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Sailing Logs: May 30 & 31, 2003
Friday, May 30
After a string of lousy
days extending for nearly two weeks, Friday offered a glimmer of
hope. The forecast had been promising sunshine and warmer
temperatures, and I hoped to get through with work early enough for a nice
afternoon sail.
The day turned out to be
somewhat less good than predicted, but still better than it had
been. Despite hit-or-miss showers, it turned out basically OK, and I
was indeed done with work early enough to get to the boat by about
1430. When I got there, the sun was out, but dark clouds were
looming to the west. I briefly considered not going out, but
quickly got over that notion--so what if I got wet? I got the main
up in a hurry and headed out. As I left the anchorage, I noticed
Nathan on Dasein sailing slowly towards the anchorage; he had
played hooky from work and had been sailing for a few hours (good
man). We met up and sparred with the two boats in the light wind, a
fun little in formal match race. The wind was fairly light, ranging
from about 5 knots to perhaps 10 for a few moments, and Dasein had
a slight speed advantage, being of substantially lighter weight than Glissando.
Still, the boats were pretty equal, a living testament to the design's
load-carrying capability. I snapped a few pictures of my "trial
horse" from various angles as we went. Probably my dedication
to taking pleasing photos to highlight the log is as responsible as
anything for the fact that Dasein sailed faster than me! |
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The wind--light to begin
with--became progressively lighter and lighter, and we eventually found
ourselves essentially drifting side by side with the tide. With no
wind in sight anywhere, we were forced to motor in--first time that's
happened to me this season.
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Saturday, May 31
Unfortunately, Heidi was
out of town this weekend, so I headed alone to the boat at about 0930 to
take care of a couple projects and, hopefully, to have a nice sail.
Again, as has been the case frequently of late, the weather forecasters
had this one all wrong too--but in a good way. The morning was
flat calm, warm, and sunny, and I fiddled with a couple projects on board
for a while. Soon, though, I saw the beginnings of a southeast
breeze, so I prepared the sails and waited impatiently for the boat to
swing around enough head to wind so that I could easily sail off the
mooring--these full keel boats are incredibly stubborn sometimes about
swinging into the wind. After several minutes (10?), I raised the
main and departed; it was about 1030, perhaps a bit earlier. I had
so little way on that I feared I would run into one of the other moored
boats, so I unrolled the jib to help swing the bow around, and sailed out
of the mooring field with no trouble. I saw Dasein leaving
their mooring as well, and sort of sailed in their general
direction--though the wind was so light where they were that I decided to
stay outside. We sailed generally in the direction of Portland
Harbor, enjoying the pleasant breeze. As we got closer, the wind got
a bit flukier, and Dasein caught up and passed me as I slogged
through a deadly hole. From then, it was all over--I had no prayer
of catching up! Fluky days are like that. Once you get behind
because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, there's no
redemption.
I had no idea where Dasein
was going, but I decided to basically follow their course, as there was no
particular reason not to. With Dasein about 1/4 mile ahead, we
traded tacks up to Diamond Island and around Fort Gorges in the middle of
Portland Harbor, continuing across the harbor towards Spring Point.
In the harbor, the heating effect of the islands increased the wind to
around 12 knots and funneled it through the passage--just the point where
sailing alone under full sail (particularly in a busy place) becomes a
challenge, although not an unwelcome one. With the stronger wind,
traffic, and other distractions, I hadn't been able to get below for my
chart; fortunately, I know the Portland harbor area fairly well, though
I'm not as used to it as other part of the bay where I sail more often. |
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Fort Gorges
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Eastern Promenade
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 Dodging
sailboat, powerboat, and ferry traffic, we crossed the ship channel a few
times. Because Nathan had mentioned it yesterday while we were
sailing side-by-side, I wondered if they intended on sailing out the
channel--fine by me. After a couple more tacks, though, it became
clear that Dasein was heading for Whitehead passage, a fun, scenic,
and narrow slot between Cushing and Peaks Islands. I hadn't sailed
through there for years.
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Dasein crossing the ship channel
near Cushing Island
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House Island, which features an old
granite
fort dating to the early 1800s.
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Once inside Whitehead
passage, the wind became lighter and flukier, and I stayed as high as I
could to ensure that I could make it through on one tack. The
channel is narrow and flanked with rocks. The passage is named for a
rock outcropping on the easterly side of Cushing Island, which naturally
looks like an Indian chief. I actually managed to get a good picture
of the profile on my way through. |
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Inside Whitehead Passage
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The cool Indian profile in the cliff
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Outside the islands, the
wind was much lighter. Still trailing Dasein--even further
back now, since I had been stuck in a couple more holes inside the
passage--I sailed down the eastern shores of Peaks and Long Islands,
passing near my "favorite" house on Hope Island (yuck) before turning into
Chandler Cove. Towards the end of this long, light-air run, the wind
got very light and very fluky, and I had some frustrating moments trying
to get my jib to fly wing-on-wing. I think the Sunbrella shield on
the leech and foot was just too heavy to allow the jib to fly in such
light wind. After a number of increasingly irritating minutes of
trying, I gave up and changed course a bit to try and at least get the jib
to fly on the normal side. This helped a bit, and after a couple
minutes I was able to jibe and head into the channel. As soon as I
jibed, things improved, as the wind angle was more favorable. Once
inside Chandler Cove, the island heating effect took charge again, and I
experiences the strongest winds of the day. It felt great to be
sailing at 5+ knots again, instead of the laborious 2 knots I experienced
over much of the long run--perhaps that was just too much of a good thing.
I enjoyed the remainder of
the sail back to the mooring, arriving there at about 1600 (?). I
think the wind was the heaviest of the day as I sailed into the mooring,
but I had no trouble picking up under sail. Dasein had increased
her lead to about a mile, since she had hit the wind inside Chandler Cove
well ahead of me while I still slogged in the light stuff outside, and had
sailed the "long way" round Clapboard Island on the way in,
while I went the straightest route; still, they sailed by my mooring a few
minutes before I reached there myself. But I overlooked that and
invited them over for a drink anyway! |
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