Talk about scary... I took one day to skim the 20 to 30 owners manuals. Yes, Catalina pulled most of the key knowledge together in one "Catalina 315 Owner's Manual", but that was still a thick binder of various procedures, plumbing diagrams, line drawings, spare parts lists, etc.
We wanted to go sailing... that meant a nice day with wind, and today provided it.
We also needed some extra crew. So since we took Vicky's godparents to Brooklyn to see their former neighbors yesterday, we found out that Vicky's childhood friend, Maggie (who went sailing with us last year), was free and we shanghaied her.
- From a web dictionary... "Shanghai, verb, historical, to force someone to join a ship lacking a full crew by drugging them or using other underhanded means."
For us "underhanded means" meant flattery, guilt, and family pressure...
So our crew consisted of Vicky's godparents and Maggie. We had invited a certain birthday boy to have the honor as well, but after watching "The Perfect Storm", he declined.
Maggie was a great sport about it all, and added her enthusiasm to our voyage. Again we went out from Dredge Harbor into the Delaware, but this time headed north. Initially the wind cooperated beautifully... about 10 to 12 knots taking us on a broad reach up the river. As we got up as far as Beverly on the NJ side, the wind picked up to about 20 knots (maybe more) and things got crazy quickly.
There are a lot more lines on Seas The Day than on Yacht(ette)... and we were having a little trouble figuring out exactly what to do. We had our first accidental jibe (that got your attention on a boat this size), and when I found myself with a need to turn in one direction to dump some wind only to realize that was putting us very close to some shallows... well things got a little exciting. At that point, we decided it was time to pull in the sails and motor back down the river. That gave us a chance to give Maggie the wheel and also to get some photos.
That of course, brought us back to the dock... which meant having to get the "@#$%& boat into the *#%$@ dock" for the first time - all with 20 kt gusts of wind pushing us into the boat next door. Fortunately, Capt. Gary's training paid off and although I had to gun the engine more than we did during orientation day, I was able to make it somewhat in on the sort of first try.
Here, I have to give a shout out to the nice people keeping their boats at G. Winter's Sailing Center. They were extremely nice and helpful even if we were the afternoon's entertainment.
After having some hoagies and tidying up a bit, I took photos of all the lines in the cockpit so we could study them some more at home.
First, the port side...
Then starboard side...
You can see the rats nest of various things these control. We "technically" covered all these lines in ASA 103, but that was back in August, and Yacht(ette) only had 2 jibsheets, a mainsheet and a halyard, so it was much simpler to sail.
So with that, we closed up the boat for the week and stopped for a few final photos and then took Maggie back to Brooklyn. The day ended with Vicky and I having a nice discussion about everything that happened, reviewing all the line photos above and getting us ready for next weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment