Holystone Her
We went out on Freelance (the 30 ft sailboat I crew on) yesterday. My friend shig23 came along and was a great extra crewman. Captain Mike put a ton of work into cleaning the heavily fouled bottom of the boat, but he ran out of air in his tank before he could fully clean the summer's worth of gunk. He says he'll have to get the hull re-coated with anti-fouling paint in the yard in Carrabelle at the end of this racing season. Meanwhile shig23 and I folded the 140 genoa and scrubbed the decks to a fair approximation of a shine. We also lost about fifty pounds of sweat for each of us in the heat. Fortunately the wind started to pick up and a little shade set in as a storm formed just inland from us. We even got a light sprinkle as we switched from cleaning to making ready to leave the slip.
I was very rusty-- I hadn't been out in Freelance since the end of the last fall racing season because of my injured elbow last spring. But there weren't too many snafus. And thank goodness, because apparently my boss watched us from shore with binoculars. He asked me today if that was me he saw out in the sailboat this weekend! Anyway, I had the opportunity to take the helm for a bit as we went out the entrance channel as Mike and shig23 wrestled with the main boom gooseneck which was sticking. Then we were up forward when I saw a pod of dolphins riding our bow waves while we set the headsail. That's always a delight! We sailed out into Apalachee Bay for about 4 miles, all the while watching the storm behind us. There was a fair amount of lightning and thunder and a lot of rain over Oyster Bay, but it was all safely to leeward. Our real concern was getting in before the early low tide came out too much. We turned back and were sailing on an easy reach when I went down below to grab some waters in the galley. While down there I felt a sudden change in the heel of the boat and when I came up I found that the wind had become flukey and gusty and was frequently veering and backing. Then when we got to the entrance channel again it died almost completely leaving us to turn the engine on and motor back in the renewed heat.
We had a few close calls on the way in. While shig23 and I were getting the fenders out we scraped bottom a few times. We moved to the starboard rail and came off each time we ran aground and I guess it probably helped clean the bottom some by knocking off a few of the recalcitrant barnacles that Mike hadn't been able to get off. We also had to share the channel with a sailboat heading out as we entered the narrows between the shoal and the peninsula in the harbor canals. I could have jumped off and waded a very few feet to shore right there! I also wonder whether the other sailboat was able to get back in that afternoon. They drew some four feet which was less than our five feet, but the tide was still going out.
I was very rusty-- I hadn't been out in Freelance since the end of the last fall racing season because of my injured elbow last spring. But there weren't too many snafus. And thank goodness, because apparently my boss watched us from shore with binoculars. He asked me today if that was me he saw out in the sailboat this weekend! Anyway, I had the opportunity to take the helm for a bit as we went out the entrance channel as Mike and shig23 wrestled with the main boom gooseneck which was sticking. Then we were up forward when I saw a pod of dolphins riding our bow waves while we set the headsail. That's always a delight! We sailed out into Apalachee Bay for about 4 miles, all the while watching the storm behind us. There was a fair amount of lightning and thunder and a lot of rain over Oyster Bay, but it was all safely to leeward. Our real concern was getting in before the early low tide came out too much. We turned back and were sailing on an easy reach when I went down below to grab some waters in the galley. While down there I felt a sudden change in the heel of the boat and when I came up I found that the wind had become flukey and gusty and was frequently veering and backing. Then when we got to the entrance channel again it died almost completely leaving us to turn the engine on and motor back in the renewed heat.
We had a few close calls on the way in. While shig23 and I were getting the fenders out we scraped bottom a few times. We moved to the starboard rail and came off each time we ran aground and I guess it probably helped clean the bottom some by knocking off a few of the recalcitrant barnacles that Mike hadn't been able to get off. We also had to share the channel with a sailboat heading out as we entered the narrows between the shoal and the peninsula in the harbor canals. I could have jumped off and waded a very few feet to shore right there! I also wonder whether the other sailboat was able to get back in that afternoon. They drew some four feet which was less than our five feet, but the tide was still going out.