Hi Gang,
First off all I wish Lars a speedy recovery.
Congrats to Westerman family on the the new baby
Solarfry I do use win98 :>
and now let me tell you about our sail first time all by ourselves.
Launching : Dana Point was not hard and the 29 ft RV has enough power
even if the ramp is steep
last Sunday we went out still under carefully instructions from our
friend and coach
Bill Boyer, but unfortunately there was no wind so we just "pottered"
around a bit to get a feel for Hooti Boot.
Today ( Tuesday) we took Hooti Boot out again, Bill took his 27ft
Catalina out ,planning to be there in case we need him. We both had the
radio with us.
We ( my husband Bee) and I managed to get her launched pretty easy.
We were kinda confident that once we are out in open sea the sailing
part would go smooth. The Wind was brisk with a lot of sun and God
thanks no of those stinky and wave making motorboats were out there. ( I
guess they only show up weekends? :>)
As we came further out in the sea it got more scary. Bill at this time
was already full under sails, it looked great. On the radio he asked
"what about your sail?" Well I looked at my hubby and asked him to let
the main sail out. At this point we did not knew that the boom was
upside down!!!!!!!
I then raised the jib, and we took speed. ( scary isn't it? :>)
We looked back towards the land and it seemed we were far far out, so I
suggested to do a come about ( I'm still learning hahhaha). It did not
worked, so we took the jib down because we were tooooooooooo fast.
Sailing towards the shore, the side stays ( three of them popped!!!! I
gave my husband a dirty look ( he forgot to tiden it ). Oh I forgot to
tell we had some problems with the forstay from the beginning. It was
TOOO short, about 1 1/2 " , very hard to fasten , and the mast was
leaning forward. So with 3 side stays not fastened, the mast leaning
forward, the boom being upside down, the radio died on us, so we had no
communication with Bill, except my frenetically waving and screaming (
which he could not understand), we took course towards the safe harbor.
Bill went with us until he saw we were on the dock. On the dock there
was only one boat besides us so I pulled Hooti Boot in the front of the
dock, not thinking about the low tide,
and that my hubby did not raised the dagger board. So we stuck !!!!
I let out another "dirty look" ( Nice to have someone with you who you
can blame for things going wrong <smile>)
Of course at this position we could not raise the dagger board so with a
lot of pulling and lifting and pushing we finally got the darn board
free.
What else went wrong? Nothing GOD thanks :) <smile>
Well I learned a lot and that is what it is all about you learn from
your mistakes and we had a good laugh too.
Since Tuesday ( today is Friday) I learned to lower the mast, ( twice) I
learned using the mast raising system to raise the mast ( twice). (
seems like my forearms got bigger!! :> We have a new forstay , the mast
is straight everything is fastened and we are ready for our first Club
meeting tomorrow in Dana Point. Again thanks to Bill for all his
patience and help.
Well Gang this is all for today ( please excuse my English ) I'm still
thinking in German and translate this way.
Gee "Hooti Boot" P19
-- Gee Salzweger Evergreen Realty http://www.evergreenagent.com Voice Mail : 949-457-6663