Thursday, April 19, 2012

Gearing Up

I'm Gnashing my teeth and going sailing almost every day, getting the boat ready for the trip across to Hawaii. I hope for a good wind on the 30th, just 10 days away!
Yesterday I went out sailing and chasing another boat, Shamaness. I got some pictures of them, and they got some shots of me! I had just cleaned the bottom, so I was super fast and smooth sailing, and LaFawnda is working awesome with the clean bottom! She is still a bit too powerful, so in these shots you can see the vane is not up to "full power" position, and when the wind came up a bit more she was getting a bit twitchy, maybe more than I would like. So I will "dumb down" the system a little bit to make the motion more in a straight line. Its nice to have a wind vane that is too sensitive, rather than not enough.
For example, I was motoring a few days ago and LaFawnda was steering the boat while motoring in very close to no wind at all. I think 2 knots or less. So the sensitivity is awesome!
Other than that, I just bought a bunch of food. I'll go and buy more in a few more days, and then probably one more big stock-up the day before I leave. And I need to get a little more water.
Then the day I leave, I scrub the bottom again, and off into the blue!
There will be a quiz for you all on the departure day, which is a guessing game. When, to the day, hour and minute, will I arrive? The definition of arrival is the turning around Hilo bay breakwater....
Here are some constants to consider...
Altair is 20 ft, 6 inches at the waterline. The bottom paint is 6 months old. The mainsail has 4 patches in it. The spinnaker is torn, but I hope to repair it before I leave. I can hold 15 gallons of Diesel. Light travels at a constant rate in a vacuum. I will leave on April 30, and the distance is something you can look up.
Be sure to have the guess in by May 20 in order to qualify for the prize. The Prize!
The shots of Altair are from Shamaness. I took the others.


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