Same Catamaran, Different Day, and Unfortunately Different Crew

Here's what the catamaran sailing should have looked like. These pics were taken about a week or two after I sailed. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there this time, but they were nice enough to torment me with the pictures. :)

Catamaran!

This past Monday I went sailing with some co-workers who just bought a catamaran (for 300 bucks!!!!). We used Bob's Catalina 30 as the "mothership". It was profoundly boring since the wind the weatherman promised never came, but at least I can say I've sailed a catamaran. They're a weird beast. We'll try again on a windier day. Click the photo for more photos.

Wow! This might have been the best sailing day all year. I didn't get out until at least 4:00PM, but stayed out until 8:30PM, thanks to my sort-of-trusty lights, so got quite a bit of time in. The wind was strong the whole time, but never overpowering. It was hazy out, but somehow it was still nice. The sun came down slow, and the moon came up bright. In the late afternoon we got to view the UVM sailing team in close-up action. Wow. That was inspiring, seeing them roll-tack in formation. I can't even roll-tack by myself. I think I'm finally ready to admit that getting into racing could be a good idea.

Megan came first, and Christine soon joined us. Later they left and Sam and Suzanna came, and then just after dusk Noelle joined us.

It's definitely been a summer of sailing with chicks! I swear... I've been inviting guys too! They just don't want to come I guess. Seriously guys... if you want to be a babe magnet... get a sailboat! My sailboat is even old and worn out and decrepit and they still love it. Imagine if you had a sailboat that wasn't old and decrepit.

You might even get a girlfriend! (Won't work for me... remember mine is old and decrepit).

Warning: there are serious risks involved in taking girls sailing, most notably the possible singing of The Little Murmaid songs. Its sort of like tending a herd of cattle, and the risk of stampede. You have to tread very lightly. One wrong move could set them off, and once started, there's no stopping them.

Today was supposed to be thunderstormy, so as one would expect, it wasn't. Around 3PM Cat, Reva and I motored from my usual launch spot over to North Beach, where my church was having a picnic. There we picked up Andrea and Stephanie and sailed around for maybe an hour anda half. As we were coming back in, I got a call on my cell from Lydia and Melodie, who came for about a half hour sail after I dropped off the first four. There wasn't much wind, but they seemed to really enjoy it anyway, more than anyone who's ever sailed with me with low wind conditions, so that was cool. Most get kind of impatient when there's low or no wind. We only used the motor for the final 100 feet or so of our very short journey.

That's about all. This time I anchored the boat at the beach and waded in... never again will I beach the boat unless I can think of a modification that will prevent the centerboard jam situation. Converting it to a daggerboard is one idea I've come up with, but I'll wait and see if this anchoring-and-wading thing works out.

Cat took great pictures.

Finally back on the water again! A few days ago I managed to pry the centerboard loose and then I waited for the perfect day and today was the day. Chad came along first, and we were soon joined by Megan. We sailed around in some very nice wind, and also hove-to for some brief swimming, which felt great on this really hot and humid day. Just as I was starting to bring them back to shore, a storm starting looming so we dashed back to the boat ramp and put the boat back onto the trailer. Chad and Megan had other plans for the rest of the day and left, but I left the boat set up hoping the storm would pass. It turned into a spectacular squall (pictures) that would have been very very bad to have gotten caught in with my little boat.

The storm only lasted an hour or so, and Dan came along for a brief sail after that (he was the only one with me on shore watching the storm). There wasn't much wind for this, so in the calm I actually remembered to take a few pictures. So we sort of bobbed around and then motored back to the boathouse and walked up to Burlington Bay Marketplace and had dinner. Then Dan went home, I sailed around alone for a few minutes, and then picked up Pam, Sam, and Fawn for a sunset and after-dark sail. The wind picked up a lot by this time, almost too much. It was a good adventure. It died down as we were coming back in around 10PM, making docking and tear-down easy.

The motor ran perfectly this time. I guess it must have been a bad batch of fuel before.

Navigators "Parents Weekend"

Well, I haven't been able to get much use out of my sailboat this year, for lack of time, but I sort of made up for it today. It was the 3rd annual Parents Weekend for Green Mountain Summer 2005, a ministry of The Navigators. I was a team leader for the very first GMS in 2003. That year and each year since I've organized boating activities for the participants and their parents.

This year two friends from my church offered their time and boats. Jon and Heather, for the 3rd year in a row provided their Catalina 30 sailboat, and James and Cynthia brought their Boston Whaler for tubing/skiing for the 2nd year in a row (can you make a row out of 2?). In between turns on the boats, everyone hung out on the beach and played frisbee, ate food, read, talked, swam, and whatever else one does at a beach.

48 of them got on the sailboat (4 one-hour trips of 12 passengers each), and I have no estimate of how many tubed and skied, but plenty. :)

Here's the pictures of the sailing
Here's the pictures of the tubing/skiing
Pics from my team leader days of GMS 2003 coming soon (many are already scattered thoughout my website)

Beautiful sailing day today! 15 or 20 mph winds all day. Started setting up around 12:30PM, got sailing around 1:30 and didn't stop till 8:30. The usual ramp by the Coast Guard station was crowded, so I launched from Perkins Pier instead. Perkins Pier is pretty tight for a sailboat, but I just used the motor to get from there to the boathouse. Note to self: next time watch the friggin power lines!!! (My mast is 25 feet tall). Several other things went wrong too, but I chalk them all up to beginning of the season woes, since its just my second time out this year. Almost commited the motor to the deep, but caught it in the nick of time, but nearly capsized in the process. Whew. That was right at the beginning, and things went very smoothly from then until the end, when we beached it at North Beach and found (just like the last time I tried beaching it) that sand in the centerboard makes centerboard impossible to lower, which in turn makes sailing impossible. So we got home via motor, and now the boat sits in the yard, with stuck centerboard. Will work on that next week. Oh, the other thing that went wrong is I slammed the trailer into the boat when backing into the water to retreive the boat. Ack. No serious damage done though. Oh, yeah, there was one other thing. One of the shrouds came off! This easily could have spelled the end of Windfall if it happened at the wrong time, but fortunately it happened while docking when the tension was released from the wire, so the mast didn't come crashing down, and I found a spare pin in the boat and all was well.

But what a day! Sunny, windy, not too hot. 9 people sailed with me (not all at once). Christine, Lisa, Noelle, Cody, George, Rebecca, Christine (different one), Harrison, and Dan. So nine different people have sailed with me so far this summer, not bad considering I've only been out twice so far.

The rest of the pics are here.

FINALLY... got the sailboat on the water today. Much time was spent fussing around, finding registration stickers for the boat, getting new gas can and oil and fuel for the motor (almost decided to not bother with the motor today, that sure would have been a mistake!). Trying to find prescription sunglasses (never did). Trying to find boating license (never did, but found certificate, brought that). It was a nice windy day, until I got out there. No wind. Zip. My time was very limited today, so packed it in early. Wouldn'tcha know, the wind picked up, and stayed steady right up through midnight? But we did manage to sail back to the dock when done, so it wasn't totally a motor day.

Oh, who's we. Noelle and Cody came along for the last half hour or so.

All in pretty good shape. Motor wouldn't run on less than half-choke though. Guess I need to actually work on it this year. Clean it out. I could mess with the mixture, but better check for blockages first.

Had a bit of heatstroke, was hot hot hot, but got some Gatorade at the Burlington Boathouse and was all better. I think it got into the low 90's today, and you could see the steam in the air it was so humid. But a nice sailing day, except for the part of the day when I was on the water!

No matter, purpose fulfilled. Find out if the motor runs (does, sort of). Find out if boat floats (check). Find out if sails go up (check). Find out if sails come down (yep). Mission accomplished. The season has begun.