Our first turtle

This 4th of July was marked with many firsts: our first sail on our neighborhood lake, our first successful dock launch, our first outing with our brand new sail ... and our first turtle.

 

Yep. We flipped the boat right on over. Since we didn't have the camera on us and were a little busy, you'll have to let the Internet illustrate.

Waving for help or having a dance off?

The funny thing about it all, we weren't sailing at high speeds - we were in irons in a wind hole! Yes, we're that awesome. We'd been getting some nice winds, and although we knew we were toodling into a north cove area, the wind was coming from the south and the water was rippling enough ahead we knew we had plenty of room to tack and scoot back out to the main lake.

As we were exploring, we passed some push-pedal kayakers, who took our pictures. After we cleared them, we decided to tack. 

And then the wind died. As we were trying to crank things around and catch any baby puffs to get us out of there, I suddenly became rudder dyslexic. Then a bigger puff came up - we were on the wrong side of the boat, the rudder was cranked wrong, and we rolled right over.

It seemed to happen fast, yet we still had enough time to say, "oh crap, here we go!"

The boat was floating sideways for about two seconds, then rolled right over, daggerboard in the air. By the way, there were probably 30-some people in full view of our sailing prowess. 

Mike climbed up onto the hull to get enough leverage on the daggerboard (we're short), and I swam around to the other side and started lifting up on the mast. We were up in less than two minutes and cackling madly. We climbed back in and realized neither of us had lost our sunglasses. High five! All of our gear was still attached. The only thing missing was a shoe, which I could see floating nearby. So, we sailed right over, scooped it up, and carried on our merry way (laughing, of course).

"I'm so glad we did that," Mike declared as we got back into the groove of long East-West reaches, hiking in 10-15 mph winds (according to the Windfinder report). We haven't tipped on accident; in our first sailing lesson, we did a purposeful capsize and righted the boat from its side, all under supervision and without a full-on turtle. That was three seasons ago. Turns out, it wasn't a big deal. Of course, things can go wrong in any accident, like the boom whacking you hard in the head, getting trapped under the boat, etc. But it's not an "unknown" factor now.

We sailed for awhile longer to let the sail (and ourselves) dry out. The kayakers had caught up to the Stingray family sailing on the west end of the lake and must've told them what happened, because as we passed one another, the dad yelled, "Get a little wet?" 

It was such a lovely sail, all things considered, and we left in high spirits. Which gets to the start and end portion of our sailing: docking (sorry, I went with the climatic moment first).

Once upon a time, we tried to launch from a fishing dock, and there were some issues. Woody remembers it well, so I'm sure he was giving us the hairy eyeball Friday when we rolled him into the water and tied him to the dock (which seems to be lacking in cleats, btw). So, instead of hopping back on the horse, so to speak, we simply stuck to beach launches. Unfortunately, there's nowhere to beach rig our boat on the lake a block from our house, so we had to buck up and get over it. 

When the boat is beached, it doesn't move. You can put the sail up easily. You're also not blocking anyone on the ramp or dock, so you don't feel the pressure and rush and then make lots of mistakes because you're rushing andomgeveryoneswatchingandgettingimpatienteeeek!

Whew.

To get ourselves in order, we read this step-by-step guide to rigging and launching from the dock. YouTube videos hadn't been helpful, because they'd only show coming from the water, or they'd skip leaving the dock or leave out where we thought a helpful tip should be. I'm sure we were just over thinking it all.

Random shot of the lake from the west bridge.  She's over her banks.

We got the boat in and tied off on the leeward side of the dock. Daggerboard in. Check. Rudder on ... Ha. See, when we sold Blue, we swapped rudders, because Woody's seemed to pop out more than we liked, and Blue's seemed to fit more snugly in the bracket. We made sure Woody's rudder fit fine into Blue without slippage, too. Now we're regretting that decision, because Woody's pin doesn't slip in easily, and the rudder still pops out on occasion, making it really difficult to fix things in the water. :-\ Might call the sellers and see if they want to swap rudders and double check that theirs is working properly. Or we jerry rig a way to keep the bottom part of the rudder bracket in place.

The next snag was the halyard. The better one went with Blue, because it was already on her spars and it seemed unnecessary to swap that out. Woody's is grubby and slightly too thick to smoothly go through the mast cap's hole, a problem exacerbated by the frayed ends. After struggling on the dock, we decided to just go ahead and get a new one. 

The wind was coming up, along with the waves, and the ramp was getting busier, so the boat was swinging out, and half the time we were just trying to keep the sail from taking a bath. So, then I was on the dock holding the boat parallel while Mike got things in order, prepared to gently let the boat swing out and go into irons as the sail came up. We thought we had the halyard cleared and the spars situated correctly, but as we started to raise it, the halyard was caught under something. We swapped places, and I double checked the order of spars, got the halyard cleared, and then swore a bit as I tried to re-thread it. Mike finally got it in, and then we raised our pretty new sail (complete with window!), and I cleated off.

Sailing from the dock was smooth as could be, because once we pushed off from the (east-west) dock, we were in a perfect reach across south winds for several yards and then turned north for a run to get out into the wide part of the lake. Coming in was a little tricky, however, because the winds were southeast, so it took some strategic tacking, but we made it in with little fanfare.

Which means ... BEST HOUSE PURCHASE EVER!!! Yes, we don't have our third car garage or the huge yard, but Mike's going to build a garage hoist and mowing is a breeze. We're a mile's drive from the dock, which will make weeknight sailing so much easier than driving all the way across the city to the sail club. We'll still sail there, of course (they have other boats we can play with, too), but this proximity will just encourage us more.

Flooded underpass on west side of lake

cutting the lines: the two boats debate

Several weeks ago, Mike and I had a good laugh over some friends who adopted a second puppy on a road trip. We had seen it coming and so got more amusement out of it than is probably warranted. Now they are having the “are two dogs too much?” debate. Mike and I are having a similar dilemma over our two “children”, who are much less furry but do require lots of space and maintenance.

Hanging out in the basement at our previous house. Miss having a walkout

Do we really need two boats?

Remember back in 2012, when we met a fellow sailor on the Sunfish forums who could solve some of our boat barriers? We were looking for a Sunfish and trailer, but because of our two-car garage, we were hoping to find a trailer that could serve many purposes, not just housing and hauling a little boat. At the time, we also had big dreams of owning two Sunfish so we could race, go on camping and sailing adventures, and basically have our own boat each. We’re competitive and a little territorial. Our forum friend had a boat he was selling and a shop class that could convert a foldable Harbor Freight trailer into a double-decker.

Before we could make the roadtrip to pick up the trailer, a boat and trailer popped up on Craigslist, and we jumped. The AMFlite 14 wooed us with its wooden splash guard, though its sail was ready to be retired. What to do with the trailer? Oh, we’d sell it, making this boat even cheaper. So, we bought it, and a couple weeks later hit the Interstate to grab the other boat and trailer.

Of course, what goes on in dreamland and what happens in real life rarely match up perfectly.

We stored the extra trailer at Mike’s parents’ cabin under the earnest belief we would sell it soon. As we were headed into winter, we decided to wait until spring to get a little more money. Then life happened. That spring, we put the house on the market and the last thing we wanted to juggle was Craigslist.

And then it was winter.

Now it’s prime time to sell the trailer and we have pictures taken, but we’ve been hesitating. While Woody and Blue wintered in the patio, they were fine and out of mind. But now that Woody’s on the trailer and Blue is kissing the garage wall, we have to ask ourselves: Should we sell a boat and trailer together? Do we really need two boats?

We’ve never sailed the boats together. We’ve sailed both, but on separate occasions. Usually whatever boat is on the trailer comes with us to the club, and then we use a club boat as well, if we want to sail alone. Or we just sail together on one boat. Despite our independent streaks, we get along on that little boat. We’ve only used the second trailer deck for when we moved and stored over winter. Mike also got a taste of Lasers at the end of last season and wants to use the club’s Laser more (and perhaps upgrade in the future).

For the past week, I’ve sold Old Blue in my head. She’s a good boat, but we tend to gravitate toward Woody (I think it’s the wood accent) and sail that one more. There’s a sense of relief of being down to one boat right now, even as Mike is planning out a hoist system in the garage. Plus, when we have kiddos, we might upgrade to a slightly bigger boat.

I worried I’d feel like we’re giving up, but it doesn’t feel that way. Just that we’re unburdening ourselves for the time being. We’ll never be able to add on storage at our new house and things will only get more complicated once there’s a little one to bring along on sailing adventures. At first, we’ll only be able to sail one person and one boat at a time while someone builds sand castles and feeds ducks on shore.

The advantage of owning two boats, of course, would be those times we want to sail on our neighborhood lake and race, but I just don’t see that happening much. Since we use the trailer so much for other things, double-decking just adds to the hassle. The other plus? If one breaks, sinks, or needs repair, there’s another in the wings. Is that potential worth the hassle?

We have someone interested in the boat but nothing firm. Tomorrow we'll grab the trailer while down at the cabin and then post on Craigslist and see what happens. There's not really much out on our local market right now, so it could be a fast sale or take awhile. We'll just be parking in the drive for awhile! Our garage is quickly becoming a workshop.

With the potential of selling, it was finally time to get the new sail out (that we got two Christmases ago, can you believe it?). Yeah, we've been lazy. It's just so much easier to take the already rigged white sail out and use that. Woody came with two sets of spars (I think it was Woody, anyway, it gets foggy), so we actually have 3 but have only used one these past two years, and someone had found a bag of sail rings at a garage sale, so we had everything we needed.

Almost. Couldn't find an S-hook to save my life, so Mike went out to find some at Lowe's. What he brought back were Serious S-Hooks that required quite a bit of force to get 1) opened up enough to slip through the grommet and 2) closed again so the sail stays attached.

We aren't positive the sail grommet is secured enough, so we might run a line through, so if it does slip, we can limp back to shore. I'm also a little iffy on whether I have the tension correct with the outhaul lines. The rigging manual didn't really specify if the sail needs to be tight, snug but not pulling, or with some give. I went the snug route and hope I'm not stretching the sail out. 

I also loosened the gooseneck and shifted it, because it was lined up exactly with a grommet. It wasn't until too late that I realized I moved it too far back (and tightened it), so that'll need adjustment before we take it out. To make sure everything is in order, we'll raise the sail in the driveway in light wind and make sure things seem to be sitting right. Also, I'll need a loose sail tie for one grommet, because it's right along the mainsheet cleat, which we didn't have on the other spars.

I also need to find the mast cap we bought ages ago to replace the busted one. It wanders around the house and turns up in the weirdest places. Obviously we have more gear and boat than we need!