Shake-down cruise continued

To be honest, I am rather tired, but I also realize that if I don’t write down what happened in the last day, I will get lazy and ultimately stop writing down this pseudo diary. So I have to pull myself together.

After all I was totally energetic when I woke up! I heard Sasha and thought that I overslept. It was light out, so I got up, brushed my teeth, got dressed and looked at the phone clock to discover that it was 6:17. Oh, I guess I did not oversleep. Shortly after I started reading a book, Sasha came out of his cabin and we started with coffee, breakfast and all that while being engulfed in the fog.

Maine fog is a living thing. It comes, it goes. It lets the sun shine on you, but then swallows it. It can be windy, it can be still. But it is quite magical.

Malaga Island

But let me jump back to yesterday. The point of the shake-down cruise was to ensure that things work. We already established some electrical problems, but luckily mechanical problems did not follow. The dinghy (named “Ginger Snap” by Irina) unfolded as quickly and easily as usual. She didn’t take on any water. The Torqueedo electric engine (7 years old!) pushed us towards the island and we landed about an hour before the low tide. I’ve gotten used to playing things by the ear. At the marina I saw that the high tide on Saturday morning was at about 7am, so at 11am it’s gotta be close to the low tide. We played it safe (just in case we get lost) and tied the dinghy line around a rock.

There is no getting lost on the island. It has a trail along the perimeter with one branch going to the southernmost tip. It’s pretty. It’s Maine.

At one point we heard a bird scream. We knew it wasn’t a gull, but we could not have expected it to be an eagle! The bird was perched on a tree (we were guessing the “he”) and another bird was responding to the screeches (presumably the female on the nest). Majestic and wild!

When we got into the dinghy and started to motor back, the engine hit a rock. Oops. I’ve done it before in Nova Scotia, I know the consequences: we probably have to change the pin that’s holding the propeller. The behavior of the engine was rather familiar: so long as I moderated the rotation speed, we moved forward just fine. If I revved up the engine, strange sounds emanated. Luckily, in the survey of the “stuff” aboard I located 2 pins, so we will be fine.

The “surf”

The 3 lobsters that we got could not fit into our pot, so we decided to cook 2 lobsters first and then split the 3rd one. While the water was boiling, the shake-down-cruisers started to take apart the prop of the dinghy engine. Sure enough, the pin was shattered and needed to be replaced. Sasha started to hammer out the piece that was stuck in the shaft, but the damn thing was rather stuck. The decision was easy: spray some penetrating oil and eat. That is exactly how one sails with Captain Andre: you work, you get to eat!

Ultimately the pin succumbed to our efforts and it was time to charge the engine battery. But… it wouldn’t charge. Well, we were totally set on sailing, so the small problem of not being able to charge the battery that we wouldn’t use on the cruise was not going to hold us back.

A boisterous sail

The wind was coming from the south and our plan was to come out of the cove, sail some 5 miles south, a few miles to the west and then go north. The most annoying part of heading straight into the wind we did under the motor. We told one another, that yeah, if we had to, we could tack back and forth and make it out, but we’re not racing, so let’s make things enjoyable. Even after we pulled out of the narrow estuary with rocks on both sides, we still had a few miles to push against the wind. And the wind was strong: 15 knots gusting to 20. Not quite at the level of character-building weather, but no lake sailing either. We did a daring feat, trusting that the chart was up to date: we went between two rocks separated by some 50 yards. We didn’t hit anything and kept going. We were practically alone in the seas that kept building. And it wasn’t warm.

Once we cleared the rocky islands we could point the bow west with the wind on our beam pushing us at 7-8 knots. I said “this is no kids sailing weather”. To which Sasha said “what do you mean? When I was 11 or 12, this was totally my sailing weather!”

We tucked into Harpswell harbour and then it began to drizzle. Fine, the apero will take place inside the boat. We chatted about bio-tech (Sasha’s professional life) and hi-tech. We talked about our childhoods on the rivers (mine) and lakes (his). We grilled a steak while it continued to rain — perhaps that added a certain “je ne sais pas quoi” to the taste and went to bed late, around 11.

Refreshing morning

When we woke up engulfed in the fog, we were sure that the sun will burn it off quickly. After all, the sun was there for us to see. But despite the best efforts of the sun and the wind to blow the fog away, it was clear in the harbour, but the fog kept moving along the water. At some point the wind stopped and I proposed that we go swimming. Sasha hesitated, but ultimately agreed that this was the time to do it: no wind and the sun shining through the thin clouds. We agreed not to turn on the instruments to check the water temperature and dived in. The water “burned” the skin on the chest and the forearms.

It was totally worth it!

As soon as we changed into the T-shirts of the season, the wind picked up and we had to put on more layers. Good timing!

We repeated the same trick we did the day before: we motored against the wind. The major difference was that this time we did it in the fog. The radar didn’t show any traffic and once we turned into the bay where the water was a bit warmer, the fog was gone and we enjoyed sailing while the wind was varying from 20 knots down to practically zero and back.

By the time we got back to the Maine Yacht Center, both of us were tired and it was hot. Well, “hot” is a relative thing after swimming in 13.8C water.

Shakedown cruise

This was supposed to be published on June 29, but ultimately wasn’t… 5G was not living up to its expectations…

Where is the shelter?

The guys at the office told us that they will bring us the dodger and the bimini, which all sounded nice so that we didn’t have to run back and forth. We swapped the new foresail for the old one, prepared more trash to be taken out and since our sun & rain shelter were still not onboard we set out to the office to pick them up ourselves. At the end of the pier we see two guys who happily inform us that they are brining the dodger. Wait a minute, our dodger is not black! And where is the bimini?

The guys started to go back to the orders that they did on my behalf and finally found the dodger neatly rolled into a huge carton tube. The replaced windows look great, but once we installed it, we discovered a scratch on one of them. Ugh. At least we have wind cover in the cockpit! The bimini is nowhere to be found, but by then we were ready to go and the first sail has to go without the cover from the sun and potential rain tomorrow.

Back in the element

The southwesterly wind was in our face as we motored out of the harbour, so we didn’t raise the mainsail for a while in order not to waste time tacking back and forth. After all it was already 5 and we wanted to spend the night at anchor some 17 miles away. Once we pointed the bow east, the wind was on our side and Salty Ginger accelerated to 7-7.5 knots. What a treat from king Neptune!

In the past couple of weeks I was a bit anxious: I haven’t been on the water in 2 years, maybe I forgot how to sail and how Salty Ginger works. My doubts went away pretty quickly once we set the sail and once the we changed our course to be more easterly, I brought up the spinnaker while Sasha was doing the traditional Maine slalom around the lobster traps. The slalom with the spinnaker set was a bit harder to do especially since the wind calmed down a bit and was almost dead behind us. The waves would tilt the boat and the spinnaker would lose its shape only to flap back into a fully inflated state.

At some point we even flew the sails wing-on-wing. That setup is tricky with any set of sails and with the waves rolling the boat it was not something we could do for a long time. We jibed the spinnaker, but then ended up dowsing it and motored the last 3 miles to drop anchor north of the Malaga island preserve, one of islands cared for by MITA (Maine Island Trail association). A few seals looked at us from a speck of rocks, but otherwise we were completely on our own in the cove.

More electrical issues

Once it got dark I turned on the anchor light and to my genuine surprise, it turned on the light that flooded the deck. Maybe the lights got swapped? Not quite: between the anchor light (at the top of the mast), the steaming light (mid-mast) and deck light (1/3 up the mast), two switches turn on the deck light and one doesn’t work. Oops. Unfortunately the 9V battery in the voltmeter died, so that’s something that will need to be worked out in the Maine Yacht Center. After all they are the ones who didn’t connect them right after reinstalling the mast.

After dinner Sasha was surprised to find out that the light in his cabin that worked fine the night didn’t turn on. Luckily the small side light worked fine.

Today’s plan

During the breakfast in the cockpit we saw a lobster fisherman working in the cove. It's not that we don't have food for lunch, but lobster sounded much more enticing than salami sandwiches. The guy was happy to sell us 3 crustaceans for twenty bucks (we wanted 2, but he didn't have change), so we will have surf for lunch, turf for dinner.

We'll test the dinghy and walk a bit before sailing and tucking onto a different cove closer to Portland in case we have a very wet and stormy morning tomorrow.

2024 Season Start

 Yesterday Sasha and I made it to Maine Yacht Center to find Salty Ginger on the water at the end of the dock. I spotted the boat while we were on the bridge some 200 meters away from the pier: the shape, the mast and the red main sheet were unmistakable Salty Ginger.

Inside was quite a mess: the things were stowed 2 years ago and since then the workers were inside doing work on the engine, the desalinator, etc, etc. I find it quite overwhelming being faced with a lot of tasks that need to be done, especially when it’s practically impossible to find place for gear and personal things that need to be moved from one place to the right place.

I got a new mainsail and a new genoa, so we decided to use lulls in the wind to make sure that the new sails fit. Alas, the genoa luff (the forward part of the sail) is some 10 cm too long. Ugh. Even being conservative in the measurements provided to the sailmaker the size was off in the wrong direction. Fixing it up will be an exercise next week when Sasha needs to be at work. The main on the other hand fit perfectly.

We checked that we have running water and that the electronics work. For the first time in 8 years the wind speed works! We can now report the “scary” conditions with precision! Then we started stuffing all the things that were in the way into the starboard cabin and started going through all the lockers to do an inventory of all the stuff that we have onboard. We also used this al an opportunity to get rid of some of the old stuff that hasn’t been used in years and is therefore unlikely to be used any time soon.

Some time after 7pm we were tired and hungry, so we headed over to a Thai place for dinner followed by a run to a Shaw’s supermarket to get food for the next few days. By 11 all the food was in the fridge, the surfaces wiped from dust, heads cleaned and the floor washed — perfect time for a beer in the cockpit. It was a bit windy and cold, so we didn’t stay for too long.

Getting ready

I am still a bit jet lagged, so when I was woken up by the sun at 6am, I was ready to go. Sasha got up shortly thereafter and we discussed our plan for getting everything in order so that we can sail in the afternoon.

During the clean up that followed we identified more things to throw away, found all the sewing supplies and made a short list of things to buy. In the marine store we tried to focus on getting only the necessary things. For sailors there are always so many temptations that ultimately have much less utility than one expects. We are now “legal” from the safety perspective, and that’s the most important thing. All the other toys, bells and whistles can stay in the store.

Electrical issues

Last night we noticed that only half of the cabin lights work. In the morning we discovered the reason: the other half of the lights have 2 switches and one of them is disconnected. We couldn’t find the connections, but the marina guys found them in 5 seconds flat. Ok, good, we have light everywhere!

Then this morning I noticed that the solar batteries were not producing any current. Hmm, I thought, the guys did some work on the electrical system, they may have messed things up just like with the light switches. However, when the technician came to troubleshoot the issue we quickly saw that the breaker was off. Silly me! But indeed, it is quite easy to forget little issues like this if one uses the boat every 2 years.

The other important thing that happened this year: the technicians serviced the water maker, so now so long as we have power (diesel, solar, wind, hydro) we will have fresh water! That’ll be a very nice thing to have on the journey. I only need to document all the steps that the tech showed me to make sure I don’t forget flipping switches in the right order.

Now that we have the solar and the wind power going, all the necessary systems are running, and we can think about going sailing. Oh, there is this sail issue: we’ll have to swap the foresail for the old one before we can leave the marina. Which means the time is perfect for lunch so that we don’t have to cook underway!