I’ve been trying to go sailing for three days, but beneath a high blue sky there has been no or little wind. Accepting that this is not going to change soon, I decided today to go anyway.
There was never more than five or six knots of wind. GANNET sailed mostly at four knots.
I was able to compare my Quatix watch with the Velocitek ProStart. Usually they showed SOG within .1 of a knot of one another. The ProStart shows COG Magnetic, while I had the Quatix set to True. In San Diego there is a 12º difference. With the Variation East, True is greater.
Once clear of the Mission Bay Channel, I sailed north toward La Jolla close hauled on port tack. GANNET’s speed kept creeping higher. When it momentarily touched 5 knots, the excitement was too much and I turned back. Actually we were about to sail into a kelp bed.
On the return I put a waypoint into the Quatix just off the channel breakwaters. I now have three: the condo; the slip; and what I’ve named MB Jetty.
Several times I’ve tested the watch walking back to GANNET from the shower, which Quatix tells me is 556’ away. When I’m 50’ away a message, “Approaching Slip” appears.
Standing in the companionway, Quatix usually tells me I’m 4’ from ‘slip.’ Good enough.
The sail was pleasant. Everything worked. And I remembered how to lower the mainsail.
----------
In the absence of sailing, I shopped online.
Two tiller pilots have arrived. I found them on sale at a place I’ve never heard of named Hodges Marine.
Someone noted that I could buy a lot of tillerpilots for the $5,000 boat yard estimate to reinforce GANNET’s transom. Thirteen to be exact. I now have four. That should be sufficient.
I found a very nice man in Idaho, to whom I spoke by telephone, who made GANNET a spare tiller. It is ‘Out for Delivery’ on a FedEx truck today, but hasn’t been.
Two Aurinco solar panels are in transit.
After considering the mock-ups in various combinations for several evenings, I ended up ordering the almost squares to install near the mast. Working out all the possible combinations of sun, shadows, and course, is impossible. No matter where panels are placed, at times they will not be fully exposed to the sun. In the end, the mock-ups near the mast just made GANNET’s deck look to my eye better balanced.
And a new Sport-a-Seat is also on the way. This one with a black cover, which will be hot in the Tropics, when I will put a towel over it or use the grey one, but will not show stains.
----------
The movie, ALL IS LOST, about a solo sailer trying to save his sinking boat and himself, staring Robert Redford, is reviewed today in the NY TIMES.
The review is positive, as have been others. I will go see the movie when I can.
What I found most interesting and revealing in the review is: And though this man’s radical aloneness is terrifying, to him and to us
In a too connected world, to be alone is to be terrified.
I also note that we are told the sailor, who apparently is never named, is wearing a wedding ring. I suppose this is to show that he is not a true loner, which would be terrifying, though the idea of a solo sailor being married is obviously absurd.
I do not know about others, but this solo sailor does not wear his wedding ring when he sails. I do wear one ashore. While sailing a wedding ring can catch on lines and other things leading to injury.
Details.
