Me & my Dad

(3/31/10) My Dad came over to the USA from France to help me work on the house, and of course to see Silver Fox - I had to get the sailing addiction from somewhere! He arrived Monday evening and on Wednesday we got out for a little sail.

There was a decent breeze all day, so much so I called for the #2 to be teed up, but once out of the cut the wind died off and we changed to the #1. We sailed out towards the 1st bridge, but as the wind veered around and eased we didn't lay the opening.

We tacked and sailed back, most all the sail was at 2 or 3 knots. But it was fun to spend time with my Dad on a sailboat.

Busy Quickie!

(3/27/10) Wanted to run the engine as it had been a while, but when I got to the boat I saw it was ready for sailing with the main on, the halyards led, etc. I started the engine at the dock, and did a few tasks on the boat, but it was too tempting! So with a nice breeze out of the East - easy for a reach in and out of the cut, I Teed up the #3.

Motored out the Landing channel, and then pulled up the jib, and motor sailed out the cut. It was nice, but the sun was shining and it would be a shame not to hoist the main and kill the engine - right?

The waves were breaking over the breakwater beside the hovercraft base, which made me doublethink the option, but I could stay in the cut if I needed to, and reach back & forth. Plus the Spring tide was very high, which accounted for some of the waves breaking over the rip-rap.

Put up the full main - as it would be tricky to reef singlehanded. Was a tad over powered, but still very manageable. Singlehanding is very busy! Especially with the bungee AP, which I do not trust 100% to stay on. That AP is a huge help, and otherwise going out alone would be virtually impossible.

Sailed out to R2, tacked around it and sailed back. The boat was nicely powered up, and really moving through the choppy water smoothly and powerfully. It was pretty neat, but I wished Brigite was able to be there - but we have been really busy and it was hard enough for one of us to get away just to get the boat out.

Sailed back up the cut to flat water and less breeze where I started the motor and dropped the sails. Got most of the boat put away on the way up the channel. A good tail wind and still flooding tide, meant it was going to be hard to slow the boat in the slip. So much so, that I left it in reverse at idle speed as I got the lines on.

A short but fun (and busy) outing!

Spring Sail - March 20th 2010

Gorgeous day for a sail here in Ocean View on the 1st day of spring - over 75 degrees, and a light SW breeze shifted to a sea breeze (NE) and sustained late in the afternoon; thankfully as we were very busy and didn't get to leave home until after 3pm.

Yesterday evening I got the boat ready for sailing, pulled down halyards, put on main, etc. So today we were able to make a quick getaway.

Wind was coming straight down the landing boat channel and we got the sails up quickly and reached out the cut.

Lovely breeze outside; probably around 7kn, and we were nicely powered up with the #1 and full main. Sailed along on a close reach, past channel markers and out around the noisy yellow middle bay marker. Speed was around 5.7 going out.

Wind started a slight increase as we got closer to the middle bay marker, and after we tacked we were definitely fully powered up.

The 10 kn breeze went right as we got close to the shore, and the current seemed to be under us coming down the bay, as we were well over 6kn most all the way back.

It felt great to be out sailing and out "to sea". The seas were nice and flat and Silver Fox was in her element. She does not like waves much as she is small and bob's around in waves, which is not fast and she does not track well in those conditions. I guess we were out for a couple of hours, but as usual it didn't feel like enough!

The breeze was coming down the cut and we doused the genoa and motorsailed to the area of the marinas. The starter took a lot of attempts before it started, with the clunk on all failed attempts. But, other than that electrical issue - the engine is being 100% reliable.

Hope the sailing season is now open!!

Saturday Feb 20th 2010.

Another sunny day, and light breeze made today another sailable day. Brigite was aprehensive after yesterday's cold, but I was able to convince her that today would feel much warmer, and it did.

On the way out we saw a blimp and 3 small "warships" rafted up on an anchor, and on the way back we saw that the ships were Canadian navy vessels!!

The boat was not winterized yesterday, so the main was still on and it was a quick departure routine. We were on the water around 1430, with a light NNW breeze powering us along with our No 1 and full main.

After about an hour out the wind abruptly turned right about 45 degrees, and lightened up even more. We were enjoying the relaxing sailing and ended up over by the Bridge Tunnel. We tacked and headed back but were only doing 2 or 3 knots.

Then a new breeze came in from the NE and went to E around 6 knots, and that brought us home nicely, just before sunset.

On Sunday I topped off the fuel tank -she took about 2.5 gallons, plus I put the boat back into winter mode, as we are going to MEXORC at the end of the week, and won't be back until early March.

Ralph Out.

Sailing again! Friday 2-19-2010.

The recent cold (and snowy) weekends are finally behind us. I think we had 3 Saturdays in a row where we had snow on the ground! But this past weekend we had nice sunny skies and temperatures in the low 50's - but much cooler on the water.

We went out on Friday in the late afternoon, and there was a fresh breeze blowing out of the NW at around 10 - 15 knots. The boat was 'winterized', and needed to be put together before our adventure.

We went out with the No 2 and full main. We reached out past the first opening, and then as the cold was starting to take grip on us we headed back and got in just before sunset (which was at 1745), and before Brigite completely froze!

It was great to get back out on the water and have a good sail with the boat powered up. Silver Fox was zipping along at 5 - 6 knots in both directions. There was quite a good ebb flowing that was bolstered by the wind driven current.

As a reference; the trip to the first gap and back is about an hour each way, and 8 nm.

The engine is running great, and I am delighted to report is completely reliable.

One administrative note; did go for a motor once for an hour under load, last week.

More Cold...

Another cold weekend in Norfolk, we got a lot of rain & wind Fri and Sat (Feb 6th & 7th) and it turned to snow on the backside; when the low moved offshore, to the East of us. Plus the N winds brought down some arctic air, and it was frozen pretty much all day Sunday.

The shore power for the boat was not working over the weekend, but today - Monday, I plugged into another spare outlet on the dock, to get the Dryer, and Lamp, warming things up below decks.

I added 2 Gals of fuel today, and she took it all. I guess since the last fill-up, we had 3 motor's in and out and 1 dock motoring session, I am guessing maybe 3+ hours total. Thus we should be pretty full again.

Ralph Out.

Its Winter Time in Norfolk!

It has been cold here in the mid-Atlantic states, and not good sailing weather at all. In fact over the last weekend in January we had a substantial snow event - the first in over 20 years (1989)! Out here at the waterfront we got about 6 inches.

Luckily Brigite & I were in Acapulco at the time, so we missed out on the misery! The week before that we were at Key West Race Week, so life is being pretty good to us.

Not much going on at Cobbs, I go down and check on the boat when I can, and run the engine for about 45 minutes (mostly under load), at least once a week. Sometimes I motor around the harbor, other times in gear at the dock. The engine is running perfectly, and is a pure joy! I did think we had a problem with the Alternator, as there was a very strong electric smell, and a steady click sound coming from down there. Further investigation showed an electric spark - not good in a gas powered boat!

But it turned out that it was only that a distributor cap had come off, and was causing the problem.

Had as low a spring tide as I have seen at Cobbs on 2/2/10, which NOAA reports at 6" below mean LWL at 1st island.

That's all for now!