Free at Last!

I've been working long hours, but we were finally able to do some sailing this weekend. Our friend Rae Anne joined us. Matthew did a good job on bow watch. It was a very good day to be out on the water. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some racing soon with our new Genoa.

Blessing of the Fleet

We watched the Blessing of the Fleet at the Pontchartrain Yacht Club on Saturday. Not many boats blessed, and we got ours out too late for a blessing. But we did have a nice sail. Shown in this picture is Last Herrah, which is owned by Ms. Joyce, the lady that owns the harbor where Bliss is.

Gotta Be Resourceful

I'm between assignments at work. Translation: no $ coming in right now. So when my tiller handle broke, the $200.00 price tag for a new laminated one was not a good option. Instead, I went to the hardware store and got a hickory handle for $12.00. Put some marine varnish on it, and it looks pretty good. Works even better. My handrails and toe rails had been sanded so many times that I feared one more sanding would sand them in two. I priced some teak, but it was expensive. And using it depletes the rainforest. So I cut some new rails out of oak (cost about $12.00), put marine varnish on them, and am in the process of making covers for them out of Sunbrella. They look good. One of my friends who claims to know all things wood is skeptical that they'll hold up for long, but we shall see.

Missing My Crew

I didn't have crew for last week's race. Meg was out of town, and Matt was playing soccer. I was on my own, and it wasn't real pretty. You can see from this picture that my sail was not properly trimmed at this point. But I did finish. Eventually

Race Called on Account of Fog

My fair weather crew had bailed on me Saturday, so I showed up to crew on Fast Idle. Unfortunately, a thick fog was over the lake. Visibility was two boat lengths. We sailed around for a bit, waiting to see if things would clear up. By 12:30, we were still fogged in, so the Commodore called off the race. The make up date is 1/26. The picture below is from another day that I was crewing on Fast Idle.

Getting More Serious About Sailing

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We've gotten a PHRF rating for Bliss, and we're getting ready to race with the Corinthian Sailing Association on the Northshore. Although Bliss will never be a speed queen, the competition is not what it's really about. I have learned more about sailing in the past few months just by being on Fast Idle's crew than I learned in the last few years combined. When you can see a bunch of boats around you, watch what they're doing, and see how you're doing in relation, you just figure things out. A couple of weeks ago, we did a "fun" race with 3 other boats, and we hope to do another this weekend.

Running Downwind

Megan and I went out a couple of weeks ago to learn how to run wing-and-wing downwind. The wind didn't cooperate, but we were able to figure it out.