailboat went that told us he hoped to see us out later as we had the lake to ourselves. With the nav lights and spreader bar lights on we headed across the lake to the north as it was going to take several tacks to get us back to the cove our slip is in. That was fine with us as we both wanted to be no place but right there with each other as the darkness of night swallowed us and our Memory Maker into itself.

 It was dark by the time we reached our tack point on the north side of the lake and we still had a great breeze, steady 8 to 10 mph out of the northeast. Tacking back to the southeast Cindy settled back into me with her head leaning back on my shoulder as we listened to the water as it rippled off the hull. While it was dark and the moon was well masked by the clouds there was still enough ambient light that once our eyes adjusted we were able to make out the tree covered shoreline so there was not much fear of running her aground. We erred on the side of caution and made our tacks early just to make sure the night did not end on a sour note.
 As we moved along over the lake we talked about things we need to add to our boat for our trip to the North Channel next summer. I told Cindy about how someone on the Hunter forum posted a picture of how they mounted a chart plotter to a LCD tv swiveling wall mount. It was really slick as it was inside the cabin and could be swung out and positioned right at the edge of the cabin opening so you could see it clearly from ether side of the cockpit. Too bad we did not have it on board right then as it would have been nice to have depth information as we sailed along in the darkness.
 I went below to adjust the radio and just had to take a pic of my pretty little captain as she commanded her ship through the perils of darkness.

 



 I guess maybe I should have turned the flash off as with the press of one shutter release I took away all of Cindy's night vision for the next few minutes. Oops :-) No fear though as we had several minutes to go before we would be close to the rocky shoreline on the south side of the lake.
 There was just something very enjoyable about moving along across the lake in the darkness of night with my best friend by my side. Until you have been on a sailboat under sail in a nice breeze and all you hear is the sound of water rippling past the hull and the wind in the sails you can't fully comprehend the magical effect it has over you. It is just has such a soothing and calming affect on even someone wound as tightly as myself. so much so even I find it relaxing to the point that I am totally content to just sit and watch the water go past the hull as we sail on mile after mile. If you know me then you know that "just sitting" is just not in my vocabulary.  Then to be able to share this with my soul mate as she rest her head back on your shoulder while I have my arm wrapped tightly around her protecting her from the slight chill that is starting to infiltrate the night air is just such a special experience in life. One I never would have gotten to experience without Cindy. Sharing moments like this with my pretty little Captain makes all the hours it took restoring our Memory Maker so, so worth it. Thanks Babe, I love you!
 Although it is approaching 11 pm by the time we make our last tack back to the northeast and head towards the slips I am not wanting to stop sailing. But it is late and we still have an hours drive home from the lake. We both wished we had brought supplies so we could have spent the night but neither one of thought it would turn out to be such an awesome evening weather wise. We had not gone 24 hours without rain or a storm for the past several weeks and this night was forecasted to be more of the same. But the rain held off and it was a wonderful evening that we made the most of.
 AS Crosby, Stills, and Nash's Southern Cross played on the radio down below I went through the process of getting our girl ready for bed. Out went the fenders, dock lines on the cleats, jib down and bagged, main sail down and wrapped. With Cindy at the helm we were soon easing into our slip with all the grace of a large swan gliding across a tranquil pond. As I stepped off the Memory Maker onto the slip to tie up all the calmness of the night was replaced by the loud sounds of wings flapping and water splashing! As we focused our attention on the boat neither one of us saw the large Great Blue Heron gliding over from the shoreline to the east edge of our slip. I caught him out of the corner of my right eye just as he passed a few feet away from Cindy who had her back to him. He was gliding in for a landing on the end of the slip and the sound of the air off his wings was soon replaced by the loud flapping of his wings and his feet splashing in the water. Seems he misjudged his glide path by mere inches, and was not able to make it to the edge of slip! He bounced off the rubber rub strip and flapped like crazy trying to get air flowing back over his wings before he went for a swim. Luckily he was able to save it as I do not think they can swim which is ironic as they spend all there life standing  in or near water. The look on Cindy's face as she turned around was a priceless combination of shock, surprise and fear all wrapped up in one beautiful pose. Of all times to have the Go Pro bagged up in the cabin!!!
 With our girl tied fast and all the covers installed we said good by and headed for the house. Cindy had asked if we would see the moon that night and I jokingly said probably on the way home. Guess who was right? As we crossed the causeway headed south the clouds broke apart just enough to let us see the full moon they had been hiding from us all night. Then in just a few miles the moon was gone and raindrops filled the night sky.
 Staying awake on the ride home late at night is usually not an issue as we are constantly on deer watch as there are so many deer in this area. Being on point for a deer to streak out of nowhere paid dividends that night as one shot out of the darkness on the left side of the road! It was like the side of Cindy's Rav had a bulls eye painted on it and the deer was going for bonus points. Of course there had to be a car coming in the other lane so my options were limited. I hit the gas as the deer was going to hit somewhere behind the midpoint of the car if he kept coming straight at us. I swerved to the left at the last moment trying to get more room between our left rear quarter panel and the deer. It was a good effort but the goofball never slowed down and we caught his head inside the left rear wheel opening. It sounded like a glancing blow but we still hit him, or actually, he hit us. I pulled over and stopped as soon as I could to exchange insurance information with him but of course it was a hit a run. While I was glad he was able to run off I am sure he had a heck of headache the next morning. Pearl, Cindy's named her for her Rav, was fine as the rubber trim piece just had a smudge from where the deer hit it so all was good.
 We had been so lucky that evening for several reasons. The rain held off, the wind kept blowing, the deer did not run out a few seconds sooner, and we got to share such a wonderful experience of our first night sail with each other. As we drifted off to sleep I held my best friend tightly in arms, kissed her gently on her forehead, and said "Thank you Babe, I love you"...

Enjoying our Memory Maker

7-1-2015

 El Nino must be in full swing as we have had a daily threat of rain and storms since we launched our Memory Maker. Even with the rain threats we have tried every chance we can get to run over to the lake and raise sails. Some trips are more productive than others as several times we have arrived only to get rained on as soon as we get there or get a tornado warning on my phone for just south of our location. We elect not to sail on nights with tornado warnings, erring on the side of caution LOL. One night we could have sailed, had someone, sadly that was me, not went off and forgotten the rudder he had taken home to make a modification to. Hate it when that happens...
 But even with all the rain delays we have been making the best use of our Memory Maker and her new slip. We both really enjoy just being able to walk to the boat, hop on, load the cooler, uncover the sails, fire up the motor, untie and go sail. It is just awesome in fact! No more rigging sails, hooking up to the trailer, extending the tongue, launching the boat, driving back with the trailer, picking Cindy up at the dock, then doing it all in reverse again when we get back.
 When we have not been sailing or working on the house, I have been busy preparing our dingy for next summers North Channel adventure. At first Cindy thought I was crazy wanting to put a small outboard motor on the Walmart rubber boat that Bill and I had used to fish out of in Michigan. It had not been used since we got back from that trip so finally I had a reason to blow it up and dust it off. We lucked out and found the ideal motor about 40 minutes to our west on Craig's list. It is a small, as in 10 lbs, 2 stroke air cooled outboard. We ran over to get it and the lady we bought it from said her husband was upset as she priced it too cheap. It was in good shape but I saw there was a repair to the gas tank. We bought it and brought it home. It fire up and ran but leaked fuel which really stunk up my Tracker for several days.
 The gas tank repair was easy and is good as new now. Getting it to run properly took a bit of work as I had to take the carb off and clean it 4 times but finally I got all the hidden dirt and varnish blown out and now she starts on the first pull most of the time!

Once the motor was all dialed in I started on the motor mount for the dingy. Cindy still had her doubts at this point but I think she was starting to warm up to the idea of dingy cruises around the islands in the North Channel.

 First thing to do was to make a floor for the raft so it would be more stable and give me a place to attach the motor mount. One piece of 1/2 ply later we had a floor and she is very stable now. So much so I can see fly fishing out of her, standing up!!!



Here I am testing it our in Dottie's pool just shortly after we had opened it for the season. Hopefully all that chlorine she just dumped in the pool does not eat the dingy! Once the floor was fitted it was time to make the motor mount legs. Not having a way to bend EMT tubing I resorted to welding together cut pieces as I could get premade 90 degree transitions and I already had the tube I needed. A few hours later and we had a motor mount legs!

 So far so good. Just need to add the board to mount the Cruise and Carry on then she would be ready for her maiden voyage under outboard power. It was late and I was hungry so it would have to wait till the next day. Plus I needed screws to attach the board to the mount legs.
 The next morning after a quick trip to the hardware store and few minutes in the shop making a motor mount board the moment of truth had arrived. I carried the dingy down to our small pond and then attached the motor. After sinking up to my knee in a hole in the dam of the pond as I shoved off, more on that later, I was ready to fire her up. With one pull of the rope she roared to life, as much as 25 cc's of water muffled two stroke power can roar to life LOL! All was good so I engage the transmission and off I went. Did I mention our pond is small? Plus thanks to the hole in the dam I fell in during the launch the water was down a bit. So all I could do was one tight circle over and over again in the middle of the pond. It is so small I could not even get the motor off idle as it just went too fast! After a quick video to prove that it worked it was time to go to back to shore. Ok, I was getting dizzy from so many circles. Here she is after her maiden powered voyage

 Remember me saying how Cindy was slow to warm up to the whole dingy idea? Well after seeing proof with the video she was singing a new tune. So much so she asked if would take her grandson for ride in it when they got back home. Amazing how seeing truly is believing.
 With the dingy project a success I turned my attention back to installing our solar powered vent fan in the Memory Maker. Cindy was unable to go over with me as she was baby sitting her grandson as he got a new little sister the day before. He was clueless how much his life had just changed but I am pretty sure he has figured it out by now. So I loaded up the tools I need including the new hole saw bits Cindy picked up for me and headed to the lake. It only took about five minutes after I got there to realize I had screwed up again. Seems the directions I read online about how to install the fan were for the other fan I had been considering. It took a 4 1/4" hole while the one I bought took a 4 1/2" hole, Argghhh. So needless to say there was no fan install that night as I did not have a 4 1/2" hole saw. I started to just button her up and head back home but it was a nice evening, there was a nice breeze, and it seemed like such a shame to not got out for a quick sail.
 Having never sail single handed before this was going to be new for me but I really thought I could do it. It just took a few minutes to get things ready and soon I was motoring out of the slips. I took some precautions to make sure I returned to the slips with the boat. I threw a 25 foot long deck line out off the port stern cleat. In case I feel overboard I could swim over and grab it instead of letting the boat sail off without me. I just flipped the fenders up on the deck instead of bringing them in and I only planned on raising the main sail since the boat does not like going straight by itself. Soon I was raising the main and sailing into a beautiful sunset. It did not take long to figure out to do this successfully I would need some help in the form of some way to keep the tiller in place while I tended to other matters. So out of necessity I rigged up what I affectionately refer to as the Redneck Tiller Tamer

 OMG!!! Why had I not done this sooner???? Talk about making life so much easier!!! I was able to set a heading, then get up and do things without going for a wild ride like we would each time we would take our hand off the tiller for any amount of time longer than 5 seconds! Cindy was going to love this! Speaking of Cindy, I was really missing her. Sailing by myself was just boring once I got everything set up and the boat cleaned up. It was not long before I turned back and headed in. Making memories by myself is not near as much fun as making memories with Captain Cindy.
 The jib bag that I made has worked very well and since I did not raise the jib by myself it just rode along on the bow

 My first attempt at single handing went just fine and I returned our girl to her slip with no issues. After adding the tiller tamer I am pretty sure I could have raised the jib as well. I buttoned her all back up and installed the covers then headed for home.
 Cindy and I finally got a nice evening this past Monday and we headed for the lake like a couple of home sick angels. It was a perfect evening with a nice breeze out of the northwest which allowed us to sail on a beam reach down the long length of the lake to area we call the Narrows. The wind was blowing 10-12 mph with higher gusts so at Cindy's urging I reefed the main sail. With Cindy back at the helm we raised sails and headed for the land beyond the bend that we had only sailed to once before. It was like uncharted territory for us in a way. We clipped right along a beam reach making good progress down the lake. About a mile or so into the sail I remembered to start my tracking app so we could see how far and how fast we had gone. Here is a look at our sail path

 We pretty much ran a straight line on a beam reach out of the slips to the southwest till we got closer to the Narrows then the wind started to shift and we had to tack a couple of ties to get past the Narrows. Once past the point to Allen's creek we turned south and sailed down to the 4 Winds area before nasty clouds to our north made us turn back as it was going to be an hour or so back to the slip. It took a bit of tacking back and forth to  clear the Allen's creek point but once back into the Narrows we set course for the cove where our slip is at and sailed on a broad reach which turned into a running sail about half way back. To the non sailors looking at our track we look a bit lost and confused. To me that is a course line of beauty compared to what we normally have to sail. Most days when the wind is out of the southwest we have to tack back and forth a dozen times or more just to get to the boy scout camp cove we like to anchor in which is only about half way to the narrows. The wind shifts around so much on this lake due to the trees that what starts out as one heading soon turns into something else 45 degrees off the first one.
 The app I was using also tracks your speed. It showed us topping out at 6.43 mph. I know, that is not eye watering fast but considering the boat's listed hull speed is only 5.5 mph we were humming right along!!! I was surprised how slow it felt when we were running with the wind to our stern but it still showed us making better than 4 mph. It just seemed a lot slower as the wind was not in our face and since we were going with it we did not feel the full speed of the wind blowing past us from the stern.
 Cindy was at the tiller for the biggest part of the sail. I want to get her as much tiller time as possible so her comfort level and proficiency increase as much as possible. Cindy is still a bit apprehensive when the boat heels over much past 15 degrees. We are fine up past 30 and she will round up and plop down into the water between 40 and 45 degrees. Ideally we would get the best speed at between 15 and 20 degrees of heel. For the most part we ran between 10 ad 15 the majority of the time and she loved that but there were the occasional gust that would load the sail and heel us over a bit more. The idea is when that happens you want to keep the boat going straight by pulling on the tiller to counteract the wind trying to blow the bow off course. As the wind reduces back to a normal speed you want to release the pressure on the tiller to maintain your heading. If done right it is very smooth and no one knows the better. The boat will just heel over and then return back to the pre gust heel angle once it dies down. Cindy is doing much better now after another 3 hours at the tiller. She now keeps the main sheet tucked under her leg so it is right there as needed should she need to release the main sheet to reduce the heel. Bad things would happen when she would have to looked down to the cockpit floor then reach for the main sheet. Her short lil arms do not have much reach so she would have to slide down to reach it and with her other hand on the tiller the chances of holding it in place were slim to none. Several interesting moments were caused by that maneuver. Now with the main sheet tucked under her leg there is no more dropping of the head. Plus with her doing a much better job of holding a heading during a gust the overall ride is much smoother. Cindy really liked the tiller tamer and said it made things much easier as well.  I am very proud of her progress and I am really hoping she too will get to where she can single hand our girl soon.

 Here is my pretty lil Captain doing her thing. Luckily our sail came with a reef point built in as some of them did not. I used a much simpler procedure for reefing this time and it worked very well. I used our Nite Eyz Grip Ties to tie up the extra main sail around the boom and that worked really well too. I really thinking our boat is a floating promo for Nite Eyz and there Grip Ties as we use them everywhere for everything. They are awesome and very handy to have on hand.
 I practiced a heave to again and showed Cindy how it is done. On the way back once we entered the Narrows I had Cindy heave to so I could un reef the sail since we were going to be running with the wind. The more sail the better in light winds and running like we were. Cindy had no problem getting the boat to settle down and just sit there calmly in the water using the heave to maneuver.
 All too soon we were back to the slips and I went about getting everything ready to dock. Cindy guided us into the slip with the prowess of a seasoned veteran of several around the world voyages. We went about our task of securing our girl to the slip and getting her all tucked in from a wonderful sail. On the ride home we laughed another good old laugh about our first sailing lesson with Capt Scott and how much we learned what not to do!!!