The Big Day

Rejoice everyone for today has been a day of much progress! Today was the day that

Cassandra (technically still either Ken-Do or Coral Vette until I hold a denaming ceremony) came home.
The day began at 05:30. After a quick breakfast and picking up my cohort for the epicness that was today we were off, Dad leading the way in his Bonneville, Bonnie, and my friend Brian and I followed with the pickup, Clyde, towing my newly modified trailer.
The ride down was pleasant and uneventful. I plugged Clyde's radio back in so we could have tuneage for the trip. We arrived the house where Cassandra was being stored 15 minutes before the move was supposed to happen, but the truck was already there and working to maneuver itself into position. There is very little as impressive as watching two men effortlessly pluck a 4000lb boat from the field where it has been sitting for almost a year. The only thing more impressive was that they were able to do so with less than 2 feet of clearance on one side and not hit anything. You really have to have been there to get the full effect of it.
So, once the boat was out of the field and on it's way we took Bonnie and Clyde up to the Village Shores Marina in Hammondsport. Now, say what you want about Hammondsport, but I cannot over-emphasize how friendly and generous the people at Village shores were.
The two gentlemen who run the place were quite friendly, and patient as we adjusted the trailer for the boat. Although it took a few attempts to get everything where it needed to be, we soon had Cassandra situated. However, the hitch on the truck was too low to the ground once the boat was on the trailer. So, the marina owner called around until he found a suitable hitch extension, which he loaned to us to get the trailer home. He also was kind enough to loan a strap to hold the boat onto the trailer, since the one I brought was not long enough to reach.
I have to go back down to the marina later this week to dismantle the cradle for transport and to return the hitch and strap to the marina.
Leaving the marina was probably the most interesting part of the whole trip. You see, the marina is located at the bottom of a rather steep driveway that is only a couple feet wider than my trailer is. To get out I had to back the trailer part way down the launching ramp so I had enough room to turn around. Then I had to mucle my way back up the driveway onto the main road. I was a little nervous at times, but Clyde managed it in low gear. For the drive back I stayed under 50 mph the whole way and downshifted while I was stopping. Clyde handled it like a champ.
Once the boat was backed into the driveway Brian and I began pumping out the bilge to remove the rainwater from the big thunderstorms that had rolled through a few days prior. We managed to beat another wave of rain that chased us all the way back to B'ville. Then it was time to start scrubbing the muck of ages off Cassandra's once white hull and deck. That work will most likely continue for a day or two and involve much bleach and water. Then the real work will begin.

New pictures will be on Flickr in the next day or so. I forgot to bring my camera along for the road trip, but Dad took some photos with his phone, and snapped a couple shots of us cleaning the deck, so look for those soon.

Huzzah, It's a boat!!!

The Trailer

After many months of unforeseen delays and setbacks my trailer is finally finished. The current plan is to meet the truck from Village Shores Marina at the boat. They'll put the boat on their trailer and take it to the marina where they can forklift it onto my trailer. If everything works out I should be able to just drop the trailer on and drive off. More likely it will take a few trials to make everything fit properly.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but I've got Jackson up and running about as well as I can. He'll need some fine tuning once Cassandra is in the water. Here's hoping.


(Jackson is my donated outboard for those of you who haven't been following the story.)

A day at the Beach

Well, avid readers, my trailer is still at the shop. The parts were fabricated, but not yet back from the galvanizers in Utica yet. So the move get's postponed again. I do not yet have an idea of when I will actually get this boat home. I'm back to wondering if I should just motor it up the canal and pull it out on a trailer when I get it home. But that is not the point of today's post. Oh no, today's post is much more exciting and interesting.
This past Friday (the 19th) my siblings and I, and one friend, all took a day trip up to Lake Ontario. We started off they day with an 0900 departure. The weather was cool, but scheduled to warm up, and a light to moderate drizzle of rain was falling intermittently. Our first stop of the day was a trip to Oswego Harbor to view the Nina and the Pinta replica ships that were docked there for the latter part of the week.
The Nina and Pinta are accurate reproductions of two of the ships Columbus took on his voyage to the New World. The ships themselves were OK. Not much to see. I'm still upset we weren't allowed below; that's where all the cool stuff is anyways. Still they were just wooden planked ships, two decks (three if your count the raised quarterdeck)pretty open and surprisingly small. I find it very hard to believe that someone thought it smart to go to sea in such vessels. Then again, I am contemplating sailing Cassandra to God only knows where and she's a third the size of these ships. Needless to say, my sister and her friend were less than thrilled about the whole thing.
Our second stop, where we planned to spend the rest of the day, was Southwick Beach State Park. Located on the sandy Eastern shore of Lake Ontario Southwick Beach is usually a busy place for families and individuals to enjoy the lake. Such was not the case when we arrived. The wind was blowing somewhere around 6 knots and the water looked a little ominous. The beach was still wet from the rain storms we'd had that morning and the wasn't another vehicle or person to be seen. It was a little spooky walking down a deserted beach. It felt like, well, like we were doing something wrong just being there. I managed to get over that feeling though, and by the end of the day there were about four other cars in the parking lot.
Now, it has been a dream of my to get my PD Racer Adra out onto some real water. I was sort of expecting to do Oneida lake first, but the chance presented itself so I threw Adra into the truck and took her along for the day. Pulling a 110 pound boat across a sandy beach by myself was tiring, to say the least. I managed to sail around for 15 minutes or so before my GPS died, but I didn't feel like trying to fight back out across the sand bar and surf that characterizes the east coast of Lake Ontario, so I kept going. The wind was from the Northwest so I tacked my way up the shoreline to a spot where we rented a summer cottage when I was younger. I would have gone longer, but some darker clouds were skirting the shore in the east and I decided it was better to play things safe and head in until they either did something, or cleared up. I got back just in time to help cook lunch, hot dogs. After lunch the weather had cleared significantly and after popping some new AA's into my GPS I headed back out. I logged over 5 miles in three hours that day and I don't think I could have been happier, unless maybe I could have just kept going instead of turning around and heading back to the beach at the end of the day.
Adra took the larger waves pretty well. The only sign of any fatigue was at the mast step where some excessive wear was becoming a problem. I'll add a mast wedge at the partner to see what that does for it.
All in all, it was a good day. I was getting a bit tired by the end and had a hard time keeping my eyes open, partly because of the sun and partly because I had gotten up at 0800 that morning. Dragging the boat back up the beach was even worse since the sand had dried out since that morning. The "up" part of the equation didn't help much either. I slept well that night and am still a little sore from dragging the boat through the sand. Now if I can just get Cassandra home I can work on that "and just keep going" part. :D

Another Delay

The move got pushed off another week. The shop refitting my trailer had a machine break which kept them from working on the parts for my trailer. The pieces were finished Thursday, but still had to be galvanized. They should be done Tuesday or Wednesday this week. ::fingers crossed:: I should still have the boat for my sister's party. Which will be nice. My Grandfather will get to see it that way. He's the one who donated a 2 stroke outboard to the cause. I guess that's all the news for now. From now on I should have posts with progress pictures. That should pique some interest.

Adra out of service.

This doesn't pertain directly to the big Great Lakes trip, but it provided valuable heavy weather experience and makes for a good story.
I woke up this morning to a lovely gusty wind. Whole trees were moving. I looked up a live weather report that said 20mph winds today and thought. Boy, now I can really see what ADRA (PDR #172) and my 40sqft lug rig can do.
I had been sailing on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, NY the previous 2 days and the boat was all ready to go in the truck. The day before my brother and I hit 5mph in a puff, so that was the top speed to beat.
It was a nice day and my friend, who enjoys a good sail, had off of work and I offered him a ride. Then we got out on the lake. Now THAT was a ride. The minute the wind hit the sail as we left the protection of the channel we were doing 4mph. Then it gusted and the GPS hit 5.3 The Bow started to dip dramatically and we both edged back to keep the boat sailing dry and level. This went on for about oh, five minutes. The whole time the sail was just aching to rip the sheet out of my hand (no traveler or anything.) After somewhere around five minutes a large gust came up, slammed the sail forward and drove the bow under. A quart or so of water washed into the cockpit before my friend could jump in back to level us out again. The boat suddenly became unmanageable and I had to let the sheet go. The sail swung into the wind and we both stared in amazement at the 15degree bend at the mast partner. My 1-1/4" EMT mast had wilted during the gust and (thankfully) depowered the sail some. After significant struggling we were able to come about and beam reach back to shore,
the sail constantly bouncing between luffing and being overpowered. We wound up beached on shore about 1/3 of a mile down the lake from where we started tired and laughing our fool heads off. We both knew we had gotten off easy with a bent mast. The thing that really got us laughing though, was the GPS reading a top speed of 6.3mph. And the boat hadn't even gotten on plane. So, morals of the story
-Know your limitations (Or try to find a less dangerous way of learning them)
-EMT is fine for a mast in lighter winds, but won't hold up in a HEAVY gust.
-Always build your sail and spars so you can trim the sail flatter.
-No matter how small you think your sail is, if you're going to be out in strong winds you should have a reef point.
-Learn from your stupid mistakes, or else you might not get to make them again. I will say that I don't think we were in any real danger. If Adra had gone over it would only have been an uncomfortable swim and a bit of work to get her back upright. The waves weren't too bad, and there was a watercross tournament going on in part of the lake so someone might have come out to assist, although that part I'm not so sure about. Still, I won't be doing that again. At least not until I re-design my rig. :P

In other news, my boat trailer is being modified this week and the the big boat move is scheduled for June 13th. So, anyone coming for my sister's graduation party will get to meet Cassandra. I'm getting pretty excited about it.