Quite gusty this afternoon. Very very shifty in front of dominos as well, not ideal. Was able to get through almost entire SH list, but only as practice and not while being observed. :-( Have to demonstrate tomorrow in worse conditions. 12-15 SSW ish but bouncing around everywhere. Low 70s.
Early morning at the docks was beautiful though.
Had a lovely evening sail on Akimbo. Wind was 5-10, E, mid 60s. Just a couple of hours but very pleasant.
Batteries were low and the radio did not work at all, so need to look into that.
Met early at DSC to get a ride over to Marinemax on Hoss, did last touch ups w/Albert, splashed Sun, drove back to DSC and couldn't NOT keep the bow straight while docking w/Josh waiting to catch me. Super embarrassing. I hate driving that boat so much. Anyway, it's in good shape now. The knot meter had a micro dribble coming through but Albert greased & tightened it so hopefully that's all set.
Then I took #4 to practice SH Robert from noon to 4. Wind was ESE ish, 10-12 or so. My POBs went great for a change but upwind docking remains extremely stressful. I keep clenching as the bow gets close to the dock and I am internally screaming as I turn up and try to scramble forward. I hate it so much.
Incredibly exhausting. Pics say it all. Scraped and sanded bottom, did 3 coats of paint. Waxed/cleaned & buffed topsides, etc, etc. 2 days working at the yard, and tomorrow will paint the patches under the stands and splash and help get it back to DSC.
Tom, James & I took Akimbo to fill up the fuel tank and were very surprised to only get 12.8 gallons in, when we thought it was only had 3-5 gallons in it, and every piece of documentation says it is a 36 gallon tank! Everyone always said to never let it get below half, which I thought was because we didn't have a gauge, or possibly due to some kind of condensation issue, but LO! It all adds up now! If we did have just a couple of gallons left on Sunday, it makes sense that the little hit of sediment at the bottom of the tank got shaken up and clogged the primary filter. We then added 3 gallons of Tom's rescue diesel, and changed the filters, and then it ran beautifully. So with the top up today, that puts us at ≈2+3+12.8 =17.8 AND, we crawled down into lazarette and measured the exterior of the tank which volume was a maximum possible total of about 26gallons, but we estimate the thickness of the tank, etc, would reduce that by 20%, which is very very nearly the 18 gal that came standard with the boat. I am so curious where this 36 gal number came from, and how many times getting below "half full" (hah!) resulted in a confusing failure. Anyway, now we know. And everything is clean and running great.
We pumped out the black tank as well so everything is good to go for the season. Tom straightened out the twisted wires behind the ignition and tighten the starter, so we thing the tachometer will stop flaking out now as well.
I did test the bottom of the tank and found no water, and just a bit of grime, nothing crazy. I guess the gunk that came out the bottom of the strainer had been there for a while building up. Added a teensy bit of biocide and called it good. Will fill the tank soon. Anyway, cleared out the starboard lazarette and found a rusty umbrella (wtf) at the bottom back, topped up the coolant and re-re-re-scrubbed the diesel drips off the cockpit. Still very gusty today, but sunny and beautiful so was nice to be on the water, though tied up. Need a nap now.
Met Tom to change filters (primary in the racor) and secondary, bled the line, and the engine started right up! Not completely sure what to do now b/c we did accidentally let the tank get pretty low, which I gather from the previous orientation doc could cause condensation and growth? So.... I don't want more sediment, but there didn't seem to be more than the initial chunky bits that came out of the bottom of the racor yesterday... I might go use a test bulb thing to suck a sample up from the bottom and see how it looks before deciding. Albert says to put a biocide in after getting the water and gunk out. I guess it couldn't hurt?
I can't believe we let the tank get low like this too, the sheet in the back of the log doesn't indicate it should at this level. AND, there's not enough in the fuel fund to fill up. I definitely need to make a point of bringing it up when I do the log. I got out of the habit last fall. :-(
Crazy oscillating wind at 10-12ish from SE-NE every few minutes. Went out with Susan at noon for some docking and POB practice. Had a great time, but I did really struggle a stupid amount to actually pick up the buoy the first couple of times. Had to bail on docking repeatedly too. Am feeling extremely extra terrible at J sailing atm. Came in around 4 and Susan did a great downwind dock.
helped Josh set a mast on a boat, went to akimbo and dawn soaped up the cockpit and scrubbed it down to remove any oil and diesel from yesterday.
Then hung out w/JB for a bit on set up the Bimini on Sun and watched while he replaced a secondary bilge pump. He hung out in the pit and ate pizza while I did some POB's and SH reefing practice on #4, and I did an upwind dock at the end. So, maybe 4hrs, and then another hour? 90 minutes? The wind really died down by the evening so I did a ton better with the POBs. And everything really. So as long as the BKI tops out at like 10 knots I'm probably fine. :-(
15-25 NWN mid 50s, sunny
I skippered Akimbo for member sail, started w/one reef but put the second in quickly. Headsail only out to the front shroud. Had a great very speedy downwind trip past FSK and carol island, turned around to head upwind back toward the city, but it was so on the nose I didn't want to tack through the bridge, so we put the engine on and furled the headsail away, and motor sailed through. Once we were clear, we decided to get the headsail out a little bit and fall off to see if we could make progress at all that way, and just as I was thinking about going ahead and shutting the engine off, it's sputtered out. The starter still worked, I gave the crew the helm and had them just keep tacking for a while making what progress we could, and I checked the belts, the air filter, the log boom to make sure I didn't stupidly go out with a low tank (I didn't) and the fuel separator cup thing. I didn't see any water or sediment in it, and thought it might be good to bleed the line, but didn't want to make a mess heeled over and sloshing back and forth the way we were, so I left it. We tacked back to the city, I called Tom and he came out with Scott on Sun to meet me as I sailed in. I decided that rather than dock under sail at the T-head, I would anchor across from under armour, they rafted up with us, and gave me some diesel to try topping up the tank with (just in case that was it) but it didn't help. So we stayed rafted up and Tom drove us back to DSC and docked at the T-head, and we walked ourselves forward and tied up. After we were nicely tied up and shook out the reefs and put the sail away nicely, I bled the fuel from the strainer, tried starting a couple times, but no dice. There was a lot of gunk coming out with the fuel so I'm pretty sure the motoring just past the bridge while getting the headsail out shook up some sediment. Will go back and finish bleeding it, close the valve on the line and open the top of the separator and change the filter. Hopefully that resolves the issue.
Headed to DSC early and got to see the first hour of accessibility training, then met Santhosh & everyone to get Messin About ready. Engine oil and coolant was fine, started easily but do have the throttle up a little. We figured out getting the jib in the furler track (there are 2, did I pick the correct one?) and Tom knew how to do the main. The 2 continuous reefing lines had to be tied which I was confused about. Albert fixed an extra loop around the boom to have a better angle to the sail when you pull it tight. We got to put in the first one out part way to the bridge when the gusts picked up. Sam skippered and maneuvered back in behind a sonar into a snug parallel parking situation. I asked Josh if we could move it though b/c I don't want to have to do that every time. It was a bit chilly and overcast,wind was 10-15 with some bigger gusts in the 20s. NWNish just sailed a couple of hours, but also spent a couple working on the boat. Had a great morning. Too damn cold though. Should have worn more layers.