Looking past Issac

Hoping that the remnants of Issac are past us and that his little sister goes elsewhere, we're planning on our trip to the Bay next weekend.

Peggy has been charged with taking plenty of pics so that we can add an album to our Gallery at the Catalina -Capri-25s Association website.

Here's a link to one of our recent albums.

Here's a link to the Association Gallery

Vacation 2012

Short vacation this year. Headed to our favorite venue, Biscayne Bay.
We'll try to keep this updated during our breaks.
Here's a link to our Spot (if it's turned on :)

Hopefully lots of pics.

Anniversary Sail.

24 Years - Phew!

We survived 24 years together (Peggy & I, we have only owned JD for 7 years ;0)

So this weekend we planned to be trailing JD to Black Point Marina on Biscayne Bay by crack of dawn Friday. But ... Chloe, our 75lb 14 year old German shepherd was demanding attention, she deserves it, and our daughter Pam was stuck in Georgia for an extra day. So re-plan, leave pre dawn Saturday. Just as well, we were not ready for a dawn departure Friday anyway. Maybe flexibility is the reason for making it to 24!

Easy drive down to BPM. and no snags as we prepared JD to launch. It takes between 90 mins and 2 hours to get everything ready. The grumpy weather suggested that we rig everything before the launch, rather than my normal procedure of  bending on the sails as we take the 25 minute channel out of BPM. Another good idea that day. The winds were up in the low to mid 20s from the East. The Bay had white caps and, before we got to our anchorage, there were streaks of white foam flying towards our port bow. Regular salt sprays over the deck had us both wearing foul weather jackets. We arrived at the anchorage where there were about a hundred power boats, only two other sail boats, it was Mother's Day Weekend. No sailing today.

Things Break

The wind indicator display failed as we headed to our anchorage, started chirping to us in what seemed morse code, I planned to take a look at the deck connections in the morning. We only recently had the entire system serviced by Raymarine, something's up with it. It's all magic, so I'll re-inspect the deck connection.

Our new Dometic Freezer works great! Sucks power big time, drawing around 4amps when set to stay at -2degrees C. Have to get a bigger solar panel! We flashed up the Generator so that we could have the AC running, and charge the batteries at the same time.

Dinner was to be Lasagna. In the weeks leading up to our sailing date, I always cook extra and Freeze a few meals. This trip I brought with us Lasagna, Shepherds Pie, Baked Chicken, & Chillie. So the planning was good. But then the Seaward Princess Stove failed! The gas flow stopped almost instantly. So I checked the seal where the can engages with the pressure control system, that was ok. Took the pressure control system apart looking for blockages, nothing there. Removed the stove from it's housing in the counter top and inspected for any other issues. 

The only thing I can think of is a stuck Flame out preventor. It looks like there is some kind of thermo coupler that turns the gas off if the flame goes out. I'm guessing it's stuck. Will have to call Seaward after trip.

So, how to cook dinner without the stove! I purchased a new Magma Grill from West Marine a few weeks ago, and we checked that it would mount to the stern rail. But how to cook Lasagna on a Grill? 

I put a skillet with the Lasagna on the grill, but could not close the lid as handle would burn. Nasty plastic skillet handle. I was able to shield the grill from the high winds using a bath towel, Peggy holding one side, me the other. It took ages to heat the meal.

Sunday Morning

Tried to perk some coffee on the Grill, that's not going to happen! But was able to fry up some corned beef hash, and Eggs. No Coffee!!!

Let's go sailing! We raised the anchors ( I had put out two to handle the high winds overnight). Turned to the   Northwest, once in deep water, we turned into wind, raised the Main with one reef, then turned off the wind and unfurled about 50% of the jib. 

Heading towards the Feather Banks channel, we hit 6 knots several times even reefed, and the boat was sailing pretty level most of the time. It was a great ride to the channel, and we were able to continue sailing though the short channel with the wind just off the stbd beam. Beautiful day to be sailing.

I had thought of sailing up to Coral Gables Yacht club, but re-thunk that one. It's Mother's day, so there will likely be a lot of families celebrating, not really the time for 'guests', we'll head that way another day. So we turned back south and headed back for the channel.

The wind had really not dropped much, but without the wind display we had to guess. Anyway, we were able to tack to the East and back to the Sands key Anchorage. Only a couple of sail boats there now, I guess they all headed home to take Mom out to Dinner. A couple of hours sailing and we joined the other boats with the prospect of lower winds overnight. Upon anchoring, a quick dip in the 'just too cool' water to freshen up, followed by a rinse down.

Some as%$^*^&(le creamed though the anchorage at very high speed, tossed the boat around and I clambered up to see what the heck was happening. His prop wash was only 20 feet from our port side and he passed over our anchor line! He was fortunate that he did not pick up the line! He was not so fortunate when the blue and red lights started flashing and pulled him over! He got to enjoy a full on the water inspection, and got at least one ticket and spent nearly 40 minutes along side the patrol boat. Way to go guys! Glad to see you are there when we need you. 

Dinner tonight was Shepherds pie on the grill. This time I put the meal onto some cooking foil rather than heat up the skillet. Cooked great in a fraction of the time. Looks like we're ok for meals.

TV columbo, then hit the sack.

Breakfast was another challenge, but the aluminum foil process worked a charm. Eggs, Corned Beef Hash, Tomatoes. Still no coffee! (that's 2 days without java!)

The forecast is looking bleak, storms headed our way late Monday/Tuesday. re-plan. We'll head back today but for a change, we'll sail back to BPM, great chance to fly the Asym.

Peggy took this pic just after I hoisted the sail. Looks like a dobie hitch at the tack.

The chute scoop control line is hanging down loose too!

Finally, got the lines sorted out. Added a sail tie as a Tacker, raising the tack to level with the clew, and she Flew! Even in the much lighter winds today, we hit 5.5knots. Made all of the work getting here worthwhile. We should have got the Asym years ago! It's Awesome! 

We were able to sail under the Asym to within a quarter mile of the BPM channel entrance. What a great sail today. Boat is covered with Salt from the Spray, so we'll have some heavy cleanup to do. But this is why  we do all it takes to make these trips possible. It would be great to be able to go out every weekend, but once a month will suffice till we win the lottery.

Wind Alert App

This app has way too many really cool features. Love it

Boat Trip Checklist - Android App

My new favorite Nook Android App - Boat Trip Checklist by Jimbl.com (nothing there, but you can find the app on Barnes & Noble.)

it's a simple app. Basically list of categories with list of items in each category.

As items in a category are checked off, the % done changes for that category.

Really easy to use and extend.

I really like simple apps that do what they are meant to do and do it well.

Well worth the $0.99

Hole in the Boot

We have a minute hole in the Edson Boot that the steering arm passes through to control the Rudder.

Got the new boot from Edson, now to install it.

Step 1. Take the main battery out. No way to get to the nuts on the inside of the Boot hardware without removing the battery. Not a big job. Pull out the Starboard Aft Mattress, Unscrew and remove the center trunk access panel (I modified ours a while ago so that it's now in 3 pieces, easy to remove the center section while leaving the awkward end panels in place) Then unstrap the battery cover, turn off the boats 12v system, disconnect the battery charger, disconnect the battery, pull it out of the aft berth. That takes about 20minutes.

View inside the 'Trunk' up close to the Edson Steering Control Plate.

Now to remove the Rudder. Again, not a tough task. Remove two split pins, one from the upper Pintle, and the other on the pin in the Control arm. Remove the control arm pivot pin, turn the wheel to Starboard, slide the control arm out of the rudder assembly and lift the rudder off. 10 mins max.

And now the reason for posting this... The tough part!

To remove the rubber boot that keeps the water out of the trunk (always a good thing!) the 6 nuts on the inside of the plate in the trunk have to be removed. Really awkward to get up close to the assembly on the inside of the trunk. Made a lot easier by using a 14mm socket on a cordless drill. Peggy on the outside to make sure the bolts didn't turn, me on the inside reaching in with the drill, got the nuts off in less than 5 mins. 

Looking good so far.

Now to remove the bolts on the outside. Challenge! 4 bolts come straight out, but two of them are corroded. Not a surprise, the bolts are stainless stell, they pass through the Stainless plate on the outside, then the Rubber boot, through the transom, then through an Aluminum plate and finally what appears to be a cast aluminum plate.

I cut the rubber boot off on the outside so that I could get a better handle on this issue. A few sharp taps with a hammer did not dislodge the final two bolts. I broke a screw driver trying to unscrew them. Even tried to use a clamp to push them out from the inside. No luck! :(

For now I have given them a good douse of WD40 and taking a short break to post a plea for help on the Forum.

 The Boot and 4 Screws removed.

 The culprits up close and personal!

Back shortly.

Ok, time to say 'thank you'!

As a member of the very active Catalina - Capri 25s International Association, I, like all members of the Association, have access to an abundance of support from fellow Catalina 25's owners.

They came though this time, 'Thank you guys!'

Here's a link to the forum on this issue

Oh, and Google just made a significant update to their blog layout, I think I like it! Kudos Google!

Mast Post Dribble

A couple of years ago, we noticed a slight dribble down the compression post during heavy rain. This is only apparent when on the water (hence during one of our mini cruises) as normally JD has a tarp draped over her entire length to protect from the Florida Rain,Sun and dust/debris from nearby State Road 7.

Today I decided it was time to fix it. Cloudy day and a bit of a breeze meant it would be nice to work under the tarp. So out came the Cap'n Tolley's Creeping leak fix and a re-read of the instructions.

First step is to make sure the area is dry can clean. So armed with paper towel I crawled beneath the tarp onto the cabin top. Dry! But taking a closer look under the Stainless Steel mast base plate, I noticed that the bedding compound had shrunk and guessed that was the cause of the dribble.

Not wanting to overdo the Cap'n Tolley's, I decided I would first clean out the excess compound.

So out came my Stanley and out came the excess compound.

Now it was clear that the shrunken compound was the culprit! I decided to go for it and remove the compression post, do a clean up and fix this issue correctly.

Clamping a vice grip to the nuts on the underside of the cabin deckhead, I removed each of the 4 screws. They are only threaded for about an inch, the rest of the shank is plain. So once the nuts were off, I could pull the screws out with a pair of pliers.
To get the compression post out, I inserted a piece of 3" timber from the front of the mast base and used that as a lever to rotate the base and post. It was easy!

You can see how grungy the space under the base plate is in the pic. When I pulled the post all the way up and out, there was just room below the tarp with the mast in the raised stern crutch. I still had to use my head to lift the tarp the last few inches, not a big deal. Time to clean up the area.

The blue tape is on the stbd side of the mast base and is used as a reference in the pics that follow.

Notice the inconsistent structure of the sealing compound left on the deck. I'm guessing this is 3m 4200 compound. But that's only a guess.

 Another pic before I pulled the post all the way out. Notice the ring of mild corrosion around the post, that is the area that is visible at the top of the post in the cabin.

Again, note the inconsistency of the bedding compound. I'm sure that the Florida Sun had some impact upon the compound, I'll use Butyl when putting this all back together.

 With the mast post totally removed, it's clear why we had the dribble! This whole area is dry, the boat has been under tarp for a couple of months.

Cleaning will be with a sharp blade to remove the compound. Goof Off to clean up.

Made a lot of progress in the clean up so far. Still a bit of the compound to remove, but some of the original work marks are below the surface and I'm not prepared to sand down below the general surface level. So I'll clean them as best I can.

Clean up complete. If this were going to be visible, I would repair the gelcoat. It will be well sealed.

I taped it off so that I could use 1,000 grit wet n dry to smooth the area. The curved marks appear to be made during the manufacturing.

Now that the area is smooth, I'll counter sink the screw holes and the post hole so there is a good seal with the Butyl.

Now for the Inside.

This pic shows the base plate mounted on top of the centerboard casing that fits inside the open end of the compression post base.

Notice how it's half full of water! Go figure! I have to assume it's from condensation or capillary action when the dribble ran down the outside of the compression post.

As the coffee table can only be removed when the mast post is raised, I took a look at the underside. Just remove the two screws holding it to the casing.

The compression post base plate is held in place with 4 SS screws, it looks pretty rugly around the base and at the top of the centerboard casing.

You can see our Stereo speakers mounted here. The sound is terrific when the table is in place. We can route the TV sound to them for a real studio effect.

After cleaning up the area with Goof Off (and opening the forward cabin hatch to vent the fumes!) and a few minutes with 1,000 grit wet and dry, the centerboard casing top looks much better and the compression post base cleaned up really good.

A few more minutes with 3M Stainless Steel cleaner and the base looks like new.

I'll use Butyl to bed the base plate back to the casing as the underside of the base plate is not exactly flat. 

A little more cleaning to do around the screw holes in the casing.

Moving on to the Compression post and Mast base.

Looking at the underside of the mast base (the compression post is pointing up in this pic), it's obvious why we had the dribbles. I had not cleaned the underside of the base plate before taking this pick. The original compound was just not doing the job!

A few minutes scraping off the small patches of sealing compound and a few more buffing the base and post with 3M Stainless cleaner, the post looks great!

Done for the day, need to get a few supplies before putting it all back together.

Ok, so nearly done for the day :) Sanded down the coffee table and used wood filler to fix the two dings, has to be a temporary fix as I really need to replace the table. It's kinda useless as it is, size, height, etc. But the project is on a schedule for our trip on May 11th. So for now I'll just put a couple of coats of poly on it and replace it so that the compression post can be reinstalled. The poly finish is satin, and I must admit, that even though the color of the table top consistency is really yuk, the finish looks good, looks similar to the teak in the boat. So when I do put in the new coffee table, think I'll stick with that finish.

Now, done for the day.

Tuesday April 24th. Putting it back together

The poly coats on the coffee table have had 48 hours to dry out, I really like the finish (but not the color/shading consistency) but as mentioned, I'll replace the coffee table before the summer with something more useful.

So,

• Butyl compound under the compression post base plate and screwed down. Done
• Coffee table replaced and screwed down. Done
• Countersink the holes under the mast plate for the screws and the compression post. Done
• Replace the compression post. Done
• Secure the base bolts and nuts (with new washers rather then reuse the rugly ones) Done

All done bar the clean up.

Cleaned up all 5 holes, countersunk each of them.

Mast Compression Post with Butyl Tape ready.

Just before compression post lowered fully, final wrap of Butyl.

 Plate down, Screws initially tightened.

Final tighten. Butyl squeezing out all around plate.

All done. Butyl extruded out from base plate.

Definitely a well sealed Mast Base Plate now.

Time to trim the excess extruded butyl tape, clean up the surrounding area, and all done. Ready to clean and wax the cabin top in the morning.

Insurance Surprise.

We're approaching JD's 7th Birthday (well, we consider her delivery day her birthday, don't get too technical about this.) We took delivery of her on Sunday June 5th. 2005.

Since then we have trailed JD well over a thousand miles of highway, and sailed her hundreds of miles around Florida. All the time we have been insured by Boat US and never made a claim (even after Wilma when a burning branch blew off a nearby tree and landed temporarily on the boat leaving the equivalent of a cigarette burn. I would have to point it out in order for you to be aware of it.)

JD has spent a lot of time on her trailer, other boats spend a lot of time on their mooring or at their slips. We consider JD to be in her slip when she is on the trailer parked at the side of the house.

Turns out, that Boat US starts to discount the insurance premium after years of no claims and in our case, we just had a reduction of Annual Premium from $1,100 to $400! Whooo Hoooo!

JD Ready to be towed with a Smart Car ;)

Just a little damp

Living in South Florida and keeping the boat on the trailer between sails has pro's and con's.

One of the Pro's is that we can keep her plugged into the 110v 'shore power' via an extension lead to the back of the house.
Just as well! We have been coping with high humidity causing us to wipe down the inside of the boat with Clorox wipes weekly to prevent the development of mold and mildew. Plus we remove all of the cushions from the boat so that they don't get smelly. It's a task to remove them and replace them.

Here's our solution:

This is a Mini Dehumidifier from Sunpentown, only cost $58 on Overstock. And it works! Surprise!
We plugged it in with it standing on the Galley Counter and closed up the boat. That was Tuesday evening. Today, Sunday, there is nearly 3" of water in the collecting tray.

I have it setup to continually drain, but it has to almost fill the collection tank first.

So far, very impressed. Not sure how much power it actually uses. The specs say 85W. Which is pretty heavy, not something that we would run unless connected to shore power.

However, it works! Will it last, who knows, some of the reviews claimed it only worked for 6 months then quit.  But we found reviews of similar products that cost over $700 that claimed that they broke down after a few months. So it's a gamble. At $58 (including the $1 shipping at overstock) it's worth the try.
(Just for reference. We installed it on March 20th 2012)

Update April 4th. 2012.
Ok, I'm impressed! This past weekend, I checked the contents of the Dehumidifier, and the collection bucket had filled to the point where it drained excess into the cabin sink where we have the hose positioned.
Emptied the bucket and turned it back on (it shuts off when the bucket is removed) The cabin does not smell musty at all, and no signs of mildew in the normal places (head door normally needs wiping down quite often with Chlorox wipes) So it's living up to it's decscription. So, for now, it get's a 10!

Dreams of a bigger boat

After making the decision (jointly :) ) to cut the weekend short and head home on the Sunday, we were heading  west across Biscayne Bay. Wind was bouncing around the 25knot range, seas were only a couple of feet most of the time, yep, Biscayne Bay can get choppy, especially after 24 hours of sustained wind in one direction.

So we had the choice of motoring comfortably going NW or SW and tacking back towards Black Point Marina, or just putting up with the sloppy seas and steering to the mark. Lazily we steered to the mark, put in about a 10degree drift and steered 290, kept us on the GPS trackline without even looking at it. Always an upbeat event when we actually plan our course and it works out as planned! Totally cool.

Every now and then we would slide into a trough and get lifted up only to wallow over the top, just not paying attention to the waves. The penalty is hard push over to leeward and a sudden heel of around 25degrees.

Now, most sailors would just plant their feet firmly and let the boat lean up into the next wave and think nothing of it, but the Admiral is allergic to heeling beyond 25degrees, we typically keep the boat upright within 10degrees and it rewards us by sailing beautifully. But under, lazy, motor, we don't have the sail out to steady the boat, so the heel tends to be more dramatic. So Peggy's response to the wallow... we need a bigger boat.

That's the kind of response that lightens my day, any day!

Once back home, JD parked in the back yard, washed down, engine flushed, tanks emptied, food, clothing, bedding pulled out and finally covered in her new Tarp (You can figure out it's a project to store the boat). Well, once we were all cleaned up, out came the notebook computer and the search began. We need a bigger boat!

So, I have had dreams of a bigger boat for years. We love JD and the access to the SoFla venues that having a skinny water boat allows, but bigger is better... right? One of my favorite sites is yachtworld.com and I have the search option down pat. Peggy has it down too. So the search has started. Our new boat will have to be less than 15 years old, but not new. It has to be at least 34' LWL and have 6'+ headroom. Not a small list of boats that match those minimums, over 3,700 of them on yachtworld.com.

But when you dream of a bigger boat, you have to be prepared to dream up a different world. Where can the boat go? Deep keels place a limit on some marinas, Skinny water around the Florida keys means you have to take the boat to new places... good dreams! Bigger boat = bigger expenses! JD is pretty cheap to moor and to slip, bigger boats hurt there!

And! Bigger boats can go further on the water! Maine, Annapolis, Bahamas, Caribbean but they have to meet blue water requirements for Peggy to be a happy crew.

Casting the challenges aside just long enough to encourage solutions, think what the bigger boat can provide!

We could be in the BVI waiting for the kids to fly out and spend a week sailing around the islands. Visiting the thousands of nature spots just on the East coast alone would take a few lifetimes to explore. Building new friendships with other cruisers, facing daily challenges of reaching for a destination but already being there.

Our 'Bigger Boat' will have to show up when we are ready, but soon! :)

No Sail :(

Sometimes, you go with the flow, even if the flow is not in your favor but in hope of things getting better.

After a week of being a sick puppy, our planned sailing trip on Biscayne Bay over the first weekend of March was something to look forward to. Ever optimistic, the sailflow forecast was in the high range for us the entire weekend. Only Sunday looked like a go nowhere day, so we prepped JD for the trip down to Black Point Marina with planned start of the tow somewhere around Noon Friday March 2nd.

Anticipating a later than normal start reduced a lot of the self imposed stress that goes with getting the boat ready to trail. We take this stuff really seriously. All too often, we hear of boats that were in accidents because they were not secured to their trailer. We use 2" Ratcheted Tie Downs, one at the bow the other across the stern. JD is not going shift on our trailer!

It seems we also have a thing for 'Bags', Peggy is not a pack rat, no way! but we do have a lot of bags on the boat. 4 sail bags, 2 clothing bags, 3 bags of electronics, books, 'stuff', a Meds bag (about to be cloned), a bag for the canvas when not towing the boat. Then there is the food, two bags of non-perishables (crackers, wine, rice, tuna, G2, fruit cups, etc. etc. 3 bags of bottled water (in addition to the 40gallons we carry in the tanks). Bedding, Towels, Kitchen towels... the list goes on and on.

Ok, time to get this off my chest, I detest bags loafing around in the cabin. They are always in the way, get moved a dozen times a day, and of course, which bag is what in? A boat is really one of those places where everything has a place. It makes life on board so much easier, easier still if everyone knows where those places are!

Back to the weekend... Boat loaded, lunch break at home, last thing to do is unplug the electrical connection to the boat and pull her out to the street, close up the house, set the Tom Tom for our destination and head south!

Miami is a great place to launch your boat from if you live in SoFla, they have an annual state park parking permit, only costs us $85 a year and we leave JD's trailer there at least 20 nights each year, and the facilities are excellent. We renew in Februay/March each year with pleasure. And the staff at the Dockmaster's office are great, we take a slip at Black Point several times each year too. Of course, it is only a 30 minute transit to Biscayne Bay which is really one of the best sailing venues in South Florida.

So, Friday night, after renewing our permit, we launched JD, parked up the truck and trailer, and headed out the channel to watch the Sun go down as we motored over to Sand Key on the north end of Elliot Key on the east side of Biscayne Bay. It's about a 2 hour motor from the marina to the anchorage.

It was dark as we approached the anchorage, running lights on, and not many boats at anchor, so plenty of space to drop the hook. Cloudy darkness, could barely see the anchorage marker bouys until they were less than 30' away. Wind had picked up very little, looked like it was going to be a nice night, our new anchor rode has an additional 20' of chain, so I put out a total of about 100' of rode, our anchor is suited to the sandy bottom over there, most of the time.

After dinner, we set the anchor alarm on the handheld backup GPS and turned in... pooped! Slept like a log in a valley... till around midnight! Wind had picked up, anchor dragged, alarm went off. We have been here before, so no panic. A quick look around outside to confirm we were not heading towards anything that would complain or mark us. Then I pulled on the rode and felt the anchor just sliding across the bottom, dang! we were probably in a grassy area. A few minutes of pulling the rode in, then with the chain in hand, I set the 2nd anchor and felt them dig in as I gave the boat some slack to allow it to move downwind, then a few heavy tugs, barely able to hold the rode, and I was satisfied the anchor was holding. With two anchors out 20' apart, I reset the anchor alarm and headed back to the bunk. Sleep came quickly.

Dawn arrived with some fresh winds from the South. Adjusted the solar panel to gather the early morning Sun low on the horizon, 1.1amp, plenty to take the pressure off the batteries while running our new Dometic Freezer, held -1C easily. Breakfast of corned beef hash, eggs, tomatoes, toast and some piping hot coffee. Great start of the day.

Pegs was showing signs of the bug that I had last week :( and weather reports didn't look too great), so I suggested that we take the day off, loaf around, read some books, watch the other boaters screw up and just do not a lot. Peggy signed up for that excursion!

During the day we saw several larger power boats drop anchor and not a lot of rode. Now if you don't know the area, it's only about 10' deep in the middle of the Bay, the water just outside the anchorage is maybe 7', inside it goes down to as little as 4 feet. So you don't need a lot of rode. In 7' of water with 4' of bow height, a total of 11 feet, it's recommended to have 7:1 rode, ie. 77'. With only 4' of water and 4' to the bow, they should have a total rode of 44'. For us, we typically put down 80' of rode in 5' of water just to be safe. These power boats were probably putting about 20' out! Just not going to work! and it didn't most of the time. One large boat, draped with bikini babes was headed our way pretty quickly. A few shouts to the skipper and he finally figured out he was dragging. I bet he had one heck of a nice GPS on board, complete with anchor alarm! Duh! We watched them for over an hour as they tried and tried to get a grip on the bottom, finally they gave up and pulled anchor and turned towards Miami.

More later.

First Sail of 2012

After a long overnight rest aboard JD anchored off Sand Key just north of Elliott Key Harbor, we started the day with a great breakfast.

Any of you that have cooked aboard a small sailboat know this is no insignificant feat. But today's breakfast was easy. Hash Beef, Eggs, Tomatoes, and Bannanas. OJ and, the most important part of any breakfast onboard, hot, steamy, coffee! Of course, my enthusiasm for making breakfast is to get to the next part of the day, a day under sail with the new Asym Spinnaker.

Over night I raised the sail a dozen times, mentallly walking through each of the steps in setting up the sail. By the time we were headed down wind I was ready.

Setup the Tack line, worked out perfect. Attached the spin halyard, perfect, but I do need  a cleat on the mast to secure the haul end of the halyard. Sheet ran aft, first problem. Not long enough, they need to be 10 feet longer each side. The sheet lines were from our 150% jib, and that doesn't require that the sheets run outside of the forestay. So I'll buy new sheets later in the month.

Already to hoist, the halyard pulled the head of the sail in it's sock up to the masthead. Looked good from the foredeck. With everything setup, time to deploy. The beauty of the sock system is that it makes it so easy to deploy and douse the spinnaker. Within just a few seconds, the sail was out, the light wind filled it easily.

I quickly learned that the height of the tack needs to be about the same as the height of the clew. If the tack is lower, then it dramatically reduces the effective angle of the sail to the wind. The tack was secured to the port cabin top winch, so it was easy to adjust the tack height. For now I made a temporary 'tacker' using a piece of webbing to keep the tack close to the forestay.

So, here's some of our pics.


Here's looking up the furled jib, those marks on the spinnaker are stains, I need to figure out how to deal with them or how to ignore them. You can just make out the spin sock at the top, it has the dousing lines attached.

Having figured out that the spinnaker acts more like a giant Jib if the tack is held close to the deck, I made a makeshift tacker using a webbing sail tie ran through the tacker shackle just above he tack cringle.

Once the tack was about the same height from the deck, I could sail with the wind further astern. I'll make a more efficient tacker device before our next sail.

The sheets are lead aft to a block secured to a line onto the aft cleat. Then they run into the cam cleats mounted on the combing. This setup works great, but the block needs to be an inch or so forward.
A shackle would be just about the right extension.
Note I need to clean out the butyl, the grey stuff that seals the cam cleat where it meets the combing. You can't see it in this pic, but there is a stainless steel stirrup that keeps the sheet inline with the cams. I used Red and Green cam cleat caps to make it easy when asking Peggy to adjust the Spin sheet.

So our first sail of the year was a total success. We sailed about 8 miles with the new Spinnaker, Then headed back to the Sand Key Anchorage with the110% Jib. Still very light winds, but we needed to sail pretty close to the wind to head back to the North East.

A really light wind sailing day, ideal for our first experience with the new sail.

We got back to the anchorage around 5pm, time enough to put up the pop top, JD's hat, and prep dinner. Stew and Veggies on the menu tonight with Key Lime Pie for desert, a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio, and  put our feet up to watch TV. That was another upgrade that turned out great. We replaced the Shack TV antenna for a Shakespeare Omni Directional with a much better pre-amp. There are at least a dozen channels open down in that part of Biscayne Bay.

As the night passed, most of the power boats headed home. By dawn there were a half dozen sail boats around the anchorage, some, shallow keels like us were inside the no-wake zone off of Sand Key, the others, deeper keels, needed that extra depth and stayed just outside the bouyed area.

There's a cold front headed our way. Temps are due to drop below 50degrees in the next 24 hours, so it's gonna get chilly.

So welcome 2012!

To do's before the next trip...

• Get the Garmin ST40 Wind Instrument fixed. The Transducer wire is corroded and probably broken inside the mast. The face of the Instrument is crazed and it's difficult to read in bright light.
• Removed the Transducer from the mast head, leaving a messenger line in place to facilitate re-installation. 
• Removed the Display from the Cockpit bulkhead, Covered hole with Masking tape.
• Shipped the complete unit to Raymarine in NH.(1/25/2012)
• The tracking code allowed me to find out that the package arrived on Jan 30th. at Raymarine. So we should get it back next week (some time after Feb 6th.)
• Good news/Bad news. Raymarine got back to me yesterday (Friday Feb 10th) the Bezel on the Display is an easy fix, but the Transducer is shot :( So we need a new one. The Good news is that it will only cost us about $10 more than the check we sent for the repair of the two items. :)
• Installed and Tested :)
• Get longer sheet lines for the Spinnaker. 
• Install two new cleats on the mast for the Spin Halyard and the Sock control lines.
• Got the cleats at the Miami Strictly Sail show. (Plus a new sail bag for the Jib, and new cusions for the cockpit (they'll take 6 weeks :( )
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• Extend the sheet blocks forwards.
• Service the Nissan outboard. New Impeller, Oil change (and I'll remember to put fresh oil in the top end too!)
• Replace the 6 year old aluminum hard link between the rudder and outboard.
• That was easy! Took less than an hour to manufacture, another 30 mins and it was installed. Sweet!
• Replace the dink's outboard support plate that is on the Mast support post. (It's plywood and is really showing it's age)
• Check out the Electric Bilge pump, I noticed that it was not running in Manual mode. Might need a new pump cartridge, or it's an electrical issue.
• Looks like the Manual power line from the Bilge control panel to the actual pump. The pump runs fine in Auto Mode with the float switch raised. Will set about replacing the wire Sunday.
• Isolate the electrical system to detect where we're losing some battery power.
• Strip off the stripes on the hull and replace with the new ones we bought from Catalina Direct.
• Got started on this project. First step was to peel off the old stripes. Well, I got the first one off. Top Port side, took an hour and half. The tough bit was getting started, but I have figured that out. Just use a razor to cut between the tape and the glue, careful not to dig into the gel coat. Then with about 1/4" of tape separation, slooooowly pull directly away from the hull, very  slowly, about 1" per 20 seconds. And if there are any nicks in the tape, it will break and you have to start over peeling a new edge. So the secret is to concentrate and as soon as the tape begins to tear, then use the blade to lift the torn piece, just cut into the glue horizontially while keeping tension on the intact piece of tape. Hopefully the next piece will be quicker having figured this out.
• Ok, the silver/grey stripe was even tougher to remove! But nothing compared trying to get the adhesive off the hull. After trying a several possible solutions, Goof Off finally won out. So the process is:
• Soak a small rag in Goof Off and wipe the glue surface.
• Within 2 or 3 seconds, use a plastic scraper to remove some of the adhesive.
• It has to be done quickly as the adhesive/goof off mix become tenacious within about 3 to 4 seconds. So the secret is to do it in very small segments.
• Using this technique, I was able to remove the glue from the hull left by both stripes in less than an hour. Removing the boat name graphic took less than an hour all told, including the glue.
• Get the new Boat Name Graphics and replace the worn ones on both sides (a pressure cleaner can take them off in no time. So it seems!)
• This was no big deal. Having figured out how to remove the stripes, removing the name and catalina logo was easy.
• A local Sign company made up the new Vinyl lettering, including the Catalina 250 logo. 
• Looks good.