By Tamera (First Mate)
We cheated by sailing on another boat.
Our friends and dock mates Jill Bebee and Bud Campbell owners of "Earendil" invited us to join them for a lovely day sail in Galveston bay. Jill does a wonderful job of detailing the day in her blog ( http://www.sailblogs.com/member/svearendil/ ) I on the other hand am a woman of few words prefer to show photos.
Here we are at the dock getting ready to set sail......
Scott and Bud enjoyed shaking the sails out and turning Earendil loose
Jill worked very hard making sure the jib was set perfectly
We sailed back with the wind at our stern so we got to sail wing-n-wing....we did 7.4 knots !!
Bud got a chance to get away from the wheel and tweak things on the foredeck
Ships, ships everywhere......
Hey Bud LOOK BEHIND YOU !!!
Scott and Jill hard at work
Thanks Bud and Jill for a memorable day sailing on Galveston Bay.
By Scott (Captain)
We got to go sailing and it had been a while. I have to think it had been since Sept / Oct 2013 to test the Monitor wind vane steering. We have been out but it was usually to run under motor the 12 miles to the shipyard to attend to some project.
Anyway back to "We got to go sailing" with Bud and Jill. They own a beautiful 45 foot Norseman. Bud and Jill are experienced cruisers and I was looking forward to all the things I would learn. I was not disappointed. Tamera put a link to their blog above.
I have to admit I may have been over enthusiastic by wanting to get an early start and getting away from the dock. I hope they will pardon me for this. I did not really understand it had been almost two years since S/V Earendil had sailed so there was a lot of equipment to locate where it had last been stored. I felt a little lost with all the rigging on Earendil but Jill was dashing from one end of the boat to the other making ready.
We got ready to back out of the slip and had a plan to bear off the bow and let the wind push the stern to port. That planned quickly changed as we were backing out. As is common with these hybrid keeled boats; they are a little slow to respond to helm control in reverse. Bud took it all in stride and changed the plan and backed the boat out of the slip and the marina. We had to motor about 6 miles to get to Galveston bay . We entered the bay and raised the sails, killed the engine and let Earendil do her thing. It was a real learning experience to see how Earendil was rigged. We put a reef in the main because I was pretty sure the wind would pipe up later. Bud let me have the helm after a while and sailing Earendil was easy. I really liked the way Earendil moved easily through the chop with no grunts or groans. The helm was easy.
As expected the winds increased to a steady 22 knots with higher gusts. We were soon a little over canvased and Bud suggested de-powering the main a little and that did the trick. It also took some of the pressure off the helm. This actually was a great idea because we would be sailing back to the marina soon and it would be a downwind sail where we would need to carry a little more sail.
We turn into back toward the marina and started sailing up the ship channel. The winds were from dead astern and allowed us to sail wing on wing. Earendil has a spinnaker pole mounted to the mast. Bud suggested using it to stabilize the jib. It sounded like a great plan. As this was a newly installed system there was some awkwardness at first but Bud and Jill worked good together and had it up in short order. Their seamanship almost looks natural.
The boat sailed well downwind. With a following sea it took me a while to get the feel of the helm but Jill rigged the preventer on the main and I realized how much pressure that takes off the helmsman. A preventer is a rope device attached to the mainsail boom to prevent the main sail from accidentally jibbing (or swinging violently to the other side of the boat) while sailing down wind. I don't have a preventer on my boat and have to be very vigilant while sailing downwind. It make me very tense and I am very reluctant to surrender the helm to others. After this experience a preventer will be added to S/V Kooky Dances sailing equipment inventory. Like I said the trip was a great learning experience for me.
The trip back was pretty good and Bud let me helm for a good bit of it. Bud Docked the boat without a Hitch while Jill dashed to and fro making the boat ready. This was no easy task because earlier while furling the jib downwind a gust filled the jib and pulled the furling line thru her hands delivering severe rope burns to both hands. Jill never left her post and continued pulling in the jib with burnt hands. I know men that would not have been that tough. I have a new hero now.
I was honored to sail a while with such accomplished sailors and real seaman. It will live in my memory for a longtime.
