Pierless Adventures - April 7 - Boobies

Today we went sailing!  The weather could not have been better.  Swells were not more than 1 meter and winds were variable 10-15.  Very nice conditions for our first time out.  

We exited the marina and headed north.  After a short time motoring, we raised the mainsail and cut the engine.  I always enjoy shutting down the engine.  The boat becomes quiet and you can hear the wind, water and birds.  Everyone had time at the helm and handling lines.  The guys are learning the ropes quickly.  

Scott at the helm:

We unfurled the main jib (genoa) and were soon sailing along between 5 and 7 knots.  We did some tacks and headed south on the west side of Bird Island.  Eventually we came about and headed back north, then furled in the genoa and raised the smaller staysail to see how it flies.  This is a smaller sail and work well.  We will normally use it in windier conditions.

Dave at the helm:

Another tack and we headed back south toward the marina. While under way, a booby landed on the bow of the boat!  We were watching pelicans, frigate birds and a few boobies flying past the boat, but this one decided a longer stay was in order.  It had very little fear of us.  We took lots of pictures and when I finally had to go up to the bow for a sail change, I almost had to nudge him/her off! 

Our booby visitor:

The wind was falling off some and it was getting later in the afternoon, so we headed in toward the marina.  After getting close, we furled in the genoa (furled with no problem this time!) and started the engine to head into the wind to drop the main.  

Brian at the helm:

Pretty soon, we realized we had a problem with the engine.  It was running fine, but we were not getting any propulsion...  We shut it down and took a look.  Sure enough, the transmission was turning, but not the drive shaft.  I tried fixing the connection, but could not get it to work for more than a few minutes.  It was late in the day, wind dying and a narrow harbor to enter with no engine!  There was enough wind to sail, and it is a sailboat, so we headed in under partially furled genoa.  This is the easiest sail to handle since it has a furler.  It was also a good choice since we would be sailing mostly downwind.

We entered the channel, made the sharp right turn and slowly sailed down to the marina.  Once in the marina proper, we furled the genoa and let the wind push us the rest of the way to the pier.  We made an easy and uneventful landing, tied the boat up, and took a walk to Del Gato for a pizza dinner.  We actually docked at the end of the pier we are on, so after dinner, when the wind was light, we moved the boat over a couple of slips to our dock.  After tying up and getting shore power back on, it was off to the showers and back to the boat for the night.

In truth, it was a stressful situation.  The sailing wasn't difficult coming in, but a new crew on a new boat on the first day out made it a challenge.  The guys did a great job and I was very thankful to have them on board.

From Scott:

The boat, which I met while she was braced on steel crutches in the boatyard, came alive in the sea.  It was a joy to behold.  The trip was instructional in many ways and we tried pairing our chart plotter to the iPad so we had that information at the wheel rather than down below at the Nav station.  The app drained the battery very quickly so we need to find a workaround for that.

Dave did very well so I assessed him discipline as a reward.  A good First Mate needs to be consistent.  The sun was our worst enemy and all of us got burned to one degree or another despite sun block so we will need to rig some sunshade in the future.

Brian claimed to have seen a flying fish which no one else saw so I am keeping him under close observation for the time being with an eye toward a good therapeutic flogging should the delirium continue.