Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell

There were SO many more people waiting along the pier in fells point than I expected. Apparently this is a really big deal and super cool thing here. Definitely want to keep doing it every year now. When we got to Akimbo at noon I got the engine going to make sure the inverter worked (it does) but found a new leak somewhere running down the hose between the impeller and engine block. Tom managed to scramble and change it out for the new one crazy fast when taping wasn't helping the leak. The old hose looked kind of worn at the end by the engine so maybe that was it. Anyway no leak anymore. Plus I figured out which metric ratchet wrenches work on the cover over the belts. (And impeller hose.) Successfully re-winterized with no hiccups this time at the end of the night too. Finished up at DSC around 9:30. 

Did my upgrades and made my first Akimbo reservation this morning! It was QUITE chilly, mid 30s partially sunny, and although it didn't look like there was anywhere near the predicted 10kts at the docks once we got out past the Ft it picked up nicely. We went out past ft Carroll for a bit and then turned around. It ended up being really excellent conditions, except for the chill. After about 3 hrs it was getting to be possibly fairly uncomfortable. Lol. Everything went great until docking when I reverted to my bad habit of going too slow, lost too much momentum and drifted too close to the dock and had to back out at the last moment. Embarrassing. Bleh. Otherwise fun. Peanut M&Ms were an excellent treat to pass around and keep everyone going when the shivering got to be too much. Also learned to properly winterize engine. Seems not to work very well if you leave the engine running and try to swap sea cocks. Instead the method is to turn off the engine as normal, close raw water sea cock, place hose at bottom of antifreeze bottle, open that seacock, turn engine on and if it doesn't start sucking in the antifreeze immediately rev the throttle up. That seems the foolproof way. Do NOT throttle down (like I stupidly told James to do) because it will stop sucking and may get an airlock. When pink starts coming out the exhaust shut engine off immediately. Close the seacock. This should take about 1/2-3/4 bottle. 

And it went awesome! (except that I spaced on which slip we were in mid-final docking, but up to that, awesome.) I really wasn't 100% on enrolling in the BKI because I felt so unsure about single handing skills in certain specific ways, and she clarified stuff and also made just had me DO everything I was worried about and it was totally fine. I did a quick stop POB with the weighted buoy, a heave-to, reefed and should it out, an upwind and downwind dock at the T-head, and left the dock 3 times myself which made me feel much more capable of that in future. The only things I'm still worried about are leaving the dock under trickier conditions (pinned to it in higher wind, for example) and generally just managing much higher wind. Otherwise I think I'm good. So I went ahead and registered. Eek. (≈2.5hrs) ooh interestingly, I tried sheeting the jib both ways because she likes NOT crossing them, and I find it pretty much fine either way so I'm ambi-sheetrous or something. I think I will generally keep them crossed though because it does keep it a little simpler to adjust on the high side.

Went out for just under 4hrs with Tom and my James on Akimbo. Wind was amazing so we were double reefed and pulled in the jib even a little extra once out past ft McHenry. I think only letting it to just the front shroud is the best balance for the second reef in the main. There were much fewer whitecaps than it seemws like there should be for the level of wind we had. I don't quite understand that. It definitely was less than my checkout day but not by a ton. If my checkout was around 28 I would have guessed today was 24ish. So how how come practically no waves or whitecaps? Anyway, had a great time. Did a final pump out for the winterization and added antifreeze to the tank. I taped over the toilet lid too so it should be EXTRA clear to everyone that they better not use it.