Scrape the hulls
Canceled the sailing plans and headed back to St Augustine. The weather looked to be deteriorating, and I didn't want to get hit hard twice on the same stretch of ocean. It turned out to be not much. I could have continued on. Most of the weather passed south. But it looked like a lot on the radar. And the radio was starting to talk about heavy downpours, flooding, high winds and frequent lightning.
Coming into the inlet with the tide running against me turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. I had the engine running full and the centerboards up, but still we were going no more than walking pace. If I never have to come through this inlet again, it will be fine with me.
Coming into Salt Run I decided to go out of the channel. I was having a hard enough time making forward progress and thought steering in the channel and close to land was a bad idea. I ran hard aground on a large sandbar which extends all the way to the channel.
I decided to get out and scrape the hulls. The tide continued to go out and the picture was taken close to low tide. This is the first time I've really beached the boat. I'll have to do this more often. It was a lot of fun and the hulls are now cleaner than they've probably been since Split Decision left the factory.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
When Life Gives You Lemons
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11 comments:
Cool. What a great way to scrape the hull and do any repairs. Also, a great way to get a good nights sleep without having to anchor. When will high tide come in?
Lookin' good!
Krill and barnacle casserole for dinner then?
Tide is coming in. We're floating again. Tides in St. A are nasty. Tides in general come twice a day.
I'll be moving a couple hundred yards away, off the sandbar tonight. Then I guess I'll be doing some motoring on the inside tomorrow.
I chickened out on the Krill and Ramen dinner. Really, there weren't that many krill. They haven't been doing their job cleaning the hull. I tried to do some clamming on the sandbar, but no luck.
how come you deleted 2 of the pics. they are cool.
Sometimes less is more.
Hi Scott,
Just noted that you havn't yet got a furling jib. I'm sure when you get one you will agree it's the greatest, especially for single handed sailors. When you want to buy new (or as new) sails at good prices, check out Atlantic Sail Traders (www.atlanticsailtraders.com) on the internet. I bought a drifter (screecher) from them recently and was mighty pleased.
Cheers and best of luck as you journey north.
Peter (NZ)
Hi Peter. Thanks for checking in. It's always nice to hear from people who are reading the blog. I get some statistics about site hits from Google. But the feedback from comments is a lot more satisfying than some dry number.
Almost everything on my boat is old school. No furling jib, no anchor windlass, I usually pull start the engine...
When I started this cruise last fall, I quickly peeled off about 10-15 pounds of weight. My eating habits changed too, because I had to consume a lot more calories than I did on land.
Someone was curious as to why I had lost so much weight. Sailing their boat wasn't nearly as taxing. But their boat is a lot newer than mine with a lot more conveniences. And there are two people to share the work.
Never having had a lot of those conveniences, I don't know what I'm missing. When I return to the cockpit out of breath, after weighing anchor or hoisting the main, I rationalize that I just got some good exercise and won't have to go to the gym today.
Scott
I didn't realize that you didn't have a windlass, wow - it must be one hellva job to get the anchor up if there's any current and/or wind.
Re - autopilot on the ICW; contrary to those other opininons I found mine extremely helpful. Figuring that I'd be solo much of the time I got an Autohelm unit with a wired plug-in remote control option. I placed one plug-in in the cockpit and the other at the base of the mast. The ~15 foot wire would allow me to be most anywhere on the boat and still steer. When on the ICW most of the time I'd be making minor course adjustments by clicking in a few degrees one way or the other. So I wasn't steering a compass course, rather just using it to keep me going straight. It was very handy when I needed to study the chart, go below for a minute, etc.
Hey Ross, like you said, people have been doing this sailing thing for a long time. And with a lot less fancy equipment than even I have. Although, when I look at some other boats out there, mine sure does look like it came from a different century compared to theirs.
If there is wind or tide, I put the engine in gear, go up to the bow and pull in the anchor line as it slackens. Once I get right over the anchor, I wrap the chain around the cleat. I go back to the cockpit and rev the engine to free the anchor. Then I scurry back up and bring the anchor aboard. It's a good workout.
On the autopilot issue, your system sounds good. I've been thinking that it would be nice to be able to sit in my deck chair on the foredeck while steering. And folks could keep an eye on me with the boatcam up there.
Scott,
Your picture brought back memories of my first overnight stay on a Venture 21, 23 years ago. It was the first night spent on our (new to my Wife and I) venture 21. We set out at dusk with a pre cooked meal for dinner, and to spend our first night on a boat. The venture was the first boat we owned that had a table to eat at and a bunk to sleep in (wow).
By the time we were out in the bay, it was total blackness, no moon, not even sure exactly where we were (long before gps, did not have a loran either). This was a very basic boat, not even a depth finder. I tossed out an anchor and the rode ran for a while, so I guessed we were in plenty of water.
We sat down in our tiny little comfy dinette and enjoyed our first meal on a boat. The noise of waves lapping the hull lulled us to sleep. I awoke around 6:00 AM and noticed the boat was not rocking, and waves were not a lapping. Slid open the companion way hatch, and was not prepared for what I was about to see. The boat was high and dry, the anchor rode was completely visible right up to the anchor that was smartly dug into the mud. We were around 200 feet from any water. We were both glad we cranked up the center board before we retired (not sure if it would have retracted on it's own).
Clammers were driving by, laughing and enjoying the moment, we were not however. Nothing to do but wait for the tide to come up. I made 1 big mistake. It looked so ridiculous seeing the anchor and rode, so I pulled it and stowed the anchor.
As the tide came in it just kept pushing us further up on the sandbar, and could not float her off. Tossed out the anchor reset it and waited for more water to come, finally a couple hours we were afloat again and sailed off the bar.
That is a great way to clean the bottom, much easier than doing it in the water (as you and I both know). Have you lost any of your bottom paint yet? I find with using micron, every time I scrub the bottom (with a terry towel), bottom paint comes off. Since we are only in the water 6 months at a time right now, it is not an issue, but will be when we are living on the boat. How many coats of paint do you have on the bottom?
Take Care,
Louie and Meg
P.S. You should have never made the blog about "Captain CrankyPants". It seems that my Wife asks every day "How is Captain CrankyPants doing today" Lol! So it seems the name stuck with her. Maybe she is trying to tell ME something, huh? Hmmm, maybe Captain CrankyPants has a distant relative in NJ? I do not think there is any sailor in the world that has not had the cranky syndrome at one time or another.
Great story Lou.
I've got no idea when the last time the boat hull was painted. There is antifouling paint that is coming off when I scrape. I guess that's because the hull hadn't been scraped since the last time it was painted. (I bought the boat last summer and have not hauled her out and painted the bottom.)
That's funny about your wife asking about Captain Crankypants. Hopefully, you and I won't live to regret the title of that post. Tell Meg that Captain Crankypants says hi.
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