October 27, 2005

Wow, that took a long time. And I don't mean the 3 months that elapsed since I got home! Anyhow, photos and logs from the cruise are up. I just reproduced the text from my written logs this year, but there are still plenty of photos. Take a look here.

I had a bear of a time getting Internet Explorer to display these pages properly, but it seems to work OK now. If you notice any display issues, please take a few moments to drop me a note describing which browser and operating system you are using, and what the problem is. Thanks!

On to the cruise logs!

September 15, 2005 | 8.4 Nautical Miles

Down to the club at 0500 and rowed out to the boat. Happily there was no fog, though it was overcast and threatening. Once aboard I brought the boat back in to the dock where I left the dinghy. Tim was also at the dock with the daysailor, and by about 0550 were underway heading to Yarmouth.

The trip was uneventful and by 0945 the mast was down and on deck. Took a quick ride over to the town landing and waited for Steve Morse, our boat hauler. Steve moved Tim first, then returned for Dasein. Soon she was on the hard next to the boat barn. Another season over.

September 11, 2005 | 12.9 Nautical Miles

Sadly, the boat is coming out of the water in just a couple of days. Heather and I are planning to put our house on the market and have an agressive schedule of project to complete first, so we are unlikely to use the boat much for the rest of this season.

But with a beautiful sunny Sunday and a 15 knot breeze forecast we invited our friends Sean and Sarah out for a fall sail. Heather, Gavin, and I arrived at the club in time to see Tim heading out in his daysailor, but we needed to wait for Sean and Sarah. The wind built to a nice solid 15 with higher gusts so we tucked in a reef and had a nice beat up to Portland. Along the way we had a brief tacking duel with Gracie, hull number 660.

From Portland we had a nice broad reach back toward Clapboard. As we came abeam of the Hussey the wind seemed to funnel in and we had a screaming beam reach across to Chebeague before gybing around and heading back in. What a great last sail!

September 3–4, 2005 | 37.5 Nautical Miles (Two days)

Nice cruise up to Snow Island. Met Tim and Heidi on Glissando there. Great fireworks just off the boat. Continued for almost 30 minutes! Forgot the camera, so no pics.

July 18, 2005

Well, its been a busy summer for me, and that has lead to disappointingly few days on the boat. Since that last June 23 update, I think I've managed just two sailing days! I've been aboard a number of other times to take care of maintenence projects in preparation for the upcoming summer cruise however, including the addition of a new foot-pump for fresh water and a beefy bronze mooring bitt in addition to a number of other smaller adjustments and upgrades.

The summer cruise plans for Glissando and Dasein are remarkably similar this year. In fact, Tim and I are both bringing our boats up to Penobscot Bay solo, and meeting our respective families in Bucks Harbor, so Tim and I decided to tandem along for the first week of our cruise. With departure looming, we both decided to get a jump on the provisioning and on Monday we headed down to the club two hours before launch service began and rowed out to the boats so that we could bring them in to the dock and load. On the way we paused to take some pictures of Dasein's screwy port-side waterline so that I can remedy the issue this winter.

After a couple of hours at the dock loading gear and scrubbing the boat down, I returned to the mooring to organize and stow all the cruise gear. As always, I was amazed at how much stuff the various lockers can hold, and they happily swallowed all the gear, leaving more room in any number of stowage locations. After another couple of hours I was finished and returned home. Departure is planned for Saturday, July 23.

June 23, 2005 | 9.4 Nautical Miles

I spent the morning working on a few projects aboard, and around noon decided to drop the mooring for a sail. The forecast was for winds shifting from northwest to southwest at 10-15 knots. As I sailed away from the mooring the wind was still very light from the northwest and I had a nice leisurely sail up towards Portland. As I passed Mackworth Island the wind quite suddenly shifted to the southwest and rapidly built to 15-20 knots. By the time I was abeam Fort Gorges, the wind was blowing strongly at probably 25 knots. When I drove the rail so deeply into the water that the entire sidedeck was submerged, I decided it was time to turn back for home!

I tacked and then eased off for an incredible screaming reach across the flats and outside Clapboard Island. I was sustaining speeds over 7 knots over ground. Once past Clapboard I gybed and ran into the anchorage by the north end of the island. Wonderful.

Click here to view a short video clip from the sail. (Divx avi format, approx 2.2 megabytes)

June 19, 2005 | 13.5 Nautical Miles

We had a nice lunch aboard with Gavin and Heather's mother before they went ashore for a nap. Heather and I dropped the mooring and headed out. We had a nice sail out towards Chebeague, passing many boats lingering from the Pilot race. The wind was fresh at 15knots or more. We reached across past Clapboard then ha a screaming reach in toward shore. We gybed and ran in to the anchorage, but we saw Glissando leaving the mooring, so we chased them down in hopes that they might snap a picture of us (which they did!). The wind seemed to be easing somewhat and we had a nice course around Basket Island before returning to the mooring where we relaxed for a bit before joining Tim and Heidi aboard Glissando for cocktails.

June 8, 2005 | 4.8 Nautical Miles

I brought some more fuel aboard, bringing the total in the tank to about 10 gallons. I then spent quite some time trying to get the engine running. I had to bleed the injectors 5 or 6 times before I was finally able to get it running. I let it idle for a while to be sure that all residual air was out of the lines.

Around 1300 I decided to head out for a sail. The wind was a little on the strong side, so I tucked in a reef and headed out. I left the anchorage on the north end of Clapboard and had a spirited reach across to Chebeague. Even with the reefed main and a partially rolled jib I was making 6.5 knots and put the rail in the water a couple of times. When I made it out to Chebeague I decided to pack it in and turned around for a nice reach back to Falmouth.

June 6, 2005

Flushed the fuel tank, shortened the fuel pick-up by a couple of inches. Added 5 gallons of fuel from a jug.

June 5, 2005

Went aboard for some maintenance projects, including an investigation of the mysterious stalling engine. Solution found: no fuel. D'oh!