4th of July Vacation Pt 1

This year the 4th of July fell on a Saturday. Cap'n Carey worked only a half day on Thursday, so we could head out early on Friday.
  This year we have some friends that have a sailboat too, Kelly and Dave, they live on the end of our dock, on Shear Water, she is a an Ericson 36 , and she is a beauty.


  We all decided to head inland, and spend the week on the hook in Potato Slough. We are hoping to get a good spot that each of us can get nosed up to the island for protection from the wind. Potato Slough has 3 'bedrooms', which is kind of like a little bay on an island, where boats can anchor and/or tie to the island. There aren't very many islands that you can do this to, so they fill up fast, especially on a holiday weekend. We are on vacation for a week, so we decided to spend a night at Owl Harbor  and wait for the weekend warriors to leave, and then sneak in behind them.

  We all decided to leave early Friday morning. So we all got together Thursday evening, to check charts, weather, and such. We picked the early morning 10:30am tide. The tide will be coming in, which means we will be riding the incoming tide, instead of going against it. There is a cooling trend, which means the wind will be up, so we will sail with only the Genoa, and the NEW FURLER, whoop whoop.  And only pull it out
half way(reef). We also used the whisker pole to hold the sail out the side, to catch air and prevent it from going back and forth.
  We had the wind at our backs, and rode the tide all the way up.
  We planned to stay at  Owl Harbor Friday night, and head to Potato Slough Saturday, early afternoon. The cool front stayed an extra day, , , , so we did too.

  When we woke up Saturday morning, the wind was rippin, and the coast guard was having a pretty rough day of pulling boats off the rock levees, and we decided that we didn't want to be them.
  It turned into a fun time, once we knew we weren't going anywhere, we just goofed off. Dave and Kelly had inflatable paddle boards, and we took a turn on them, Roxi and Drifter had fun on them too. A friend of theirs, Leslie, came and spent the 4th with us. We watched the fireworks from the levee.  We saw a bunch of little fireworks all around us, and spent the evening hours chatting about all the adventures in our lives, our dreams, our obstacles, and the fun we are having making them all.
   bunkmate

Furled at Last

  We now have a furled Genoa. The Cap'n did an outstanding job. To me, the hardest part of all of it was the measuring and researching he did. He had measured the Forestay, which is the wire that is connected to the bow, and reaches to the top of the mast. The whole purpose for the furler is to have the sail up and ready to use. We had a hanked on Genoa, which meant that the sail had to be hooked on to the forestay every time we wanted to go sail, and the whole time we were at anchor the sail was laying on the foredeck, in the sun. We had a furler on SVSimplicity, and we loved the convenience, and ease, of pulling the sail out when needed. Also, you don't have to pull the whole sail out if the wind is ripping. The sail doesn't have to be taken down after sailing, and then store it somewhere.

  We had to cut the 'hanks' off first, then we sewed a sacrificial sail on the edge, with a strip of luff tape, to feed up through the tubes
  We had a chance to take it out and test it, and it is so awesome to be able to control how much sail you want out. If the wind picks up, we just furl the sail in a little, and never miss a beat.
  It always sounds so simple to do, but it takes Cap'n Carey days of research, hours and hours, of calculating how many of this bolt size, and that size nut, how and where every washer goes, how many feet of sail we lost verses how much sacrificial sail we needed. How many feet of sheet (the rope connected to the sail) do we need to run down both sides, and also how much do we need, and how big does the sheet need to be for the furler itself, and where should it be mounted, which side of the boat do we need it to run down, and where to mount all the hardware to keep them out of the way while not under sail.
  Our Cap'n is always looking to make things easier for me, because he knows that it is important to me, to be able to do everything, especially if something was to happen to him, I could be confident enough to know I could handle her without his help.
  We are still, totally confident about our decision to follow our dream. And loving every day leading to our official departure.
  bunkmate