boat posts page 2

Pyewacket: Final Trip?

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Went out on the Pyewhacket for perhaps the last time this year. This was our first trip out of a port other than Rocky River. We went out of a little dock near the Ford plant Paul’s been working at recently, so he could get off work and come right over. His dad’s been working there as well, second shift, so he brought up the boat when he came in.

The dock cost $5. We had to slip the money through the door in a little envelope with our information, as there was no attendant. We theorized that we could have went out from Rocky River and docked up at that dock (since we had two cars) for free.

It was starting to get dark as we went out. The lake was placid, the most I’ve seen Lake Erie. Near the shore, the water felt quite warm to the touch. There was a fog over the lake. It was quite warm on shore for this time of year, but got cool quickly as we went out. I had a jacket, but Paul only had a long sleeve shirt. He was getting a bit chilly out there and went in the cabin for a little while with the light on to warm up a bit.

At first there was only a slight breeze, so we sailed very slowly. We made note of the lights near the dock, including some parking lot lights and those of a big factory right next to it, but we really didn’t have to: We didn’t make it far enough away for there to have been any chance of getting lost. As time went on, it got darker and the wind picked up a bit. There was enough light from the moon and the factory to see alright. The sails finally stayed full and we moved along at a decent clip.

Paul had to work on the morrow, so we weren’t able to stay out long. He took a short nap while I sailed toward shore, then came out and motored us the rest of the way in. The motor wasn’t running very well. It died out once when we first started it, so we were a little worried about running with it. It also was running somewhat rougher than usual. It died out several more times when coming in, mostly when we were near the dock running at a slower speed. I’m not sure why it’s running that bad, but it’s probably in need of an oil change. Hopefully that’ll solve the problem.

This dock only has one launching and one landing ramp, much smaller than the three of each at Rocky River. When we came in, there was another boat landing. We had to wait a good bit for them. They took their time. Our motor kept dying as we slowly drifted toward the walls of the port. Finally we were able to land.

I drove back home the same way I came up, on the Turnpike. Usually I’d avoid the Turnpike simply because it costs money and I’m stingy, but it was by far the straightest shot highway available for this trip. I’ve no doubt I saved more than the toll’s value in gas. However, my car was running especially rough, with one cylinder missing the whole way home.

Heavy little waves

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Went out again, just Paul and myself. The end of the sailing season is approaching, so we’ll have to get our last sails in soon. We went out later in the day, as Paul had to work in the morning and be indentured into a union. The waves didn’t look big at all, but they rocked the boat around a lot, so much so that we decided to not really sail. We put up only the jib. It was quite windy though, so we cruised along at quite a good clip, especially for not having the main up. We then anchored down, tied our life-vests to ropes, and went for a good swim. The boat was rocked about a lot without us on it, and the jib halyard freed itself and swung about, eventually wrapping around the mainstay. As I am a very poor swimmer, I got some practice in at how to properly propel oneself through water, with the help of Paul. I’m slowly getting better at it. After a good long bit of swimming about, we went back aboard. Paul wanted to organize the stuff in the cabin, and had bought a plastic bin to help. Trying to do it while being rocked about on the lake was difficult though, so we motored back in to the river and did it while docked. The organization helped the cabin look much more clean and spacious. Then we docked at the docking dock and pulled her out. I evidently lost a little dealy for connecting the boom sheet tackle to the boom, but I don’t even remember it being there. I seem to be causing trouble at these pulling out points recently. We then went to Chipotle. I was going to see the Yars play at the ECC, but it was too late to make it all the way to Kent, and they had a show Friday anyway.

Swimming with Vince

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Me, Paul, and my cousin Vinnie went sailing last Wednesday. We planned to go early but got off to a late start due to car troubles. Paul and Uncle Al were trying to wire Paul’s car to be able to operate the lights on the trailer of the boat so it could be legal on the road. Somehow, they blew some fuses or something, rendering the car unable to shift into drive (an automatic). The truck we normally use had very worn brake pads that didn’t stop very well. They had finally reached a dangerous point, so they needed to be replaced. They bought cheap pads and slapped them on quickly so they wouldn’t have to take the extra time of changing or turning the rotors.

We finally got out, after a quick pancake breakfast. Paul had removed and cleaned the halyards. I put the main halyard in backwards, but didn’t realize it until we got out on the lake. The waves were small but still rocked the boat a good bit at times, making it difficult to do any work. We attempted to use another line to pull the halyard through so we could pull it back up after switching ends. We got the line through and switched the ends, but in attempts to pull the halyard back through, the safety bin we were using to attempt to connect the two lines came undone and both lines came falling down. We had to head back in to the river and dock for a bit while we took down the mast and switched the line. Doing this on the calm water was actually fairly easy, though dropping pins or wrenches would have had much worse consequences. We made sure we had it right, then headed back out.

We put up the sails, and with a rather strong wind, were able to get going fairly quickly. Vince, though, was quite interested in swimming. Paul attached a line to his life vest and the boat and hopped off. It was a long line, so he was able to go back a good ways before being dragged along. The ropes held fast and he was able to pull himself back, so he came back aboard to get Vince. He tied another line between him and Vince and they both went in. I was left sailing by myself there while the swam around. The stronger winds made it a little more difficult to control the boat, especially when aproaching a run. Near a run, the sails would swing violently about, trying to decide which side to go to. I tried to keep it slow at first, but I realized the ropes could handle the force fine, so I sped up. They came aboard again. We were up to Lakewood Park when we decided to turn back toward home. They jumped off for one final swim, then came back aboard, shivering. They dried off with towels and sunned for a while. Then Paul took over control of the boat.

By now, the wind had died down a good bit, as had the waves. We weren’t headed back very fast at all. I was reluctant to go in the water, but they convinced me I should. I tied my vest to the rope, though in a place I’d later find was not especially good. I lowered into the water and fell back till the rope pulled me along. The way I tied it, to the front of the vest, I was unable to turn around; if I did, the rope tried to pull my head under the water, and it’d probably have been hard to get flipped back around properly. I had a floating coushin which helped keep my head above water, but also required me to hold on with at least one arm. If I let go, it would begin to go “backwards” fairly quickly. So I had mostly one arm to pull on the rope or swim with, and I couldn’t turn very well. It was not difficult, but still took a concious effort to stay on the cushion. Paul and Vince pointed out a stick/small log that was drifting by in the water. I swam towards it, thinking I had no chance, but I was able to grab the very end of it. I dragged it along, now with both hand occupied. After a while of this, I decided I wanted to get back aboard the boat. I slowly pulled my way up with one arm, holding the two items with my other. It was difficult to do, so once I got a bit closer to the boat, I took some of the rope now behind me and rapped it around the stick. I was worried it would break free, but it managed to hold. I pulled myself along more easily now, though the rope was getting quite tangled about my legs. I’d stop and try to get it untangled, then move forward some more, then stop again. At the side of the boat, as Paul had found earlier, it was tough to pull out of the water. Paul helped me up as I had him by pulling on the shoulders of the life vest. I was fairly cold. I pulled the stick up, which was actually fairly tangled in the rope, and tied it off to the side of the boat. I then took off my vest and shirt and dried off in the sun with a nice towel. I had taken my aqua shoes in as well, so I took off my wet socks and shoes to let them dry.

Once I was a bit warmer, I went back with Paul to help sail. With the weaker wind, we could only easily sail on reaches. Runs were rather slow. We reached back and forth a bit, though that provided slow progress in the direction we wanted to go. We then gave up on the sails and motored on in.

A nice run. I like sailing with a decent wind, and would have liked to have done more with it than I did. Our first swim off the boat was also a good experience. We’ll probably do that fairly often now. I’ll have to tie to my vest better next time though.

Lakewood visit

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Yesterday, in place of going sailing, I went on a bike ride down in Lakewood. I drove down and parked at Lakewood Park. I used to go there a lot, with the family on picnics (often KFC), with the summer daycare type thing I was in, and occasionally to see fireworks and bands play. While there yesterday, I saw all the kids that must have come from the summer daycare thing playing on the playground and swimming in the pool. There were certainly a lot of them. The park had changed in several ways. The playground area was totally redone, though I had seen the beginning of that remake near the end of my life there. Also, a skate park was added just recently, a few months ago evidently, and a building near the parking lot was renovated. Other than that it was very much the same. Quite amazing. I took pictures here and of other places throughout the day that brought back memories.

I took my bike from my car and rode around town. I first rode to my old street. I saw the old school, Lincoln, where I spent 6 years of my life. Lots of things happened there, and many of the people I knew I went to school with there. Riding down the street, I came to my old house. It looked very much the same, old and gray. The three neighbors house on the one side, Chris’s, the McCray’s, and Phil’s old house, looked almost the same, but changed a bit. The playhouse was gone from the back of Chris’s house, now that Katie had grown up. At Chris’s and the McCray’s, there were a lot more flowers in the front yard. At Phil’s old house, two big trees from the tree lawn were gone, making it look very empty. There was a tall fernlike plant and some other plants in the front yard. Otherwise, they were very much the same, with the same colors and the big fence in the McCray’s back yard. It didn’t look like anyone was home at the McCray’s or Chris’s, except for in the upstairs of the duplex Chris lives in (I never knew the person who lived there though). I wondered what had happened to everybody. I saw a young kid go into the garage of my old house.

I then rode on down the street. I saw the old rail road tracks, and then Ross’s Deli, where I used to go to buy Laffy Taffy, Bonkers, and other treats. I saw the Taco Bell next door. I rode around some more, and came to Woodward, where Phil had moved a year or so before I left. I wasn’t sure which house was his, but thought 1510 sounded familiar. Riding passed, it looked like it could have been it, but it would have changed a bit, getting a fence to the backyard and losing the basketball hoop on the garage. No one seemed to be home. Riding on, I went down to Edwards Park, where I had played a bit as a kid. I then rode on down the street where my friend Ian used to live. I really had no clue where his house was: I thought I remembered it being on the corner, but then I also remember walking down the street several houses to find it on the side toward my house. I also thought I remembered a big tree in the front yard, and a gray color to the house. I remembered little else about the house, as we spent our time inside. I rode up and down a couple times, but couldn’t tell at all which it was. Not many people were home at the time.

I rode down past the old middle school, Horace Mann, where I spent one year. It looked quite the same big old brick building. I then went back down to Lakeland and looked more closely at Lincoln. Both a new parking lot and playground had been added soon before I left. The playground had been changed at least a little since then, as there was no tire swing where it had been before. A gazebo and some plants had been added to where part of the parking lot had been before the new one was put in. That may have been there before I left, but I don’t remember it. I rode past the houses once more, and it still looked like no one was home at the two neighbors. I rode on down and walked along the railroad tracks to the small park nearby. I hadn’t gone there a whole lot, but did play put-put at the course that had been put in there several years before I left. Bored, I went over to the library and decided just to read for a bit. Up until this point, and especially at the library, I was checking out every person that looked to be about my age to see if they might be someone I knew. I was hoping that I may chance upon someone, though I knew my chances were extremely slim. I looked around a bit and then read a book on objects in PHP 5. I couldn’t read much of it though, as my thoughts were elsewhere.

I left to just ride around for a bit; I expected that 17:00 would potentially bring my neighbors home, so I would ride until around then. I saw the little strip-mall area that had been put in during my stay. It used to have Arabica, where I had once gotten ice cream, but it looked like some other coffee shop in its place. I rode around some more and then rode down Detroit a good ways. I didn’t plan to turn off it, but I found myself in a right turn only lane. I then turned again. I surprisingly passed one of the park entrances to the Rocky River, the place where Paul and I sail out from. I could even see the parking lot and boat ramps. I had no idea it was that close to Lakewood. I rode around a bit, taking pictures of some of the expensive houses out there. Paul and I had actually cycled around that area once not too long ago when we had ridden up to the Lake from a park near his house (sort of anyway). I rode farther than we had ridden along that route though, and saw a park that I had visited only a couple of times, with my parents and possibly my cousins the Shury’s.

I rode back to Rocky River and rode down to the dock area, as Paul had said he was sailing out at around 5, and it was in fact around 5. He wasn’t there. The lake was looking rough, it was very windy, and dark clouds were coming in, so I suspected he had checked the weather and saw it was looking too bad to go out. I walked around the marina area a bit, and checked out some of the sailboats there. Before I left, I decided to leave them a message in case they did come. I rode around the parking lot picking up sticks, then put them together to spell out my name near where Paul usually parks to step the mast and set up the boat. Riding away, I noticed it wasn’t easily visible from very far away, but I hoped they’d get close enough to see it. At this point, I could hear thunder, it was getting very windy, and the clouds were getting very dark.

I rode back to Lakeland for one last visit. This time, a car was in the drive at the McCray’s. I slowly rode past, not seeing anybody. I rode down to Lincoln, deciding if I should knock on the door or not. When I came back, a woman sat out on the porch that looked very much like I remembered Mrs. McCray looking. But it had been so long, that I wasn’t sure. I rode past and thought a bit about what I should do, what I should say. I’m still, after all, very shy. A car pulled out that was parked across from the McCray’s and drove by. It looked like it could have been Rena, and I soon found out it was. I then got the strength to go up to Mrs. McCray. I rode up, and asked if she was Mrs. McCray. She said she was. I approached the porch and told her I had lived down the road a bit years ago. She then began to recognize me. I couldn’t think of much to say, and it was a bit awkward for a moment, but then I asked how Rena and David had been. David was down in Columbus going to school. He didn’t like school much, and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Rena had gone to school for both nursing and psychology, and also wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She was doing something related to nursing now, and was planning on getting into lab work for a while. Mrs. McCray called out her husband, Dave. He was surprised to see me. We talked for a bit and I gave him my parents’ phone number, as he had lost it. He said they had talked about my dad just recently.

Dave took me over to show me to Chris, who also still lived in the same place. Chris didn’t recognize me at first, but soon after realized who I was without even having to be told. His wife came out as well. She didn’t recognize me right away, and I actually didn’t recognize her either; I didn’t remember her very well. We all sat out on the porch and talked for a bit. Eileen (Mrs. McCray) soon came over as well. Chris’s wife (I believe her name was Jeanne) went and picked up little Katie, who wasn’t quite so little anymore, and was going on 17. She looked much older, of course, but I could still see the same facial features from before. She didn’t really remember me, though she did remember my brother a bit. She sat on the porch with us for a bit, but went inside when someone called on the phone.

They told me of what had happened since I was gone. It was mostly the same. The had recently had a block party, and had had two others since we left. Dave was one of the people setting the recent one up, and Chris had been on the one before that. They had put up a volleyball net accross the street, had games for the kids, a raffle, and free pizza. Evidently, some residents had gotten mad about the whole thing and tried to drive their cars on through. One had called the police, who told him that the block had gotten a permit for the party and so was allowed to block off the street. Flyers had been handed out to warn everybody to move their cars to parking lots at either end, but some still found that too inconvenient for a day. Chris and Dave had been working on their houses, especially Chris. He had sanded off all the old paint and repainted. The McCray residence still had the same old paint, though it will need to be redone soon. My old house had seen several crazy residents come and go before settling on the quiet mom with her child that lived there now. The residents beforehand had been loud, and one had stolen a package. One had been renting the house out, though it’s not supposed to be. Other neighbors, who I hadn’t known too well, had moved out.

I told them about what had happened on my end as well, how I had graduated from Kent for restaurant management and planned to possibly open a restaurant with my brother, how I had moved into a trailer near my parents and needed to do work on it, how my brother had also moved out, and how my dad had had a heart attack but was doing fine now.

I was offered and ate tortilla chips, some tasty amish cheese, some iced tea, and then two tacos. They said they were going to invite my parents over for some kind of party soon. I hope they do. I really miss the old neighborhood and the sense of community we had there. I’d like to know what my life would have been like had I not moved. I guess that’s quite impossible though. I then said bye and rode off to my car. It was a little bit wet from the short rain we had gotten while on the porch.

I realized I left there much later than I had wanted to. It was almost 21:00 when I got to my car, and I had to be in Kent for my show. Normally I try to make it there by 22:00, though we don’t play till 22:30. I looked at the map, but saw no quick easy way apparent to get to Kent. I drove by the Lakewood Winking Lizard while going to the highway. I drove on, unsure of exactly where I was going to go. I looked at the map as I approached several of the exits, trying to decide which I should take. I eventually decided I should take the long route that was all highway driving, down into Akron, then over and back up a good bit along 76. Somewhere along the way, my exhaust got extremely loud. It was somewhat painful to the ears. I was quite worried a cop would pull me over about it. None did though, even riding home. It was definately loud enough that people were looking at me though. When I parked near the ECC, I looked under the car. I saw that there was a clean crack right through the exhaust at one point, and the front part was hangin down so that it was shooting the exhaust straight out from there. Later, with aid of a flashlight, I found out that the crack was through the one end of the catalytic converter, right next to the flange used to bolt it to the front part of the exhaust. This means I will need a new cat. They are a bit expensive. I’ll also have to figure out how to get to the store to get one, as I’m not sure I want to drive it around much. Another difficulty is that today I was going to get the car transferred to my name, so I was going to get it e-checked, then go get the title transferred, then get the plates. I certainly won’t pass e-check bypassing entirely the cat. That may have to wait till tomorrow.

rough waters last week, this week no trip

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The title sums it up well. Last Wednesday, me and Paul went out to sail, but the waves were quite rough. They were said to be 3-5 feet. I feel they were worse than the time we went out with Joey and Vince, though he says they were better: it may be because of the additional weight provided by the two. We rolled quite a bit to the side at times, worrying me. When with Joe and Vince, I wasn’t very worried. We motored about for a bit. I did some motoring as well. It was quite difficult in the waves, and I felt uncomfortable doing it. I then motored back down the river. I attempted to dock, but had lots of trouble. I tried a couple of times, but found it too difficult to shift the gearing of the motor while carefully manuevering the boat.

This week, Paul is doing some mill-wright training. He will be doing that instead of sailing during the day today. He’s sailing with Ally at 1700, but I will probably not have enough time to do that and make it back in time for my band’s show. I instead will be going on a long biking trip up in my old neighborhood of Lakewood. I miss the friends and life I had there. I want to see what happened.

clear but windy

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Went out again. Looks like this’ll be a weekly thing on Wednesdays, as I always have the day off for the Wednesday night Yars shows. This trip was just me and Paul. We both had strangely woken up at 06:00, the same time we woke up last week. I only got maybe four hours of sleep. We also both went onto AIM and talked to each other. So we decided to go sailing, and I headed over. We put up the sails while in the parking lot, which proved much easier than on the boat. The lake was about as calm as possible, with almost no waves at all, yet there was a good stiff wind coming from the north. It gave us plenty of power to speed around with. It is much easier to manuever around and set the sails properly with a good stiff wind. We started off heading toward Avon, but saw a mysterious tall colorful object far off shore that we decided to sail toward. It turned out to be the colorful spinaker of a larger sailboat. We then took turns single-handedly manuevering around. We did some figure eights around two buoys.

There were many other sailboats on the water. A large group of them were from some sort of sailing school. Lots of little kids in varying sizes of small sailboats were practicing manuevering around while instructors sped around in motor boats whistling at them. After a while, they all went in. Many other sailboats were going out and coming in as well. The Lager, a rather large sailboat, motored pretty far out and then motored back in, never setting sail.

We were a bit worried about storms coming, as they were predicted for later in the day, but the sky was quite clear. After a while, most of our wind died down and became very intermitent. We decided to go back in. We took down both the sails and the boom before heading in. I motored down the river for a bit, but there was lots of traffic. Another group of sailboats was headed out from the school, so there were sailboats sailing and being pulled by motorboats all over the one side of the river. There were also a couple of other motor boats, and then came along what must have been a school of young kayakers going perpendicular to us. This made for tough manuevering, so Paul took over.

A nice trip. I like manuevering around; probably the funnest part of it all. We were going to change the oil of our engine, as it has reached the break-in hours for the first batch of oil, but it looked too much like it would rain. Later we shall.

first great sailing trip

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Yesterday saw our best sailing trip yet. Me and Joey went over Paul’s house early in the morning (about 3 am) and went right to sleep. We woke up a little after 6. After a breakfast of cereal and quick preperations, we headed off to Rocky River. I attempted motoring away from the dock, but it didn’t work out quite so well. Paul took over. The lake was fairly choppy, though not as bad as the last time. The waves were big, but also fairly wide, so most weren’t two bad. We did get hit by a couple that sent the bow mighty close to the waterline. Standing near the bow was mighty exciting, like riding a bucking bronco. There was a good stiff breeze though. When we raised the sails, they filled quite quickly. The jib by itself didn’t take us very fast, but with both sails up, we got going at a pretty good clip. We first set a straight (at least somewhat straight) course and worked on setting the sails to get us going the fastest. Then we practiced tacking a bit, just going back and forth. In tacking, the jib seems to really flap a lot, while the main goes quickly. We then messed around setting ourselves in various directions. We had trouble steering with the sails; it seemed to work, but not very quickly or easily. We also for some reason had trouble running with the wind. We were unable to fill the sails well. Running wing and wing was quite tuff, as the jib kept wanting to jibe back and forth with slight direction changes with the tiller. Four sailboats came out and soon were far out on the lake.

The wind started dying down; for a while there we had almost no wind. We got some gusts every once in a while that kept us going, but made it hard to set the sails properly. We headed back. As we got closer to port, the sails picked up again. Several more sailboats came out, in what looked like some sort of training course or something; a small red motor boat zipped around between them, blowing a whistle from time to time. We sailed a bit more, then headed in. We took down the main, then started the motor with the jib up. We took down the jib soon before coming into the mouth of the river. I motored us down towards port.

Paul took over near port. We didn’t dock up very easily. Paul had to take quite a leap to get onto the dock. We found ourselves swung to the end of the dock with me holding on. Joey had to throw the front dock line to Paul to get us pulled in properly. Then we had trouble getting the keel set into the trailer right. It took quite a few attempts. We’re getting quicker at setup and teardown now.

Very nice run. My first run that we actually had enough wind to sail well. It seems mornings are better for sailing, as earlier always seems to give us more steady winds.

joey and vince

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went out on the pw with my cousins joey and vince, as well as Paul. We all met at Paul’s the night before sos we could wake up early and get plenty of time on the water. We didn’t wake up early; Joey woke us up at 9:30. We ate breakfast and went out to sail, all squeezed into the big truck we’ve been towing with; Paul’s car needs the wire attachments for the lights on the trailer. We took care of setting everything up; Joe and Vince were just a long for the ride. We put up the boom as well as the mast this time in the parking lot. We set out on the river, which had ripples from the stiff wind, towards the lake. Large waves poured into the mouth of the river, and we knew it would be rough. We considered turning back, but decided to press on and see what it was like. The waves on the lake were mighty rough for the small boat, making it very difficult to manuever; the motor and rudder popped out of the water with each large wave. The bow would sometimes crash down nearly into the water. We were a bit worried of a capsize, though after a couple of waves we figured that was unlikely. We decided it was well too rough to put up even one sail. After a while of motoring around, we headed back to port. It was still rough until we made it well past the break wall. We passed by a group of young kids paddling along on kayaks. Docking was a little more difficult than last time: the trailer was angled and we had trouble getting the keel into position. Vince called his dad and found out there was 3 to 5 foot waves and a small craft advisory. We headed back. Paul gave me the drivers seat once we were near his house so I could practice trailoring. It wasn’t too bad on straight roads, except I tended to hug the yellow lines. Turns were a bit more difficult, and even by the end I had trouble turning wide enough but not too wide. Backing the trailer into a spot at Paul’s house was quite difficult, and after several attempt, I got it in a bit crookedly. Since we didn’t get to actually sail, I’m hoping we’ll get to go out again sometime soon. Next week we’ll probably go with the Shury boys (Joe and Vince) again.

first sailing trip

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Paul and Uncle Al went out sailing on the Pyewacket Sunday, but I was working and unable to go. There was little winds save for big gusts at the end. Today, Paul and I went out. My first sailing trip, save for as a passenger (and then only the second I believe). These trips take quite a while, especially since Paul lives an hour away. I woke up at 7:00 (getting only a few hours of sleep) and got out there around 8:30. We made some peanut butter sandwiches and grabbed some cranberry juice, hooked up the boat, and headed off, back to Rocky River. Stepping and raising the mast was the hardest part of getting ready; quite hefty bugger for two. We were in the water before 11:00 I do believe. We motored out to the lake, then put up the sails. There wasn’t much wind, but enough to move around a bit. We were eating while sailing. We got to see a little bit how to set the sails, then the wind died down to nearly nothing. I tried fruitlessly to move at any reasonable speed. Soon, we found ourselves in a large group of small bugs that flew around us relentlessly, unaffected by swinging hats and shirts. They occasionally made their way into our eyes, noses, and mouths. We scrambled to get the sails down and the motor running to jet outta there. That motor really cruises along. We then figured out how to put the cover on the main-sail and the jib into a bag from which it could be easily raised. We dropped anchor for the first time, and sat in the cabin a bit. My was it hot. It felt good down there, especially when a slight breeze would come along through the window. It also felt good to dangle the feet in the water, though it was too cold for any swimming. We then went back out, motored inland a bit (we had made it out to about the mile marker by sail), and raised the sails once again: the wind had picked up a bit. We had some strong pulls there, and got to mess around with setting the sails a bit more. We were going at a good clip for a short bit. We jibbed and tacked. The wind soon died down though. With a low wind, it was very hard to tell what was happening to set the sails properly. The wind also frequently changed directions, making us jibe or tack at unexpected times. We lowered sail again and went into port, Paul motoring us along. The landing at the docks can be hard, as the motor idles too fast to come in: we have to put it in nuetral and steer with the rudder. It wasn’t too hard getting it on the trailer again, though it seemed harder than last time. We then motored her over to the parking lot to unstep the mast and tie down for travel. I noticed my sunburnt arms there, as I hadn’t put on suntan lotion until halfway through our trip. All in all a decent first trip, but hopefully we’ll get more wind next time.

Pyewacket: Maiden Voyage

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I have wanted to learn to sail for at least several years now. I had been planning on buying a boat for a couple of years with my brother, but never got around to finding one or reserving the money to do it. My cousin Paul also became interested in sailing, to the point that he plans to live on a sailboat for at least a while. Are interest provoked my uncle and his dad to purchase a vessel at an auction a few weeks ago. It was a Precision 18, part way between a dinghy and a cruiser. It’s a regular bermuda yawl with a small cabin that can sleep four (albeit a bit crampedly). It ran him $1550 and came with most of the basic parts of the boat, including a trailer to haul it. It was a might dirty, and needed a little work. We christened her the USS Pyewacket, after a friends boat Uncle Al once crewed. Uncle Al and Paul, and to a much lesser extent I, worked on it for the past couple weeks, cleaning it and fixing it up. Today we bought a motor for it (a 5hp air-cooled four-cycle with reverse) and took it down to the Rocky River area, without the sails. Getting her in the water wasn’t very hard. We motored along the river and out into Lake Erie. The motor was excessively powerful: we were speeding along well too fast to dock it at an idle. It was also quite hard to switch from forward to reverse, making careful manuevering difficult. The lake was calm for Lake Erie, though the small waves still chopped the boat about a bit: it’ll be better when the mast and sails are up and the centerboard and rudder are down. The boat, being a sailboat, turned very easily under power and was hard to keep straight. It had quite the small turning radius, however. We went back into the river and dropped the centerboard. No leaks at all, which is all this trip was testing for. We went back to dock, and ran into it because the boat was coming in too fast. Next time we’ll have to have the rudder on to steer so we can put the engine in nuetral and coast on in to port. We got her into the trailer, including getting the keel into the proper position, rather easily just by pulling the ropes on the dock. It only took two tries.

We’ll be sailing very soon on her. All she needs now is a few bits for the rigging and a few other small things. We’ll move on to other fixings later, after we’ve learned a bit of sailing and what modifications are most important. Hopefully it won’t take us long to learn, and then we can enjoy ourselves sailing about and even camping aboard.