I Sail Away

The maintenance on the boat has been going slowly, but there have been quite a few decisions to make. I have finally made those decisions, and as a result, I am ready to go for it–and actually go cruising.

Last weekend, I was racing with a friend and I really admire his logic and decision making process. He knew that I was considering the trip, and after a quick tour of the Ericson 29, he started asking me questions about the boat and the trip.

His advice was simple: if you wait to go, you may never go. If you settle down with a family and children, it will be 20 years before you have a chance to even think about sailing around the world again. And, in that time, there will be tons of things that will get in the way of your decision. And, he is right–on so many levels.

So, I am considering it. I am in the process of planning the trip–establishing the criteria that needs to be met in order to go–with the plan that once that criteria is met, I can leave (like THE next morning). There is plenty of time for me to make another decision, but for right now, I am moving forward on the sailing adventure of my lifetime!

On a side note, if you are trying to make a similar decision, the information at Cruisers Forum http://www.cruisersforum.com is an excellent source. You could also ask the new Website, Hunch http://www.hunch.com, for help in making your decision.

Crack along the transom of an Ericson 29

Upon most accounts, the Ericson 29 is a stoutly-built boat that could handle the Blue-water conditions of cruising.  It will be small, and have a maximum hull-speed of 6.7 knots/hr, but it will be manageable.

The smaller boat might actually be more forgiving in many places.  There are not as many things to break, a smaller boat is easier to maneuver, and has a shorter mast.  It is less helm on the tiller, and the keel is shorter–so, I can get in a little closer to shore.

A longer, heavier boat wouldn’t get tossed around as much in heavier seas, and the extra waterline would mean faster days.  But, the cost of the boat is more, as well as every other thing.

And, I already own the Ericson 29.

There is this nasty little split along the seam of the transom, however (see picture).  It appears as if the top portion of fiberglass did not bond properly to the actual transom.  If it is repairable and does not pose any danger to the structure of the boat, perhaps it is not a big deal.

I am going to have to hire a marine surveyor to tell me if this boat is worth preparing for the voyage, or not . . . .

I have this cray idea . . . to leave for Hawaii in December–after Christmas.

Actually, it is not so crazy.  It makes good sense.  It is a good time to go.  I have a couple of years of sailing experience under my belt in San Francisco–one of the best places to train on the Earth.  The boat will be complete–and ready for a trip.

To take my 2-week vacation and sail across the Pacific Ocean, and be in Hawaii for my Mom’s 60th birthday.  Once there, I can get my mail, run my business, and stay in Hawaii until June or July on the hook.

The brilliance of this idea is several fold.  It is a pretty safe crossing.  It will be going from cold to warm.  Sailing will be fresh–because I will have completed a down-the-coast sailing trip to Cabo San Lucas the month prior.  And, I’ll have my sailboat at Hawaii.

I could return to Alaska the following July and sail the boat down the coast to Cabo San Lucas the following winter–then down to Costa Rica, and to Peru and Chile during the Winter Months–where it is warm.

Although there may be fiberglass, or wood, or aluminum, or steel, it really FEELS as if a boat were held together with rope–or, lines.  The sails are attached, held up, and held down by rope (wire rope, polyester rope, cotton rope, etc.).  One of the vital skills of seamanship is the ability to work with rope.

Fortunately, I grew up with ropes.  In Boy Scouts, we learned knots, lashing, and splicing–all with single braid rope.  Now, as ropes are more important than pitching my tent, the ropes have consequently become more complex–and, more specialized.

First Splice

New dock line eyesplice in double-braid rope

It may sound like a martial arts move, but it really marks my first attempt at splicing a complex rope.  I started with a useful splice: the eye splice.

This is going to be a bow-painter for the Lido-14, but I put a nice little eye splice in one end of a 20-foot section  of double-braid line.

Tools Required

• 20-foot section of rope
• tubular fid and pusher set (I purchased the Samson kit)
• waxed thread
• whipping needle

Overall, I am happy with the result–although I would prefer less bunching of in the eyelet.  I needed to pull the ends a bit tighter before I pulled the core back inside the cover.

In the next month, I will be replacing ALL of the lines, halyards, and sheets on the boat (with the exception of the lifelines–which I will be removing the plastic coating and assessing).

Sailors work with rope–although we do not call it by that name. Sailors actually work with lines.  The terms that we use for different types of it indicate where it is used on a boat.  I am going to give a quick overview on some terminology.

Definitions

Lines: The term for the collective assembly of rope on a boat.  You can take a piece of rope, and the second you take it from shore and bring it onto a boat, it becomes a line.

Sail Related Terminology

Halyard: Is the line that runs a sail to the top of the mast–it attaches to the head of a sail. On some older boats, this line may be comprised of wire cable spliced into rope.

Topping Lift: Is a line that runs to the top of the mast (or a partial ways to the top) for the purposes of lifting things.  A topping lift is used to raise a spinnaker pole, and is sometimes attached to the boom.

Sheet: Is a line that connects the clew of a sail to the boat.

Outhaul: Is really a control used to pull tighten the foot of a sail.  In most cases, it is a line attached to the clew of the sail that pulls the foot away from the mast.

Reefing Lines: Are lines that make it easy to reef the main.  If you expect the conditions to be windy, you might rig your reefing lines prior to setting sail from the comfort of the harbor.  Reefing is no small task (especially on large main sails), and having the reefing lines run ahead of time only make it easier.

Anchor and Docking Lines

Rode: Is a line that is attached to an anchor.  This may or may not have chain in the collective rode.

Dock Lines: Are the lines used to secure the boat to the dock.

Spring Line: Is a special dock line used to cinch the boat close to the dock (or the other line).  Sometimes more than one spring line is used.

Painter: Is a line that stays attached to the bow of a ship.  It is a longer line and is used for all sorts of things.

Miscellaneous Terms

Life Lines: Are the lines attached to stantions on the deck of a boat.  Their primary purpose is to keep things (especially people) from falling overboard.

Preventer: Is a lashing that is fixed to the boom of a sailboat to prevent it from moving to one side or the other.  This is especially helpful when running downwind and trying to prevent an accidental jybe.

Thats a good place to start.  I will post more terminology as it comes along.

A couple of months ago, I bought a Lido-14 dinghy.  I have been plagued with work lately (not a bad thing) and unble to find time to get the trailer wiring working properly.  Yesterday afternoon, I finished an emergency wiring for the trailer, and we were off for an inaugural cruise of the little Lido-14.

Morro Bay is protected and attached to a beautiful estuary called Los Osos.  There can be some stout winds, but there was a thick layer of fog over the area.

We stepped the mast in the parking lot, launched the Lido from the trailer at the public launch, and finished the rigging in the water.

Overall, we spend the day chasing wind (1 – 4 knts/hr) and fighting the ebb.  Fighting is a poor choice of words because it is sailing, after all, and terribly fun.  With an ebb of approximately 3 – 4 nm/hr, our little Lido did a bunch of side-stepping and wind-chasing to play in the bay.

De-rig and unstepping of the mast in the parking lot from the trailer, and a spray-down of fresh water for everything (me included) at home.

As far as an inaugural sail is concerned, the Lido-14 is a tank.  Ours is hull number 216 (you can see the numbers on the hull through a small patch of fiberglass without any gel coat), with original sails, sheets and gear.  The hull is built to a stout thickness, and has a solid feel to it.  It is PERFECT for teaching people how to sail.

The sail did produce a small list of replacement items: new sails (one batten is permanently bent and a bit troublesome in light wind sailing), replacement of all the lines, sheets, and halyards, and replacing a majority of shackles, snatch blocks, and gear.  Lastly, I have a tiny anchor for it, but it needs a rode . . . .

I love that little lido.

The Cal Sailing Club may be the absolute best value in San Francisco for learning and practicing how to sail, repair boats, and just about everything else sailing-related.  In addition to running a fabulous sailing-co-op style club, they also like to barbeque, share with everyone involved, are welcoming, fun-loving, love to race, and even have members who have completed the Mini-Transat–a 30-day race with two legs from France to Brazil solo in 21-foot boats.  Uhhhhm–yeah.

Okay, Saturday rolls around, and myself and a friend roll up to the Cal Sailing Club.  We get a rigging lesson on the relatively new Laser Bahia (fantastic little boat), and then she gets a sailing lesson in a 14-foot Hunter dinghy.  Super-fun!

If you are looking for me during most of the summer, I have an idea where you might start . . . .

For those of you who may not know, the Cal Sailing Club is one of the best values for sailing on the San Francisco Bay.

The basic premise of the Cal Sailing Club is to function like a co-op for sailing.  For $60/quarter and 2 hours of your labor, you can be a member of the club.  This also entitles you to FREE LESSONS!  As many free lessons as you would like, actually.

After you have achieved a sufficient level of skill and the ability to teach sailing to others, you can earn your Junior Skipper Rating.  With that, you immediately become a Sailing Instructor (you learn the most about a subject matter when you teach it to others).

Do not fret if you are not a natural teacher.  The Cal Sailing Club offer teaching workshops–sort of, train-the-trainer classes for Sailing Instructors.

If you would like to advance your knowledge even further, you can earn your Senior Skipper Rating which includes Keel Boat Sailing, and, of course, the ability to teach it to others.  Your Senior Skipper Rating requires the completion of an approved project.  This may be some maintenance work (leading a work crew) on one of the 6 club-owned keel boats, some dinghy retrofits (again, think work party), or some project of equivalent scope.

And, further still, you can earn your Cruising Skipper rating–which entitles you to plan and lead long-distance cruises in the Keel Boats.  Recent cruises include trips to Angel Island, trips to various locations around the San Francisco Bay for lunch/dinner, night-time cruises, etc.

All of this wonderful instruction is completed under the loving supervision of other members of the club who have earned and passed each of the levels of sailing.

Imagine: all of this fun for $60/quarter and a few hours of your volunteer help.

PS. The Cal Sailing Club still teaches harbor sailing–motorless navigation of the congested waterways of a harbor and th docking of your sailboat.

See the Cal Sailing Club website for details

My heart goes out for the loss of a fellow sailor, Roger Stone.  He was the Safety Officer aboard the Texas A&M team boat, the Cynthia Woods, and lost his life while saving the lives of two sleeping crew members.  This tale resonates with me because it reminds me of races and experiences that I have had sailing off-shore from San Francisco.

The crew of the Cynthia Woods, a 38 foot racer cruiser built by North Carolina-based Cape Fear Yachts, were doing everything right.  They were sailing on an appropriate sailboat for their regatta from Texas to Veracruz.  They had safety gear aboard (including the flashlight that rescuers would spot to rescue them), and their vessel was inspected as recently as April.  They were a good, cohesive team, and stuck together during a crisis—five members floating 26 hours in the Gulf of Mexico together with only four lifejackets.

This resonates with me because I have metaphorically sailed on that sailboat.  In San Francisco, I have been part of the crew on about a dozen racing sailboats.  They have all been recently inspected,  appropriately sized and provisioned for the conditions, and maintained the proper safety gear aboard.  For the most part, they have been filled with exceptional sailors.

In the weeks to come, there is going to be a major inquiry into what happened.  The boat builders are going to be held accountable, or the Captain, or the inspector from the boat yard who inspected the keel bolts last April.  We are a blood-thirsty culture, and have grown to possess our own insatiable desire for vengeance.  It will be another media spectacle–a modern-day legal witch-hunt.

The focus should, in my opinion, remain on Roger Stone.  He was the hero sailor who was there when the accident happened.  He woke the two sleeping crew members and pushed them through the hatch to safety—thinking about himself last.  He accepted the position of safety officer aboard his ship in both title and spirit, and when a problem arose, he fulfilled his duty.

Let the lawyers and the media feast upon their scraps and turn this into a series of articles on quality standards in boat builders or court cases where we prosecute ship yard employees for negligence.

Roger Stone’s selfless act of heroism IS the story.

Fair winds and following seas.

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.