Lapras Digs In

Well, Dean and I finally got Lapras out for a higher wind test sail. Previously, 5 to 10 knots is about all we'd experienced with the new boat, and given some of the reports of how relatively tender these Catalina 250s are, I was eager to see what she would do. The nearest wind station trend shows that we were facing 20 knots gusting 25. Didn't seem that heavy, but it did have us on our ear a couple of times. The boat handled great. I'd read reports of Lapras' sisterships spinning out of control when they get past a certain angle of heel. We sheeted in hard and let her lay over past 35 degrees, and she just kept punching forward. Yeah, loaded up the helm a bit, but never felt like a wipe-out was imminent. Nice. Thirty-five degrees isn't particularly fast, though, nor comfortable; so, we tied in a reef (new dual line jiffy reef works great!), settled her down, and kept chuggin' West.

As the sun dipped near the horizon, the wind eased up. We shook the reef out, turned back up river, and had a beautiful evening run for home.

Overall pretty happy with how Lapras handled a decent blow. Still, a few minor tweaks to add to the project list: put a couple more turns on the lower shroud turnbuckles to take the sag out of the mast, rig an adjustable backstay to take the sag out of the forestay, and overhaul the main halyard clutch so it doesn't slip.

It's all relative

A recent post about going nowhere, but fast, by my fellow sailing blogger over at Love and Coconuts (love that name) reminded me that I hadn't yet shared the latest sailing outing on my local river. I'd been off the boat for a month what with bad weather and other commitments; so with a Friday forecast break in the weather I put the call out for would be crew hoping to find at least one person not wanting (or needing) to work that day. Joel answered the call and by two o'clock we were sailing, I mean pointing, upwind upriver bucking a max ebb. "I think I'll just crack off and duck that barge." "Uh, never mind, we ain't gonna get anywhere near it." With a wind speed on par with the current, we merely crabbed our way cross river relative to the land, and the barge. Our "tack" at the deep water side of the river resulted in another hundred yard loss. We were scooting through the water and going backwards. We were sailing and that's always better than working.

As I have one of those tank atop screwy things that O Docker describes, I wasn't too worried about progress, and we turned downriver downwind towards what looked like a stronger breeze. Now, I should describe the venue just west of Benicia. First Street bottoms out at a point around which the river hooks slightly North with the silt accumulating beyond in what otherwise looks like a beautiful open body of water. Check the charts and you'll see that you could get out and walk. Or, go clamming or something. After getting flushed halfway past this wide spot, and not finding the wind we'd seen prior, we decided to poke our nose back into it and see what we could do. Well after about three hitches of that and three times within anchor chucking distance of the same channel marker I was ready to fire up the iron breeze and bust out another beer. But Joel, the one was-be crew who doesn't need to work stopped me short and hollered, "Hey, let's bang the beach and see if we can make it." "OK, let's try it." We tacked back and headed for the shoals with a watchful eye on the sounder. "Four feet under the keel. That's enough for me," and we tacked back out into deep water and current. After a couple of tries at this and still no progress, my confidence in the sounder and trust that silt behind a point lays down in a nice smooth arc led us to progressively go farther on each successive hitch until we were tacking within a foot and a half of literally banging the beach. That was the ticket, and with a couple of lucrative wind shifts we were soon skirting the two foot contour and riding a nice eddy back home. And, busting out that beer--Joel will know what I mean.

Mom's Still Got It.

Bad knee and all she hopped aboard and couldn't wait to get out into open water. Only little puffs of wind coming in from the East, but with 70 degree temps (in January!) we couldn't complain. "This is just lovely," she remarked as she put the helm down and brought Lapras up onto the wind. It's been years since she's done that, but you'd never know.

That was Saturday. This morning, Mom called with sad news: 99 years, one last cup of tea, and her mother, my dear Nana, drifted off to be with the Lord.

We love you Nana.

Farewell to Mothra

Well, Mothra went on down the road to Santa Cruz
today with a happy new owner. I had a lot of fun with that boat and
satisfaction from fixing her up and getting her sailing again. She
was just the right boat to introduce sailing to the family in a
relatively low cost, low risk way. Turns out, the family really liked
it. You know what happened next--Lapras is here.

Sailing buddy, Dean, wanted to know if I need to change the address on this blog now. Nah, Mariner #1460 was the boat that got me back into sailing again and sharing these small boat adventures with family and friends.

Farewell, Mothra!

Does she look upset with me?

One More Best Day?

Is it OK to have two best days? Maybe it was the peace after motoring for an hour and a half. Maybe it was just the break from Christmastime frenzy. Or maybe it was the memories of pottering about Alamitos Bay with my young bride. Whichever, the first time in many years sailing alone with Kecia has to count as a best day. With the kids safely tucked away at Gung Gung and Po Po's, we ventured out into a strong flood tide aboard Lapras, and perhaps suffering from the need for some kind of year-end accomplishment, we set the goal of making it to the Carquinez Bridge and back. Wind and tide conspiring against us meant we would have to motor the three and three quarter nautical miles to pass below the new span. A nice little trek, actually, out past the old C&H suger plant, and the feeling of busting out of the Strait and kissing the waters of San Pablo Bay made it worth it, I guess. With the day wearing on, however, it was time to spin around and motor back up the Strait. Now with the current at our backs and the cold East wind at our faces, we made quick but very chilly time. "You know, we had better shut the motor down and unfurl the jib so that we can say we went sailing today," I said as we pulled abeam of Port Costa. 20 seconds later, the engine was off, jib unfurled, and peace was found.

As we approached Benicia Point the wind "built" to about four knots. Added to the nearly two knot flood we had enough wind for a gurgling wake. And that was it--not another sound on the Strait this chilly weekday day.

Best Day

At last count, I'd sailed 30 days this year--a little better than once every two weeks. Now with just two weeks left in the year and waiting for a break in the rain to get out again, I'm thinking back on the best days sailing in 2008. It's been a good year, really, with great days on Mothra, Feraligatr (the Megabyte), Dean's Vanguard (Moe), Lappy the dory skiff, and the new Catalina 250, Lapras.

So, which was most memorable, most 'worthwhile'? Was it the racing? Bay Champs with Dean, winning my first regatta in almost 30 years, returning to the High Sierra Regatta after 20 something years? All great days in their own way, but not the best. No, the ones that make me tingle just thinking about them were just simple days out sailing with family and friends, the best of which came in my favorite time of year, late Summer. The return of Mothra was a turning point in the year reminding me that sailing with family is one of the greatest joys in life. Then a couple weeks later piling on three more to make seven might just have been the best of all days, certainly the most crowded. I called it perfect at the time. The weather was great, the scenery fun, and everybody had a good time. The best day in the Megabyte was also a day out with friends. Dean and I grew up with Mitch on the same street, but I can't remember if we'd ever sailed with him before. Well, we did this year, and is was a blast. Two in the Vanguard and one in the MB chasing each other all over the Carquinez Straight. Fun! Definitely the best video of the year.

But the best of all? Just a couple of weeks ago . . . one hour in the smallest boat with barely enough wind to push it . . . the eleven foot dory skiff that's been in the stable longer than any other--since I built her in 1997 . . . and my boy who a few weeks earlier, in tears, talked me into not selling her, at the helm. Iain has steered boats before, but this was the first time he really sailed one. He took the mainsheet in hand and trimmed the sail as naturally as he handles the tiller. Unlike previous times, he didn't want to give the controls back or turn back early.

He was sailing his boat.

First Sail Redo

A couple of weeks back, I reported on our first official family outing on the new boat. While certainly not matching what one might envision as the perfect day on the water, it was none the less a day on the water and as a few of my readers have reminded me, that's more perfect than most days. Well, we made up for it this past weekend with a proper perfect day on the water--in November no less. The high pressure that settled in over the West last week gave us an extra week of summer-like temperatures mixed with anti-Summer-like light easterly winds. Perfect for a comfortable crawl against the flood tide with the jib poled out and a quick current-assisted beat home.

Notables from this day:

• Managed to get the boat out of our awkward end slip without scaring ourselves. The trick is to be patient and wait for the boat to fully pivot after shoving off the dock before applying power with the outboard.
• Sail handling was more comfortable as I'm finding the rhythm of this boat's mass and loads. I have a few thoughts for rigging improvements, but overall things work pretty darn well in the as-built configuration.
• Iain continues to amaze me with his natural feel for the helm. "Would you take the helm and steer for that hill over there?," is all the instruction needed.
• We have some very nice new nextslip neighbors in the Marina. They have a 20-something foot outboard powered dory cabin skiff thingy. Pretty nice looking little cruiser, actually. Just returning from a two night trip to Angel Island. Turns out they are long time sailors who recently decided on a stint with a power boat (yeah, kinda weird timing for that.) I'll have to invite them out for a sail sometime.

Oh, and the boat has a new name: