Sailing Again: March 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

First Mate joins this blog

After sharing my opinions last night with Donavan that sometimes the blog feels like a technical manual, he suggested that I become a contributing writer. So I took the hint, and here I am. I have enjoyed the two seasons of sailing that we've done, and hope to learn a lot more as time goes on, but I haven't taken any classes or sailed across the Gulf of Mexico like Donavan has. One of my favorite parts of sailing is the serene feeling I get laying on the boat deck near the front pointy part (there's a marine term for that, but I don't remember it) and listening to the water slap against the sides of the boat, and the wind against the sails. The other favorite part is the simple way we get to spend time together on the boat--no distractions, working together to make the boat go, watching the world go by.

My 9-year-old daughter likes sailing too, and I want to soak up every minute of time with her right now. I am acutely aware of how quickly she will probably prefer spending time with friends, to spending time on a boat in cramped quarters with us. Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll continue to want to join us, but regardless of her developmental stage, she will grow up and have her own life in a matter of years. And like every parent, I feel both excited and sad about that, all wrapped up together.

Back to the sailing blog, I won't be using technical words, because I don't know them. I've learned that ropes are lines, a toilet is a head, duck your head when someone says "coming about," and don't sit on the ropes that are laying all over the seats. I know how to steer the boat into the wind while the sails are being put up, and I can put up the sails when the boat is being steered into the wind. I have learned about myself that I have a hard time believing that the boat will not tip over, even when it's leaning veeeerrrryyy far over. My inner ear is screaming at me that I will be falling over soon, and my stomach is all tense, but my brain is saying it's fine, relax, not going to tip, and even if it does just swim to shore. I hope this internal conflict resolves itself, because dealing with the tippy-ness is a big part of sailing. I'm confident I'll learn to handle it.

Thanks Donavan for letting me join your blog! Any regrets yet???

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Now this is how to get the job done fast

First video shot with new GoPro Hero3 sailing video to come as soon as the water is not so hard, most call it ice.

Progress, Progress, Progress

I made a bunch of progress over this weekend. The bottom paint went on sale, reduced all the way down to 123$ a gallon. Luckily I only needed one gallon. So I was able to sand, and clean, and put two coats of bottom paint on the boat, so that part of the boat is ready for the water. Earlier this week I was able to find a company that will remanufacture the Hunter decals that originally came with the boat. I ordered new decals and striping. Some of the striping I had to take off when I did some of the gelcoat repair, so I'll be able to replace all of it with new. I was also able to make room and get the motor up on a stand to test it out. I cleaned the plugs, and on the third pull, it fired right up. There's a lot of smoke yet, but it seems to run well. Maybe later next week I can put it outside and let it run, and see if the smoke will stop.

I put an order in to West Marine this week for some of the final parts for mounting the grill, relocating the halyards to the cockpit, and some other parts. One of the things I finally did was to finalize the location of the grill, and the mounting system I'm going to be using. The mounts will be multipurpose. This week, I also picked up a GoPro camera, which is a very small waterproof camera that will make it easy to record the sailing that we do, and can be mounted on the same hardware as the grill. This particular camera can be used for things like skydiving, bungee jumping, surfing, and other high-action recordings (none of which, we'll be doing). I did record myself painting the second coat of the bottom paint. I am going to edit it, and may post it, in fast forward, so everyone can watch paint dry.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Fun with gelcoat

I am making progress on the gelcoat repairs. I have most of them done now. I need to touch up a couple of small spots. I've never worked with gelcoat before, and it's taken a little bit of learning to figure it out, but I think I've gotten it. I finished up the refinishing of the wood work for this year and there are a couple of spots I might strip down next winter. The only stuff left that I can finish before the boat goes back on the trailer is bottom paint and some of the lettering and decals. One of the things that is an open question is the motor. I don't have enough room in the garage right now to see if it runs or see if it needs work. Hopefully that will be soon.

When the boat is back outside and on the trailer I will have a about a day of work to be ready for the sailing season, or I hope that it will be ready anyway. I have classes most Tuesdays and many Saturdays over the next couple of months. I am looking to do some racing this year also.