A filled-to-bursting weekend. Outing #5

So, on June 7th I ventured out for boating / sailing experience #5. This time it was fearless Gail from OWSA who was my experienced coach, and she (besides being incredibly enthusiastic and encouraging) is also very knowledgable. We got the boat out with the minimum of fuss - walking it back as is my preference. Before we left, though, we did see my neighbor's sailboat - also a 27' - departing and helped walk it back (he swung the bow a bit early). Apparently that boat has 3 owners, and John (and Soleil?) are one set of owners. It was interesting watching them depart - we noted that he was closer to the other side that I would have been comfortable with, and muscled it out a bit with the engine. It was interesting to see the different (more confident) approach.

We had just left the row with minimal drama (the engine had a rough start - almost like the cylinder was sticking, and then it smoothed out), when a figure on the floating home across the way shouted to Gail... It was Helen! So we did a quick touch & go dock not too far from her and picked her up ("hey sailor, you going my way?"), which was both good side docking practice and later really critical to our head pumpout success.

The head pumpout station by the bridge is positioned at an angle to the current, and in such a way as to pin the boat to the dock! We realized this after docking & finding I couldn't power the boat forward at all, nor could I (with the rudder alone) move it out. Well, we pumped out the tank (on the 2nd station, since of course the first one we attempted to use was not functioning). Departing took discussion and Gail's recommendation was the winner - Helen pulled the stern in, Gail pushed it out, I had the engine going & the tiller turned. Effectively, we had to get the current to stop pushing so hard against the keel & give the engine a fighting chance. It worked! Departure was smooth, but that had been worrisome.

Then, we putt-putted out to sail. Going up against the current creates more wake (a note for the future). The wind was overall pretty light - in the 5mph range was my guess. But we hauled up the main, got the jib out, and were able to go upriver, albeit slowly. Gail, racer that she is, instructed me more on trimming the sails and I now better understand what the Cunningham and the Downhaul (if I'm remembering the term correctly) do to the shape of the sail. She's a wonderful instructor.

We didn't sail for terribly long - maybe 45 minutes, but had our share of excitement with hitting a log (no obvious immediate damage done to the prop / rudder, though it remains to be seen if there was something more subtle). It amazes me how there is a magnetic attraction of any floating debris to boats, when it's an awfully big river.

Returning went relatively smoothly. I actually had some good practice compensating for the current when we were chatting with Helen before we picked her up. Entering the row, Gail kept an eye on the bow and gave me hand signals (this is very useful) and Helen relayed shouted instructions to make sure I heard. This worked very well. The docking went very smoothly - we did indeed use the docking lines, and this is now firmly adopted in my POR methods as a better way to give my crew control over the boat when docking. Helen & Gail showed me how disconnecting the main halyard was nice & kept at least one banging line from, well, banging against the mast in the wind. I really need to get more bungees on board in preparation for the cruise...

We heard from Kim, that John & Soleil, upon returning, had bumped the boat on the piling on the other side, having come in too far downstream and (possibly) too much at a right angle to the current. Kim said she heard "S**T!" and came up to see that they'd scraped the piling (there was some white paint present). I suspect that John may be a little less experienced than Greg in boat handling?

On the way out, I learned that Scamp, a Cascade at my marina (already verified as hull #1), is actually hull #1 for the 27's, made in 1978! For some reason, I thought it was the original, original Cascade #1. So, less impressive, but still pretty darn cool. I need to weasel my way onto that boat to get a look around.

Lessons for the Day. Whew! Great docking practice and learning how to manipulate the boat at the dock to deal with the current by pulling the stern in. Learning that the cunningham pulls the sail down by hooking into a ring near the bottom of the sail. That the downhaul pulls in the bottom of the sail a bit and tightens everything up.

Here are my awesome OWSA women:


And with all of that, I still made it to the China Mieville reading at Powells with time to spare, and picked up his new novel (signed!) and two books on boat repair. Gonna need 'em. I also started Batkus scarf found through Ravelry which I'm already liking more than the sock (no pooling). And worked on my sweater, thanks to Karen and Kathryn, pro-knitters that Annmarie had a lesson with on Saturday. Very full weekend! (I need to get some knitting photos on here!!)