Picnic on the water

Today, Saturday, I went out to the boat to put some items in order and take PICTURES. It was pouring buckets of rain and throwing thunderbolts as I ate breakfast. Luckily, by noontime things had quieted down a bit. As I write this it is raining again but I made good use of the dry afternoon.

Jenny survived the week just fine on the water.

She has made lots of new friends. She took a bit of water in the bilge but its been raining a fair amount so I am not too worried. One of these days I am going to put in an electrical system that can run a bilge pump. Until then I need to visit every week or two to keep the bilge water to a minimum.

First order of business was to eat my picnic lunch in the cockpit while relaxing in my sporta-seat.

Next was to straighten out my genoa.

I figured out during the week that I rigged the jib halyard wrong. There is a fairlead mounted to the mast about a foot below the block for the halyard. I ran the halyard up and through the fairlead and then to the block. That was exactly opposite was I was supposed to do. The halyard was supposed to run straight to the block and then down to the fairlead which creates the necessary angle for the upper swivel on the roller furler to work correctly.

I went out today with the plan of attaching a length of cord to the halyard and then pulling the halyard through leaving the length of cord running through the block. Once I started I realized that this was not going to work. Jenny has an ancient wire-to-rope jib halyard that will certainly get replaced by next spring. The block is only wide enough for the wire to pass through so neither the fitting on the end nor the rope would pass through the block. That scuttled the plans to fix the jib halyard. My only option is going to be to send someone up to disconnect the block. I have a bosun's chair. I have never used a bosun's chair. I would need a willing guinea pig or be the guinea pig. Neither option show much promise. The genoa works, it just looks funny. I might have to live with it for now. At least until I can con someone into helping me. I suppose it is about time I figure out a way to climb a mast.

So, moving on, I installed the full length battens in the mainsail and installed the mainsail on the boat.

That's a new Triton insignia on the mainsail.

Still no sign of my missing sail cover. My sailmaker can make one in a few weeks and gave me a cover that he pulled out of the trashcan. Its worn out, not hideous, and it keeps the sail covered and ready to go so that's an improvement.

I brought out some swatches of Sunbrella to decide on the color for my new (and all future) canvas.

From left to right, Basil, Aspen, Spa, Linen, Parchment. And the winner is... Spa; the middle one. I gave a lot of thought to Basil on the left. I am not a color person but the Basil seemed... stronger. I like the fact that the Spa is more subtle and let's the purple hull color dominate and just provides a nice background. The Basil is a stronger green and I felt it competed with the other colors on the boat for attention. Those were really the only two colors I was considering. I brought the others along as backups. If I wasn't happy with the my first two choices then some sort of light brown/tan that approximated the nonskid colors would certainly be acceptable. I am really happy with the Spa though.

Now curiously, inside I was planning on a dark green for the cushions; something like forest or spruce. But when I held up the Basil I really liked the lighter, brighter look it gave me as opposed to a dark green.

The Spa color on the inside is just too light and doesn't contrast as well with the white overhead.

I am liking the Basil inside. Of course, I am not going to use Sunbrella inside, its texture is too rough, but I think I might try and find something that approximates it.

While writing about colors, I really like how the hull color contrasts with the green water. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

A friend of mine was concerned about my missing burgee and sent me a new one. It is one of the last of the limited editions so I will have to be careful with this one.

Finally, I got out the 409 and cleaned down some of the white surfaces that were looking a little brownish. The V-berth overhead is looking bright and shiny now. Sorry, no photos.

And then it was time to call the launch service and say good-bye.

Salem harbor is a nice safe anchorage. The only downfall to it is that its not really dinghy accessible and you can't see the boats from the shoreline. You can't see her but she is right in the middle of the photo.

Thankfully, Jenny is well protected and has people looking after her all the time.

The plan is to actually sail Jenny tomorrow. If that happens I will post pictures for any non-believers.