11-7-06

It finally quit raining and Margie and I headed to the boat today but we didn't get there until late in the afternoon. I stopped by West Marine and picked up some new rope. Bright red with white flake and changed out the main sheet line and the boom vang line. The new lines look really nice running to traveler. I think the new lines will look good with the new colors we are planning for the boat. We will change all the covers such as the bimini, sail covers etc. to burgundy and if we repaint the deck we plan to paint the nonskid a light grey. So the colors would be burgundy over grey over white. When we haul the boat out I will have the bottom done in red and have the stripes painted burgundy. Well that's the color scheme Margie and I talked about today. Didn't have time to do much else on the boat today, I ran the motor for about 10 minutes and then we packed up and headed home.

Alma Del Viento

Called out a rigging surveyor today and had him go over the rigging for a good safety check. He climbed the mast and looked at all the turnbuckles and wire to see if it was safe to use. He said the standing rigging was in good shape but needed tightening probably not more than a few turns on the turnbuckles all around. He also told me that both halyards need to be replaced and that the wire to rope halyard was old technology and should be replaced with all rope halyards. He also said my new vang and main sheet ropes looked good.

Margie and I arrived at the boat late this afternoon. I installed a new belt on the alternator and rewired the water temp. indicator. I can now monitor the engine water temp from the cockpit. I ran the engine until the temp stabilized at about 150 degrees. Great! just right!  Margie made our first dinner on the boat and we had bologna and cheese sandwiches. I continued to get the boat ready for the big event, the MAIDEN VOYAGE by hanking on the working jib, installing the new VHF and chart plotter and just stowing all the tools and other stuff we brought on board. Getting late so we crawl in bed. I cant sleep since I am so excited about the big event. I get up several times and turn on the VHF to check the weather. The winds tomorrow morning are expected to be northeast 15 to 20 knots with bay waters choppy but by tomorrow afternoon east winds 10 to 15 knots and bay waters slightly choppy. High tide in clear lake channel is at 7:48am. So I set the alarm clock for 6:30am and plan to leave the dock at high tide.

The alarm clock went off at 6:30 am but I was already up. I woke Margie up and we began getting the boat ready. Margie cleaned up the cabin and stowed everything away and I went on deck and removed the fenders, sail covers and got all the lines rigged. I made one more check of the weather and the forecast was the same, high winds early morning and lighter winds in the afternoon. Fired up the motor and waited for it to come up to temperature. It was almost 8:00am when we cast off the dock lines and backed out of the slip, perfect, right at high tide. We motored around the marina and out into the channel. The channel meanders around like a big river but I notice an area on the paper chart that the channel just ends and I have Margie check the chart plotter and its not on there either and we also discover that the chart plotter is not updating automatically. It's too windy for me to go below and mess with it and we try to find some deep water with the depth finder but it just keeps getting shallower and shallower. After several sweeps back and forth and a couple of full circles we finally run aground into some soft mud. The boat has a draught of 4 feet and the depth finder reads 3 feet, we are stuck. I look back and can see the condos where we left the marina only about a half mile away. Margie just plops down in the cockpit and says "well this is just great!" I throw the motor into reverse and rev up the Atomic 4 and I get her to move back slightly and then I pivot her around broadside to the wind and she leans just enough with the help of the wind to slide back into some 4 foot water. Whew!! We go back to the spot on the chart where the marked channel ends. I check the paper chart and it shows the channel ends on the west side of the this bay and shows some 10 foot water on the northeast side about 300 yards away. I do some dead reckoning navigation and make a beeline straight for where I think the 10 foot water should be. We watch the depth meter slowly creep down 5, 4.7, 4.3 even some 4.1 foot water but finally it goes back up and we find the 10 foot water. We motor on looking for channel markers and trying to remember the saying "red on right returning" for which color the channel is from the marker. We get to a point that there are so many markers and none of it is making sense and the wind and waves are really howling I decide to put in to a harbor out of the wind. I tied up in an empty slip and go below to see what's up with the chart plotter, nothing, its just in manual mode, I click it into auto and it updates to show our new position. We find out the chart plotter is going to have to be mounted on a swing arm sooner rather than later so it can be viewed from the cockpit. Margie takes up position in front of the chart plotter and I head the boat back out into Clear Lake. Margie yells "ok past this marker turn right", "ok more right" and I yell back, "If I turn any more right we will be going back the way we came" which was probably what she was trying to trick me into doing anyway. HaHa! Motoring was pretty easy now and I kicked the boat speed up. But since we started at the the very far end of Clear Lake it took over an hour to reach the Kemah entrance to the bay.

Wow, the Kemah Clear Lake entrance to the bay and wow what an entrance we had! We motored past the boardwalk and the carnival rides and out into the bay. The weather report was right on, we had 15 to 20 knot winds and 3 to 4 foot waves all rolling  head on as we tried to get out of Clear Lake. I was really impressed with the boat, although it was pitching a lot only one wave splashed water on the foredeck and Margie went below to close the forward hatch. Margie and I didn't get a drop of water on us the whole day in the cockpit. We motored on trying to reach the outer channel marker, pitching up and down rockin and rolling. Saw one big power boat come out behind us and quickly turn around and went back. I finally realize we are not making much progress so I raise the jib to get some power and boy do we get it, the boat felt like it jumped out of the water and we head off on a close haul to the southeast. We pick up enough speed that it over revs the engine so I shut it off and FINALLY we are sailing!! Well, now I need to get the main up but see all the pitching has wrapped a halyard around the spreader. I now have to climb out on the deck to get the rope loose. With the jib up the boat has smoothed out some and I get the rope loose and pull the main up. Margie and I talk about reefing the main but the wind meter says its down to 10 knots with gusts to 12 so up with the full main sail and off we go. The boat is heeled 10 to 15 degrees and flying on a close reach. Wow its great, Margie is freaking out thinking we are going to roll over.

We sailed about 5 miles down to the south end of the bay near some oil platforms and intended to sail a triangular race course that I found the GPS marks on the internet but we made it to the first mark and halfway to the second mark but we were running out of time since we had wasted so much time grounding and motoring. We decided to head back towards Kemah. We tried several different tacks and ran downwind wing to wing for a long run. Keeping the jib full without a whisker pole was tricky and yes I unintentionally jibed a couple of times with the boom sweeping above our heads with a loud pop. When we got near Kemah there were boats everywhere. Big sailboats racing , power boats, and Margie was at the helm and nearly got us run over by a big catamaran, I don't think he was too happy he had to veer off and pass a couple of feet behind us and worst of all Margie never saw him. I was on deck messing with the sails and couldn't do anything but watch and cringe as he slipped behind us. As we neared the Clear Lake entrance I lowered the sails and fired up the motor. We motored past the boardwalk and Joes restaurant and waved to the people watching the boats just as others had waved to us just a few weeks ago when we sat at Joes watching the boats. Margie got into position in front of the chart plotter and guided us through the channel and across Clear Lake without a problem. When we rounded the corner into the marina a couple of guys on the dock were watching for us and called out "how was it?" I yelled back "It was great!!" They knew this boat had not been out of the slip for several years and one guy came running down the stairs from his condo and helped us get the boat back in the slip and tied up. He was really interested in what we had done and where we went and I told him this story with a big smile on my face and that "It Was Great!"

Margie and I were dead tired but we had to get the boat cleaned up and everything stowed and put back in place. I flaked the mainsail and covered it, got the jib back in the bag and coiled and stowed the ropes. It was just getting dark when we finished so we packed up our bags and headed for home.

Ready to leave the slip.

Sailing! ... Finally!!

Clear lake entrance channel at Kemah TX.

Lots of traffic in the channel

Margie and I arrived at the boat late this afternoon. I open the boat up and find a whole bunch of water in the boat. It was about ankle deep across the cabin floor. I was too tired last week to go down in the hole and tighten up the stuffing box and it leaked a lot. I am going to repack the stuffing box when we haul the boat out in the next month or two. I also need to get the float switch installed on the bilge pump so I can let it take care of the water automatically. So much to do!!, and we keep getting to the boat too late to get any work done. I pump out the boat and wipe down the cabin floor then go into the hole and tighten up the stuffing box. Ah, no more leak.  Now Margie and I get busy with the job we came down to do today and that is to take measurements of the boom and sail for our new burgundy mainsail cover we are ordering. After we got that done we close the boat up and head over to Kemah and go to the Crab House Restaurant to eat dinner. We sit outside near the water and watch the boats come in. It was a beautiful sunset over a calm and peaceful bay. Quite the contrast from last week and our maiden voyage. We finished our dinner, took a walk along the boardwalk, and then headed home. 

Kemah Boardwalk

Margie and I make a quick trip to the boat and found it in good shape. I installed some new sail ties that have bungee cords and color coded red white and blue so I don't forget where they go. I removed the ice box lid so I can take it home to work on and I removed the tiller since it has a crack in it. I will work on those items at home. I checked the tension on the shrouds and stays with a gauge and found they are still loose. I think I will replace the turnbuckles with open type turnbuckles and will retighten the stays then. We packed up and headed home.