It Was a Great Sail

[Cowboy Sailer]

It was just an ordinary day. The riggers had finished the new jib halyard yesterday. Today I was going to lower the furled-up jib and switch back from the spare halyard that I had been using since the jib wire halyard parted and dropped the jib at an unfortunate time.

While they were here I said, “Hey guys, I dropped my winch bit down into the main winch. I can see it but I can’t pull it up. Can you guys glue a rod onto the winch bit so that I can pull it up after the glue sets?” They used 5200 and a flat-head screw. Today I just pulled it right out! You may be sure that I put some torque on the chuck key this time when I re-installed it in the big right-angle cordless drill that I use as an electric winch handle.

One other event happened to make today special. The other day I dropped my wire grill over the side as I was preparing the fire to grill some chicken breasts. You know, you hear a clink as you back up from the fire and you realize that it was the circular wire grill hitting the toe rail followed immediately by a ker-plunk. I looked over the side to see ripples spreading out just off of the port rail. Oh, no!

Today I bought a boat hook from West Marine. Hey, they were marked down! I rigged a clothes hanger into a wire hook and lashed it onto the fully extended telescoping boathook. My hand was in the water before I felt the bottom. I guess that the water at my slip is just too deep. I gave up and pulled the boathook out of the water. There, hanging on the clothes hanger hook, was my missing grill! I got it first try!

We took the boat out. The wind was just right. I lowered the Genoa and attached the new halyard. Denver, my wife, squeezed the trigger on the big drill with the recently retrieved winch bit and raised the Genoa right back up. The autopilot held us into the wind. The new batteries gave confidence that the engine would start when needed.

We turned off the engine an eased along under Genoa only. The temperature was perfect. The sun peeked out from behind puffy white clouds. The wind was only 5 to 7 knots. There were few boats out on this weekday. I went below. “You want anything to drink?” I asked. “How about some music?”

Later, tied up at our slip and watching the sun go down, I realized, “It was a perfect sail, everything worked the way it was supposed to, the weather was perfect, the boat traffic was light. God is good! Ever so often one should quit working on the boat and just go sail the boat."

[Martinini]

You really need to find somebody at the marina to talk to!

[Eleven]

I was having a lazy day this Friday, tinkering without intent with sailing buddy. Neighbour wanted to lift the fairly heavy anchor on a wreck next to us. Leant forward, phone landed on the gangplank and stayed there. Credit card winked as it flipped over the side and kept on winking as it oscillated slowly into the murk. Popped back as the tide fell and grabbed it off the bottom. Great day, no sailing, but things could have been worse.

[sailorboy1]

Cowboy I'm gald for you. Regardless of "things" when at the end you decide it was a good day, then it was!