Century Club: Tim Ford

I was going to sail on one of the Flying Scotts, but was experimenting with getting my Main up on the i550...it has been a struggle, but I figured it out.  Simple adjustment of the initial feed.  So once up, I figured, well it's really light and sailing out to watch the Scotts and take a few pix for the website might be a better use of time.  Of course, something had to foul up and it was my complete failure to find my tiller extension which is a vital piece of gear on the i550 because there are times you'd better be hiking hard to weather.  Last night wasn't one of them, I think the most we saw was maybe 6 kn.  But in any case, decided to jury rig an extension by taping a paddle to the tiller. Worked!  Awkward as heck, but functional and in a way, sort of served to act as kind of an autohelm.

In case, pleasant enough sail, despite having to assist with a paddle (repurposed from the tiller) for the last 500 yards into the dock. 

It was honkin' when we first started getting the boat ready, but by race time it had laid down quite a bit.  I think it was 6-10 gusting 16 by the time we started - a pursuit race that got us off the line at 1824.20 hrs.  It was fun racing past the slower boats and by the last mark, I think we were in 3rd or 2nd..maybe first, but UV rounded and hooked into some breeze over on the south side and blasted by us to starboard...we hung on to 2nd despite some less-than-perfect transition work...let's just say we had shrimp for dinner. 

But these late summer evenings are gorgeous, in spite of the sunset arriving at 7:37 pm last night.  Sheesh.

I need to fabricate a new batten for my flat-top main, but like a real dummy I forgot to measure the batten pocket so I needed a quick trip to the boat equiped with tape measure. Once there and done, I figured, "what the hell, I may as well do a quick paddle."

It was nice to actually JUST paddle, no fishing rod, no VHF, no nothin, just some drinking water as it was hot.  But the birds were out for sure.  Lots of juvenile osprey, a cute little cattle egret that let me get super close, the obligatory Great Blue and way back in the creek, a Ball Diggle.  Enormous wingspan.

Nice day and happy to get to paddle for an hour or two,

Got a chance to take a Friday afternoon sail out of Jones Creek with two blokes I've sailed with since the late 80's.  We practiced a spontaneous Hat Overboard drill, along with a simultaneous Shoe Overboard drill.  We got the shoe, which had surprising buoyancy but struck out on the hat. 

It's always nice to reconnect with old friends, but to be able to that on a great little Carl Alberg boat on a gorgeous weekday afternoon with decent and sometimes gusty westerly was just plain great.  Thanks Garry and Roger!