Thursday, September 18, 2008

Big Blow

We had the big blow Sunday night, remnants of a hurricane, and we made it through OK. The dock we are tied to, did not do so well. I guess 60 mph winds blowing a 30,000 lb boat against the floating finger was a bit too much. The finger has quite a lean to it now. There was a shredded headsail on one of the smaller boats on B dock, and our resident catamaran parted with it's stern line, and was slamming into the dock. I saw all this as I was at the marina in the morning at 6am. Worried about my future home, I spent a few hrs at the marina before heading into work. Thanks for the coffee Al! And thanks for watching the boats all that night. It's nice having a retired guy at the marina :) Well, I wish I was retired, because work sucks. Delphi is trimming it's work force, and there is an air of desperation to the place. I need about 5 more years. I'll probably get arthritis from crossing my fingers all that time. Going to get one more weekend of sailing in before hauling out. The last one is usually the best. Not sure why, but every last sail in WhisperIII was perfect. I'm hoping the tradition continues with Alert. I'm reading 8-10 knots from the south. Not bad. 15 to 20 would be better. Roy, the new owner of WhisperIII apears to be having a great time with his new toy. He offered a video of the old girl under sail, and she looks good. Roy, remember to loosen the mainsheet, and vang before you raise the sail. It'll take those scallops out of the luff :) Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm already stressing over the haulout, and covering. I'm debating wether to store the mast on or off the boat. I have to work on it, but the mast rack at the marina is a piece of junk. Hopefully I'll come to some arrangement that will work. Maybe storing it near the boat on saw horses. This image is the GPS tracks from our cruise, exported to Google Earth. We seem to make this triangle quite a bit. We need to alter course next year.