April Sailing 2011

Hi all, Just to let you know what happened this month so far... in point form:
April 2 - sailed Hank and Caroline over to Snug Cove, they had a great time... long walks, good food and ran into some sailing friends (Lynn , Dave and their boat "MY GIRL", nice boat, great lines with a wide beam stern).
April 17,18 and 19th - sailed Jeannette McDonald and Hank around English Bay, then to Snug Cove, next day to Gibson and back - great great winds on the return. Jeannette wanted to stay one more night at Snug Cove.
April 19 - sailed through a strong hail storm... fun eh?

April 07 2011 - Mast Tower Visit @ WVYC

When you now see me now, I have a brand new wind-vane mounted a top my mast, in-addition I have two new spinnaker pulleys mounted in the PROPER place. After 38 years, I finally have them mounted properly... on the outside of my mast, not on the front rail, separate by black tape. (see previous Blog of March 23 2011).

When Hank was finished remounted the pulleys, he thought he was finished. As he was lifting the catwalk away from the mast, the wind-vane got hung up on the catwalk. By the time he realize it, my wind-vane broke in two.  $65 later and a lot of work, I now have a brand new shiny wind-vane, complete with a top pin to stop those dam seagulls from getting a free "merry-go-round" ride.

I watched Hank climb the mast tower at least a dozen times before he was done. He had to move the boat a few times to line it up, then the tide was too low and my keel was in the mud, forgot a tool, new vane, new fore-stay cotter pin, etc. Lets see... 12 times up and 12 times down at 60 ft for each trip = 1,440 ft (440m) climb on a metal ladder. No wonder he was happy the job was done.

I guess all things happen for a reason... While Hank was replacing my wind-vane, he noticed that the fore-stay top pin was missing the cotter pin. This is not good... if the pin wiggled out, the mast would come crashing down! Also he noticed that the Jib track had slipped down and has to be moved up by 6".

All done! I stayed overnight at the club, to be sailed back home the following day, with Hank, Jason and Jason's dad, Dave. It was a nice sail , ok we motored :(  back home.

Snug Cove weekend get away

Well, another great weekend at Snug Cove... weather was sunny for Saturday, but clouding and windy on sunday.
Caroline and Hank went out for short walks along the boardwalks and mountain trails with lunch / supper at Miska's place. They rented two movies at the local Video store and watched them on-board.
Hank ran into his friend who was working on his sailboat "Friendship" at the marina... nice.. :)
Sailing back to Horseshoe bay under full sail was great! Our friend Aaron was out sailing too! He has a Catalina 27., named "Puddin" a very light sailboat. She is faster than me in light winds, due to my robust figure. :)

 We docked without any problems, except I did have to push a few logs out of the way. Our marina is presently full of drift wood and logs.

Worked needed to be done... install two new cockpit drains, my existing ones are leaking and I have to get my bottom done next week, I think.

Til then...