I Sail Away

Last night, to signify the end a great week and begin a great weekend of sailing, we raced in the Encinal Yacht Club’s Friday-night Beer-can races.

This race is a fun little jaunt–a couple of sausages up and down the estuar–but, the winds of the estuary and the quality of the sailors make it a challenge. Many of the Bay Area’s vendors of sailing-related services operate in Alamada, CA. And, some of these sail-maker and boat builders live close to work . . . .

Lastly, the great fun is the weather in the Estuary. Someone on-board last night said it in the best way I have heard to-date. “It’s the Estuary! There is completely different wind 100 yards away.” Light air sailboat racing at its best, and definitely a great way to cap the week.

If you are interested, the Encinal Yacht Club (sponsors of the yearly Coastal Cup from San Francisco to Santa Barbara) was founded in 1890. Check out their Website: www.encinal.org

PS. I was racing on a Beneteau 40.5, and worked the foredeck.

I am REALLY excited because there is quite a bit of sailing on the immediate horizon.

Tomorrow, I am taking the Lido-14 dinghy out for a spin around Morro Bay. On Thursday, I am heading up to San Francisco for a few days.

The racing up there will include:

• Friday Night Beer-can races at Encinal Yacht Club on the Beneteau 40.5. I will be working bow.
• Saturday Morning delivery and racing in the Stone Cup (also on the Beneteau). It is the first IRC race of the season, and run by the St. Francis yacht club. I will again be working on the bow.
• Sunday–2nd day of the Stone Cup.

So–4 days of sailing/racing in 5-days. Not bad . . . .

This weekend, we are going on a little roadtrip, and I am going to take along a little reading.

I bought “The Splicing Handbook” at West Marine last month, and expect it to be invaluable reading.  I have three old boats and they ALL need their lines replaced.

Perhaps, I am most excited about making a peel strop, and correctly splicing the metal wire into the rope halyards–old boats can be so much fun.  On the Ericson, I am going to replace the shivs at the masthead so that I can use all line and no wire in the halyards.  On the other boats, however, I am going to just let them be as they were . . .

I’ll give a full review after I have read the book.

There is a new link–well, a page actually. There is an amazon-powered library over at SailJournals.com. The link is now a page . . . .

Link: Sailing Library

In 1964, a 16-year old boy set sail to circumnavigate the world by himself on a boat named “Dove.” The boat was a Lapworth L-24 Gladiator–basically a full-keep version of a Cal 25. There are a few of them still around, and I bought one.

The 16-year old made it around the world, although after he rounded Cape Horn, he decided he needed a bigger boat. I certainly don’t blame him (although he had already accomplished a MAJOR task of rounding the horn). All-in-all, it took him over 3 years to complete his trip.

This Gladiator is certainly not the boat I am going to take on the journey, but I will always have a soft spot for it. It was my first boat, and I bought it on the day of my 35th birthday.

Here is a picture of me, on my birthday, making the purchase.

The boat came with a blown spinnaker, worn sails, a nice spinnaker pole, the mast halyard stuck at the masthead, a nice sailing dinghy, a working 5hp motor, and quite a bit of miscellaneous junk.

This boat was to be my textbook for learning how to fix a sailboat. It would need just about everything repaired, checked or replaced.

It is the perfect place to begin.

I am.

I have been ready for an adventure since the day I was old enough to take one. This adventure, however, sailing around the world, might be the biggest adventure of all. The pages that follow are the deconstructed pieces of my process to prepare for sailing around the world.

• There will be mental preparation: reading, learning, and absorbing information that i will need on this trip.
• There will be physical preparation of doing the sailing, repairing boats, and building a set of tools.
• And, there will be the acquisition of skills: celestial navigation, navigation, boat handling, and weather interpretation.

This IS the adventure of a lifetime. Come join me on my trip . . . .