A Gray Workday on Second Wind

Second Wind (on the right), moored near the neighbors' boats in Flanders Bay, Sullivan, Maine Yes, this looks just like Seattle weather.

I had
considered taking Stephanie on a day cruise over to Bar Harbor
for lunch today. But the skies are a thick gray blanket, a high
fog that sometimes comes down to touch the water. Not a good
day for sailing with my sunshine-loving bride.

Instead, I'll work on a few boat projects that
have been waiting for my attention.

While the winds are relatively calm this morning, I can
experiment with the new reefing points I had installed on the
Genoa jib. I'd like to see what I can do to reef the Genoa from the cockpit.
(By the way, I highly recommend The Sailor's Sketchbook, by Bruce
Bingham. It's full of great ideas. I once was
browsing through it with a three-year-old in my lap. I had him
look for the cat and the mouse hiding in each sketch.)

While I have the Genoa out, I'd like to take a
Sharpie to it to label the corners: Head, Tack, Clew or "H",
"T", "C". And while I have the Sharpie out, I'd like to freshen
the "Second Wind" label on the mooring buoy.

Last week I bought a new fuel tank for the outboard motor.
I'd like to shift the fuel and fuel line coupler fitting to the
new tank and get it installed in the cockpit.

Before we launched Second Wind a couple of weeks ago,
Stephanie had cut some fiberglass window screen and fitted it
with velcro so I can screen out mosquitoes, if I need to, while
at anchor. I still need to adhere the matching velcro strips to
the bulkhead on either side of the main hatch.  I also
have some lightweight mosquito netting. I'd like to see how I
can use it to screen out bugs while the forehatch is
open.

I'd like to rig a biped gin pole to make raising and
lowering the mast a one-man job. I need to take some
measurements for blocks of wood to bolt temporarily to the
existing deck eyes on either side of the mast step. With blocks
mounted there, I can attach hinges and a pair of boards that
will meet above the mast step, forming an inverted "V". Where
they overlap, I can attach a double eye bolt, an eye bolt with
an eye nut on the other side. When
the biped gin pole is rigged, I can attach the jib halyard to
one eye and a block-and-tackle on the other eye, securing the
far end of the block-and-tackle to the job tack lanyard, at the
forward end of the foredeck.

The block-and-tackle that I have is
made of blocks that one might use in a mainsheet assembly. One
of the sets of blocks has a cam cleat that makes it easy to
take up on the line and secure it in the cleat, or to release
the cleat with a tug on the line in the appropriate direction
(which depends on whether the block-and-tackle is installed
with the cam cleat at the top or bottom). I have high hopes for
this arrangement. Today, I'll just take some
measurements.

I also want to install the
safety hook that I recently bought
at Hamilton Marine. By attaching it
on the bitter end of the dock line that I keep secured to the
foredeck cleat, I can run that bitter end with the safety hook
back to the cockpit before I come home to the mooring, then
slowly navigate up to the mooring buoy, which now has a handy
loop on a float at the end of a three-foot pendant. I can grab
that loop with a boat hook, snap on the safety hook, and drop
the pendant and dock line back in the water, then turn up into
the wind and, if needed, back the mainsail to stop the boat's
forward motion. Then let the wind take us back to rest on the
mooring+dock lines, then lower the mainsail and start putting
the boat to bed.

If I secure the safety
catch on the hook, I could, theoretically, leave it like that
without fear of the snap hook coming unhitched from an odd loop
or twist of the lines, but it would be better to go ahead and
bring in the dock line altogether, securing the mooring line
directly to the foredeck cleat. That would avoid having the
dock line strung between the mooring buoy and the boat. If the
dock line is resting just below the water, another boat might
try to pass between Second Wind and her mooring buoy, causing
all kinds of havoc. By keeping the mooring line tied down on
the foredeck cleat, the mooring line descends more rapidly down
to the anchor and does not lie near the surface.

After I get that safety hook installed and the
Genoa reefing scheme working, I'll probably take Second Wind
out for some practice reefing the Genoa and picking up the
mooring.

It will be a productive day of
discovery.