Okay, I debated whether or not to make this into a post, but thought it might be nice to share a story about sailing for a change of pace, after all this is supposed to be a sailing blog. Since arriving in St. Petersburg, we have focused on getting some projects underway that have kept us at the dock on days we probably would have rather been sailing. As mentioned in the last blog post, we finally left our slip after two months when we had an appointment to get the boat hauled out, but no sailing was involved those two days.
As we were waiting for the shaft seal replacement during the haulout, Jimmy tossed out an offer stating that the weather was going to look great for sailing the next weekend and if we come back to the boat we can make it a no-boat-chores weekend so we could head out for a day sail on Saturday. There was no twisting of my arm in that request, and we returned to the boat after spending two full days in Tallahassee. However, there were a few hidden boat chores that needed to be tackled before heading out for our daysail…
While installing the radar a few weeks ago, Jimmy “brushed” up against the steaming light and the plastic housing came loose. He glued the light fixture back to the mast and used some tape to hold it in place. The tape went all the way around the mast, blocking the main sail track. This required my going up the mast Saturday morning to pull the tape free while Jimmy worked on another required task.
In order for Utopia to be hauled out for the shaft seal replacement, the backstays had to be released. When she was resplashed, we quickly put the backstays back in place so we could get her out of the haulout slip and back home. As we were finishing, Carl with Elite Marine looked down at our work and asked if we lubricated the turnbuckles and threads. I think we both answered with, “um, no” while I was thinking “I had no clue that we should of done that”. Anyway, we decided to take care of the lubrication and tuning back at our slip. Which is what Jimmy worked on while he was not assisting me up the mast.
Once these chores were completed, we started up the motor and prepped the boat for a sailing day. As soon as we started to remove our dock lines it began to drizzle rain, but we did not care, we just wanted to get out and play in Tampa Bay. The rain did not last long, and the winds were light as we headed east from our marina. It was a treat to be able to get the sails up just 10 minutes after removing the dock lines (sailing from Shell Point required 20 to 25 minutes of motoring and working the tides to get to open waters). It was also cool to see all of the boat traffic in Tampa Bay, from numerous sailboats to the shipping cargos. We certainly felt we were not in Apalachee Bay anymore.
A few hours later we ate lunch under sail, then turned the boat back to the west. By now the winds had started to pick up gifting us a wonderful sail as we tacked our way back across the bay. We cruised along, reaching 7.2 knots at one point with probably around 18 knots of true wind out. The boat was heeled over, but her toe rail never got close to the water. It is amazing to see the difference between our prior boat (5-ton, 32’) and this boat (11-ton, 40’) in these conditions. Utopia was very comfortable as she sliced through the water on our closed hauled tack with full canvas.
Check out the video:
It was a great sail, but not without a couple of stories within.
Baxter went down below early into our sail to sleep in his “house” (his cat carrier). Unfortunately, the house and he experienced a rollover during one of our tacks on the way back. I tucked the house up into a tight spot which allowed him to sleep peacefully the rest of the sail. He did come up to howl at us later when the motor was turned for lowering the sails and docking.
On another one our heavy-wind tacks the starboard lifeline failed. It looks like the forward pin holding the lifeline in place failed when the jib sheet made contact during the tack. I have heard sailors say that lifelines are not for saving lives, and serve more as a visual demarcation. After seeing our line flopping around in the water, I felt they might be correct. It is another reminder of the importance to move about on the high side of the boat while underway.
23-13
Comments