Winter 2008-9 "Sailing"

It's going to be a long winter... Wanted to get kimosabi in the barn this year but she is sitting outside waiting for some gel coat work by the great crew at Manitowoc Marina this winter.

An ugly sight...

On Sept. 15 the crews of Noor and kimosabi took a late summer mini-cruise. The first night was spent at the Peninsula State Park dock on Horseshoe Island. We had the place to ourselves...

We then sailed over to Cedar River, MI. I was a windy broad reach so we dropped the main and still cruised at 8-10 knots. We hadn't been in that harbor for 20 years. The entrance is now dredged and a 1st class marina has been built. We found cocktails at the Lighthouse Pub. The only game in town...

Prior to the cocktail hour we took a river cruise up the Cedar River in the afternoon. Didn't see any gators......

The next day we had a quiet spinnaker ride to Menominee, MI. After dinner at the new Irish Pub near the marina we returned to the boats with the moon and Menominee River Entrance light in the background.

The next morning we headed home and the Noor beat back to Fishy Creek. A nice week!!

10 day cruise end of July

The end of July we took a ten day cruise across Lake Michigan. The first day we sailed from Fish Creek to Washington Island with two other FBoats. Here a "flotilla" of 3 31' FBoats is at anchor in Peterson Bay, Washington Island. The boats are Noor, owned by Barb and Les Raduenz, an beautiful F9A, owned by its builders from Minnesota and kimosabi.





We then sailed across Lake Michigan to South Manitou Island Michigan and from there to Northport, MI.

Here, kimosabi is at the end of the dock in Northport.





From there we sailed to Traverse City and spent two nights at the municipal marina, just missing Madonna's visit to the annual film festival that is held there.

Here Cath sits by some artwork along the Traverse City River Walk.

From there we sailed to Leland, spending 6 hours in the harbor to have lunch and roam around. At 8 PM we decided to head 35 miles south to Frankfort where we spent town nights on the hook before heading home.

We really liked the expensive trolley bikes...





There are allot of neat older homes in Frankfort...

Sailing on "Wooton"...

We were going to do some sailing on kimosabi last Sunday-Tuesday but I got a call to help deliver a boat from Mackinac Island to Chicago. So...

We get to the island and what do we see...

Bob Seger's new ride at the dock after the Port Huron Mac.

The ride was on "Wooton", a Rogers 46 owned by a gentleman from Chicago, and it was interesting. She had just finished the Port Huron Mac also, taking 1st in Section.

Along for the ride was Captain Larry Burris and Rich Baker, a first class mate.

This boat is an all carbon racing rocket. See: http://www.bangthecorner.com/news/read/5126

Bob Perry also recently reviewed the boat. See: http://www.sailingonline.com/perry_rodgers46.html

Going to weather on "Wooton"gave new meaning to the term "beating" for me. With its flat bottom, while sailing or motoring into 2-3 seas, it was like being inside a timpani while someone was playing it... Boom...Boom...Boom

The helm was so responsive one could drive the boat standing backwards......


The Rogers 46 has a bulb keel drawing 9'6", a plumb bow and a VERY flat bottom., making her a downwind flyer.

When we got to Chicago we learned that the boat's berth at Belmont Harbor was an exciting place over the weekend. Two power boats docked one finger away caught fire and sank. Here the dock is being repaired and the photo of the Pacific Seacraft on the same pier as "Wooton" shows fire damage to one side.

Check out her sailing in light air below!!

Back in Action

"Benny's board" is done. I decided to put red bottom paint on it. Maybe the bottom will be frightened by it and stay away...

The board is in and the mast is ready to raise. Good thing we used two halyards as one 12 year old snatch block sheave disintegrated while the mast was being raised. Big load to get the 42.5 foot stick back in its proper position. the boat is now back in commission and ready to go. We plan on taking it to our mooring in Fish Creek this weekend.

Side Trip...

My daggerboard repairs were interrupted by a last minute, rush order boat delivery from Manitowoc to Beaver Island. The boat was a Moody 46. We made good time (for a monohull) on the way up the lake, about 150 NM in 19 hours.

The weather was ...

...a non-stop 11 hour thunderstorm with wind, rain, fog and more lightning than any of us had seen in our lives.

We (Admiral Cathie and Les Raduenz, also an F-31 owner that did the Abacos with us, and I) got to the island about 7:30 AM to find all outside land and cell phones were put out by the storm. After meeting the owner and him treating us to breakfast, we all took a 2 hour nap about 9:30 am, not knowing when we would get off the island as we couldn't make contact with our pilot...

I woke up at 11:30, stumbled up into the cockpit and what do you know, up walks Jack Culley Sr., the Corporate CEO and part-time pilot. The ride home was quick....but the crew was the best...

First 2008 Sweet Water Sail - Grounded...

June 2 was a great day for our first sail back home with good friends. Started out with shifty light air out of the southwest with the temperature finally warm enough to enjoy. We sailed out of Sturgeon Bay into Green Bay with the screecher and "Otto" driving at 60 degrees apparent wind with Zephyrs on the water. Was great sailing sometimes faster than the true wind speed.

For the ride back home the late afternoon thermals kicked in and we had a rousing sail short tacking up the ship channel. We were about to tack and .... bam, we lightly "touched" a solid uncharted object. No big deal.... I dove on the boat yesterday and discovered that the object ate the front corner of our daggerboard. So.... just lower the rig at home, remove the mast step and fix the board.

Received the suggestion from the FBoat listserver to use two halyards. When we owned an F-27, because some idiot put the launch ramp on the wrong side of a bridge where we lived, I had to raise and lower the mast on our F-27 with the boat in the water, but the F-31 mast is a little more intimidating... Anyway we did it this morning, no problem using the genoa sheets tied to the screecher and spinnaker halyards.




A fellow F-Boater from southern Wisconsin asked where we hit.......






When I pulled the board I discovered it appeared we must have hit an uncharted dock crib from the 1800's as there were wood splinters stuck in the foam. The damage was actually minor and not as bad as the zoomed in photo makes it appear...The dock cribs were made by stacking timbers to form a box similar to the walls of a log cabin and then filling them with large rock. The docks were then built of wood and placed on top of these supports. That explains why we "touched" while sailing in supposed 9 ' of water. Anyway, it was an easy fix, filling the missing corner with #407 Filler/Fairing. I'll sand, laminate two layers of 4oz cloth, fair and paint tomorrow...

I'll report on the completed project in a couple of days...

The Bahamas Cruise - Things that worked...

The additions for the cruise that worked included the new electronics, especially the S1 Tillerpilot. Forget the solar showers. Get a 1 gallon garden sprayer, paint it black. It works well in the head or back of the boat and wastes no water.

The two 65 watt Kyocera solar panels proved more than enough power to run the electronics, refrigeration, lights, Sirius Radio and Stereo (which are power pigs) and the 160 watt inverter for charging various battery-powered stuff including the laptop.


While not US Coast Guard approved , the two solar yard lights on the capshrouds made us easy to spot at night.

I bolted a small anchor roller on the port bow net. The Admiral reports it helped retrieve the 22# Delta and Fortress 23, each on 30' of chain. The Delta only dragged once. We discovered the cause when we re-set it. A large plastic water jug was neatly folded in half on the plow...

We picked up the truck yesterday from where we had it stored and plan to hang around FL until the snow melts back home...

ICW to Stuart

After spending one night in Lake Worth, we left the next morning, deciding to sight see on our way north. We "sailed" up the ICW to Stuart. My advise, sail on the outside if you can. Don't do the ICW on a weekend... In many places, the ICW is nothing more than a man-made canal.

We are now back where we started, Southpoint Anchorage. Our plan is to get the truck tomorrow from storage as we can park it here without permit and hang around the east coast for at least a couple of weeks. We may take a road trip or two, so friends and family that are close by, you better hide...

Crossing the Stream to Lake Worth

West End at sunset...

The next morning we left at 6 AM and again motorsailed, crossing the Stream to Lake Worth, dropping the hook at 1:30 PM. Allot better than our easterly passage in February...



At sunrise the Admiral says goodbye to the Bahamas.

We called in to Homeland Security, reported to Customs and were at the Tiki Hut Bar in West Palm Beach by 4 PM......

Cruise back toward the States

We left Treasure Cay and crossed the Whale bar at Don't Rock. It helped to have current waypoints for that shallow water crossing. We ended up in the lagoon off of White Sound, Green Turtle Cay. It then rained for almost two solid days... We then moved to Black Sound, Green Turtle for two more days to refuel, get water and a few groceries. Our plan was to go to Manjack Cay and hang out a while, fishing, snorkeling, etc.

While in Black Sound there was a new Moorings 4600 Cat that had attempted to go through the rage a few days before. It was a Captained charter but the Captain made a wrong decision. The boat hobby-horsed in the middle of the rage and a wave came crashing through the windshield in the main cabin. Charterers were then washed through the rear doors, some of the getting hurt when going through. The photos show the broken windshield in the main cabin and bent stanchions on the starboard side.

Don't mess with the rage...



A group of boats saw a good window for heading back to the states and we decided to join them (Easterly winds). We sailed a great spinnaker ride of 60 miles to Great Sale Cay, passing all but a couple power boats. The Prout 34 under spinnaker is owned a a nice couple from Canada named Rob and Bev.

This photo was taken by Rob and Bev as we passed them (a slower moment that day....)
We flew passed this brand new Maine Cat 30 is sailed by a couple from the northern eastern seaboard of the States.

From Great Sale Cay we motorsailed the next day to West End.

Treasure Cay

From Hopetown we sailed back to Marsh Harbor to re-stock the galley. After spending a night there, we headed north to Treasure Cay. Home of one of National Geographic's 10 best beaches in the world. It is a nice 3 mile crescent, but we've seen some equally nice one's on the Great Lakes.. .

In that Treasure island is a private, gated community with a man-made harbor, there is a $10 per day anchoring fee. But for the $10 you get full access to the resort. Nice!!




We went by this schooner on our way over to Marsh Harbor. A good day for sailing. Our sail to Treasure Cay was a quick one, making over 15 nautical miles in 1 hour 15 minutes with a top speed of 18 knots!! Zoom, zoom ....

This photo was taken as we were leaving Hopetown. This is Don and Lynn Walton's brand new Fusion 40. Absolutely beautiful boat that looks like it is setup to actually sail well. We were hoping to get a ride on Wednesday, but the race was called because of too much wind. Don was the only Captain that was game to go sailing. Racing down here is informal and obviously pretty laid back. You break the boat mon, if it blows more than 20...

Hopetown Sailing Club

Cathie and I attended a skipper's meeting this morning for a race that ended up postponed. Running the meeting was George Holloway, formerly of Sturgeon Bay and former SBYC board member. George says a big hello to all who know him. Notice the SBYC burgee in the photo.

The burgee caused me to stop in my tracks yesterday as we were walking by... The HSC building is a neat little place without windows (there are shutters) and right on the sidewalk. See: http://www.hopetownsailingclub.com/
Fair Winds!!

Hopetown, Abacos

We pulled into Hopetown on Thursday. Anchoring is not encouraged in the inner harbor and since Hopetown is the most popular spot in the Abacos, rented moorings are hard to get. We turned around and pulled into a mangrove harbor on the way out of the inner harbor within 100 yards of the famed Elbow Cay Lighthouse, dropped a couple hooks and tied to the mangroves. The Elbow Cay Lighthouse was built in 1864 and still has a kerosene powered lamp behind the prism.

On Friday morning we found the harbor was just too tight to anchor in and pulled the hooks. Luck was with us though as we were able to get a mooring for the next four days.


Inner Hopetown Harbor...




A welcoming dinghy dock.

Most of the houses in the "downtown" have been converted to rentals. The cheap ones go for about $1,700 per week. Cathie is standing below a very nice older resort.

Wow. One of the trees off of one of Captain Bligh's ships!!

This street ends facing the entrance to the harbor. You can see one of the triangular range markers that are used to guide the boats thought the shallows at the entrance. Was a nice spot to sit and watch the traffic go by.