Last Sail of the Season

(I'm not sure why I never posted this... back from 10/24... Haul out was on 10/11)

A few weeks ago, the last sail of the season was an outing on Rick's Cascade 29, finally! Mike and I were heading out on my boat, but Rick was already out and Rich needed to head back, so rather than taking my boat out, we hopped on board and away we went. A glorious day of sailing - the wind was directly out of the east, and strong! We would have had to reef my main for sure. A good 13-15 mph, and we pretty much tacked back & forth, back and forth without getting terribly far, but it was so pretty out nobody minded. That's what they say about sailing vs. power boating - power boats are about the destination, sailing is about the journey.

I was excited to see a bunch of boats racing with spinnakers, heading straight downriver. We finally got close enough to see them dropping their sails, which they did surprisingly efficiently as they turned to head back upriver. One boat lost control of the spinnaker sheets and were having quite a bit of trouble dropping their sail. I'll bet their skipper was not happy!

Rick has done some lovely work on his boat. The cabin is very open because he doesn't have a dinette, and the woodworking is very pretty. I cannot imagine how much work he must have put into the interior!

The next weekend was all about preparing my boat for its haul-out at Schooner Creek. They'd given me a list of things I could do to ensure the boat haul out would go as quickly as possible. After breakfast, before the heavens opened with some heavy rain, we got a few folks to the boat and dropped the main, folded it up, and ripped down the boom. Mark and Don got the boom down so quickly I'm afraid what they could do with more than a screwdriver! :-) I've told Mark he's not allowed near my boat with anything stronger that a popsicle stick, since he keeps teasing me about ripping off the deck.

Sunday, Mark and Gail helped get the jib down and prep the rigging, and then we had a very pleasant motor down to Schooner Creek. There were a lot of little touches that I wouldn't have thought of - removing the little rings on the turnbuckles(?) on the rigging that slows down the disassembly process. Mark pointed out that the cotter pins (?) for the upper shroud had been working its way loose - scary, since that is something that keeps the mast from literally breaking when the sail is under tension. Now I have another thing to add to my "check on regularly" list.

Monday morning, I helped pull a few things off the boat, moved it around, and the rigger had the mast ready to go in no time flat. Quite efficient. Eric kept track of the whole process, and we managed to do the work for $500, which was pretty darn close to a minimum once you factor in all the rigging. The pressure washing was also completely worth it. The weather held out very nicely, transfer to the trailer went well. What I would do differently next time is have a better way to secure the lines & rigging to the mast for transport.