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Log for May 6, 2002--Launching
Launching day--eagerly
anticipated, of course--dawned crisp, clear, and windless. The wind forecast was
calling for strong winds in the afternoon, but it sure seemed perfect
now. I had scheduled a new hauler/transporter on the advice of
friends, and he was due at 0645. At almost exactly the prescribed time, he
pulled into the driveway, ready to go. Over the previous week or so, I had
prepared the boat for transport by removing the mast horses I built for winter
storage, securing the mast to the pulpits, and dealing with the myriad other
details that precede any launch. With all the preparations done, it
only took about 15 minutes to load--and we were on our way!
About 20 minutes later, we were
at the launch ramp, and Glissando was promptly deposited in the
water. By 0715, the launch was complete. Quick and efficient!
The bay was flat calm, the sun shone, and it looked like it was going to be a
perfect day. Who could ask for anything more? I took no
pictures of parts of the launching because my camera was in a bag on board, and
I was alone anyway. Being alone meant that I had to play the car/boat
shuffle; we launch at Falmouth Town Landing (FTL), and keep the boat next door
at the yacht club (PYC). Now, there's no parking to speak of at Town
Landing, so I could only leave my truck there for a short while. What I
had to do was get my truck to the yacht club somehow, and also get the boat
there. Fortunately, it's only a short walk if you follow the beach.
I decided I'd rather leave the truck at FTL than the boat, so I launched my
dinghy (which I need for a week or so since the launch service at the club
hasn't yet begun) and tied it alongside, then motored over to the PYC
docks. There's still no ramp from the pier to the floats (a new one is
coming this week), so I had to row the dingy to the PYC ramp, then walk over to
FTL, then drive back to PYC, then row back out to the dock. Pant, pant...
As soon as I got back to the boat
(about 0745), I called to Handy Boat next door (yes, next door again) to see
when they wanted me for my mast stepping--or, more to the point, to indicate
that I was ready to go NOW. It was still glassy smooth, and I hoped to get
the mast up and out of the way--I never relax on launching day till the mast is
up, since a sailboat without a mast is incomplete. They took me right
away, and by 0830 the mast was stepped and I motored back to PYC to finish
rigging the boat.
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The first thing to get out of the
way was the radar pole--see the details of my final installation on the radar
page. Once that was done, I moved on to the boom, vang, and
sails. Because I knew beforehand that the ramp to the floats at PYC was
not installed, I had prepared by loading all this junk on the boat when it was
at home--boom, radar pole, dodger frame...the interior was chockablock!
Maneuvering that huge boom, especially with the heavy Garhauer vang attached, by
myself was no fun. I had wrapped it in some  of
my trusty sheets to protect everything, but it was still a chore. With
much effort, I finally got the gooseneck attached and then got the bottom end of
the vang reattached. (Minor "complaint" with the Garhauer solid
vang: no way to quickly release or remove it from either end for storage,
nor any way to compress the spring and lock it in position to make removal
easier. This makes the whole process somewhat more awkward.) Then I
attached the mainsheet tackle and bent on the main, installing the full battens
as I went. One thing I immediately noticed that I had forgotten to do
before raising the mast was lubricate the mainsail track--it was very dry and
made raising and lowering the sail tough. I'll have to lube it soon.
Then, I moved on to the genoa, raising it and rolling it up.
Easy. Finally, I installed the dodger frame and canvas, and the boat was
pretty much complete. I motored out to the mooring at this point, where I
fiddled with a few things while motoring in reverse against the mooring lines
while I let the engine charge the batteries.
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 Later
in the afternoon, the predicted winds started to blow. Because the boat is
moored in an open anchorage about 1/2 mile from shore, it tends to get pretty
choppy when the wind blows over 15. Therefore, since I had to row in, by
myself, I figured I'd better play it safe and head in while the conditions were
still decent, so I cut my planned day a little short. But I'd managed to
get the radar pole in, the sails up, and some other minor details--pretty much
my whole work list. So I went home and cleaned up where the boat had been
stored. That afternoon, the wind gusts rocked the house, obviously in the
25-30 knot range. Yuck!
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