I've been a busy, busy girl! I bought a new boat, and I had her trucked from Cape Coral, on the west coast, to Ft. Lauderdale almost two weeks ago. She came off the trailer at Lauderdale Marine Center for some updates, and a few repairs.
She splashed last friday, and re-rigging the mast and standing rigging went smoothly. The eastbound trip down the New River started well, but with a thunderstorm creeping up on us from behind. It seemed as though we would make it to the dock ahead of it, but the last bridge tender, at Las Olas, did not respond to repeated hails on the radio, and had to be called on the cell phone to open the bridge, and during this 20 minute delay, the shear pin on the prop, well, sheared. I had current and wind on the bow, and could make no headway, so down went the anchor, and the towboat was called, less than 1/2 mile from the dock. Better here than somewhere else... But embarassing.
The first sail was this Sunday. We were a little late getting off the dock, as the prop nut had been dropped into the cockpit, whereupon it promptly rolled out, and into several inches of nasty canal silt, never to be found again... And as the outboard is a 1987 Nissan, forget about finding anther one on a Sunday. However, my tactician/navagator/O/B mechanic promptly (well, not exactly promptly) fetched the tap and die set from the shop and manufactured another one. This delay did, however, give me the time to finish replacing the rest of the running rigging. So at about 6:30, the docklines were cast off, and off we went.
The dock is about half an hour from the inlet, and we swung in behind the charter catamaran out for it's sunset booze cruise. I had expected it to outpace us once the sails went up, as I'd only brought the little jib, but Pi took off like a rocket once the jib and outboard got up. Seas were at 2 to 3, with a 10 to 15 knots from th SE, and we wheeeeeeeeeed up the coast almost to the Hillsboro inlet and back. Wish I'd put in a speedometer, we were moving along beautifully. Did a buzz around the cat, and followed them back in the inlet. And NOTHING BROKE!
However, can anyone tell me what 5 long blasts on the horn from the bridge tender means?
She splashed last friday, and re-rigging the mast and standing rigging went smoothly. The eastbound trip down the New River started well, but with a thunderstorm creeping up on us from behind. It seemed as though we would make it to the dock ahead of it, but the last bridge tender, at Las Olas, did not respond to repeated hails on the radio, and had to be called on the cell phone to open the bridge, and during this 20 minute delay, the shear pin on the prop, well, sheared. I had current and wind on the bow, and could make no headway, so down went the anchor, and the towboat was called, less than 1/2 mile from the dock. Better here than somewhere else... But embarassing.
The first sail was this Sunday. We were a little late getting off the dock, as the prop nut had been dropped into the cockpit, whereupon it promptly rolled out, and into several inches of nasty canal silt, never to be found again... And as the outboard is a 1987 Nissan, forget about finding anther one on a Sunday. However, my tactician/navagator/O/B mechanic promptly (well, not exactly promptly) fetched the tap and die set from the shop and manufactured another one. This delay did, however, give me the time to finish replacing the rest of the running rigging. So at about 6:30, the docklines were cast off, and off we went.
The dock is about half an hour from the inlet, and we swung in behind the charter catamaran out for it's sunset booze cruise. I had expected it to outpace us once the sails went up, as I'd only brought the little jib, but Pi took off like a rocket once the jib and outboard got up. Seas were at 2 to 3, with a 10 to 15 knots from th SE, and we wheeeeeeeeeed up the coast almost to the Hillsboro inlet and back. Wish I'd put in a speedometer, we were moving along beautifully. Did a buzz around the cat, and followed them back in the inlet. And NOTHING BROKE!
However, can anyone tell me what 5 long blasts on the horn from the bridge tender means?
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Nice to see another sailer on here. (Although I havn't sailed in 2+ years...I still have it in me.)