The weather was forecast to give us light winds and rain on Friday, better wind and sun on Saturday, and then light wind and partly sunny on Sunday. That’s pretty much the way it worked out.
We started on Friday afternoon by hoisting the working sails, practicing tacks and jibes, and giving new and returning crew a feel for the boat. Everyone performed well and was in good spirits in spite of the rain, which varied from light sprinkles to a steady downpour according to its whim.
We also set the spinnaker on Friday afternoon to allow us to iron out the wrinkles in our sail handling before the winds picked up on Saturday. While the rain didn’t make life too difficult, or even uncomfortable, it did get the spinnaker soaking wet, which would prove to be troublesome on Saturday.
Returning to Shilshole Friday night to dry out, Kay whipped up a tasty feast for dinner and we met with Mary Lou and Knute for an after-dinner social hour. Mary Lou and Knute own an Island Packet moored at Shilshole. They filled our heads with salty sea stories and our glasses with wine. Lovely!
Cody joined us Saturday morning, Mary Lou and Knute saw us off, and we headed out again, this time into the sunshine and a frisky breeze. This time the spinnaker wasn’t as cooperative - it got twisted and wouldn’t slide free as it usually does because of the friction from being damp from the day before. As we drifted toward a small boat regatta outside the marina, the only thing for it was to fire up the engine, turn into the wind, and lower the soggy, tangled mess onto the deck where it could be dried and sorted out.
It should also be noted that part of the problem was our jibe technique. Thankfully that is exactly what we were there to work out. When we don’t use a spinnaker pole it is a fairly simple matter to release the spinnaker sheet and pull the sail around the front of the boat to jibe. With a pole and a wet sail to manage, it gets more interesting.
What worked well was to furl the sail, turn the boat while transferring the pole, and unfurl the sail again. It worked every time and should be much easier to manage in stiffer wind and waves. Bravo! We experimented with different pole heights and lengths, and with using the lazy sheet to serve as a foreguy to keep the pole off the shrouds. It was a productive afternoon of work and we were feeling pretty good about it by the time we started toward the Coho Ho-ho raft-up.
The raft-up was a lot of fun. I think there were seven boats in all tied up with several anchors out. It was very social with lots of great food shared by all. Kay provided a big pot of salmon chowder from our boat. There was enough food to feed an army.
On Sunday we spent some time working with our storm sails to get the running rigging worked out. The sails have never been used before. The storm jib hanks onto a removable solent stay which stores at the base of the mast when not in use, then is tensioned to a pad-eye on the foredeck aft of the forestay when in use.
The storm trisail slots into a groove in the mast. Because it doesn’t use the boom, it also serves as a spare mainsail in case the mainsail or the boom is damaged.
Then finally, we just sailed, relaxing and enjoying light winds and sunshine before heading back through the locks and returning home.
Thus ended our first shakedown. The second will take place in the first week of June.
Good recap of the weekend. Your squeeze into the small locks next to the yachts is noteworthy. Fenders were smooshed all around, but not a scratch to be found.
ReplyDeleteSalmon chowder sounds yummy!
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