Adrift at Sea —Dan’s blog on dankim.com

Friday

I drove up from Annapolis on Friday. I trailered the Pretty Gee up to Fairhaven. Here’s a photo of the Pretty Gee on her trailer with my truck at a rest area in New Jersey.

The drive up went smoothly, after redistributing the weight in the boat. Initially, the trailer tongue weight was a bit light, and it was causing the trailer to act skittish. The trailer still needs to be adjusted a bit more, as it still is a bit skittish when going downhill. I was really surprised to get about 11 miles per gallon towing the boat.

Once I got on I-195, in Providence, I called my friend, Dave, and had him meet me over at the marina. I had him help me get the trailer parked in the marina. Dave’s a lot better at backing a large trailer than I am.

Saturday

I went back to the house, and took a quick shower, picked up some gear, and headed back to the marina. I was too excited to sleep, and Dave was supposed to meet me at 7:00 to help me get her in the water. As dawn was breaking, I was taking the tiedowns off the mast and rigging, in preparation for raising the mast later in the day. I also took off the four tiedowns that held the boat to the trailer for the drive up. This photo is of the Pretty Gee and my truck, parked at the marina, early on Saturday morning.

When Dave showed up, we went down to the store to get some cleaning supplies and two gas cans. We also got some gas. We were going to need it for when we put the Pretty Gee in the water.

Saturday morning, we put the Pretty Gee into the water, using the marina’s boat ramp. The marina is storing the trailer for me, as I don’t have anywhere to put the nearly 36’ trailer. The outboard was running roughly, and with the strong winds, we had to put the boat into a different slip.

We also helped launch the Emma Kay, a steel schooner that was stored at the marina over the winter. The Emma Kay is almost 50’ overall, and about 14 tons. According to her owner, she doesn’t back well, and in order to get her safely out of the marina boat ramp area, she needed to be turned around. She has a full keel and skeg-mounted rudder, and a lot of freeboard, which put her at the mercy of the wind yesterday.

About eight of us, including the marina owner, Arion, used some very long docklines to back the Emma Kay into a slip, and then pull her around. Once she was turned around, she was able to motor off to her home mooring a bit further down river. You can see her from Pope’s Island. It is a good thing that she left when she did. As the tide went out, even the Pretty Gee was grounded, and the Emma Kay draws about six feet.

Dave and I then got the mast up. This is pretty simple to do on a Telstar, with the mast raising system. After putting up the mast, we rigged the boat, and put the genoa up. The genoa is on a Furlex roller furling unit. Then we went over to Dave’s for dinner. Here is a photo of her in the water, on Saturday afternoon, with the mast up and the genoa rigged.

Sunday

Sunday morning, I got to the marina about 6:45. Dave said he and his in-laws might be coming over at 8:00. Before he showed up, I was able to get the main sail rigged. I also setup the jackstays and the two reefing lines. He showed up around 7:30, no in-laws in tow.

We took the boat out and anchored a short distance away from the marina. Getting the amas open took a bit more effort than usual, as they had been tightened up for the drive up to Fairhaven. The outboard seemed to be running better, and wasn’t stalling out like it was on Friday. I think it may have had some bad fuel, but we’ll see. It still seems to run a bit rough. The only problem was the knotmeter. It doesn’t appear to be working, but it may be jammed with crud from when the tide went out the day before. I’ll have to take it out and take a look.

The Danforth-style anchor actually holds fairly well in the muddy bottom of the Acushnet river. We then raised the main, and put in the battens. I couldn’t put the battens in the day when I was rigging the main, as I’m really not tall enough to do it myself, and I wanted to get the main rigged as quickly as possible. We put the sailcover over the main, and headed back in. Bringing up the anchor, brought up some really nasty mud, but the it did a nice job.

I still have to install the bow roller and the heavier anchor. The Danforth will make a really nice kedge. I don’t think it will hold as well as the larger Rocna I’m planning to use as my main anchor.

The wind was causing a lot of problems when we came back to the dock. A combination of a new boat with a fair amount of windage, and strong winds, 15-20 knots or so. After some wrangling with docklines, we finally got her into her regular slip

Once we were in the slip, I connected the shore power. I had a gallon of spring water and some other soft drinks in the refrigerator, and wanted to get them chilled. Having the refrigerator is a nice option, and it holds quite a bit more than I expected.

Dehydration and too much sun are far to easy to run into this early in the season, when the cooler temperatures can be deceptive. I got quite a bit of color, and was pretty dehydrated when I finally rolled into bed Saturday. On my way to the marina, I stocked up on water and Gatorade. I also wore my hat and put on the sunscreen. Putting up the dodger and bimini should help as well.
Next on the list was getting the dodger and bimini up. The dodger goes one fairly easily if you remember to get the zippers on the frame started, but leave them most of the way open until the snaps are all done. The dodger is designed so you can unzip and roll up the center panel in nice weather. The bimini needed to have all the set screws tightened. Zipping the bimini to the frame is relative simple, as are attaching the straps that tension the frame.

Dave left for the day, to go spend some time with his in-laws. I put the winch and tiller covers on the boat and headed into the cabin. I checked out most of the electronics and electrical system. I then plugged in the battery charger, which runs off the shorepower AC. Having the shorepower option is quite convenient. I also plugged in my old laptop, which I use to update the GPS chartplotter. I wanted to transfer the waypoints and routes that I had stored on the laptop to the GPS on the boat.

I hope to take her out for a sail on Wednesday or Thursday, after the upcoming storm system passes through. Still so much to do. But the Pretty Gee is finally home, and we’ll be going out soon enough. The photo above is how she looked, just before I left the marina on Sunday.