Mar 19

Written by:
3/19/2010 9:17 AM 

Looking over Jargo, dingy on deck, fenders stowed, standing and running rigging free and ready to work, I recognized what I was feeling. Many times before. growing up at the local pool or along the banks of the Buffalo River, I'd scramble to a high point only to stand overlooking the water, waiting, wondering if I had the nerve to jump. Usually, I'd quiet the overwhelming voice of self preservation and muster the courage to make the plunge, but not always. That knot that grew in my stomach back then was the same now only it had been swelling in my gut for weeks. Once again, I quieted all the thoughts in my mind and reduced myself to unthinking action and hoisted the anchor.

From the time I cleared the anchorage to now I've been learning how to sail all over again. In the six years or more I've been learning how to sail, downwind work just never seemed to happen. Finding myself in 15 - 20 knots and needing to run near dead downwind I had to learn fast. Jargo has kept a spinnaker pole mounted on the front of the mast since long before I've called her mine. I think I used it once, but the extreme effort of hooking the small lock jaw onto the clew or bowline of the head sail left me with something more than a sour taste in my mouth for wing on wing sailing with a jib poled to windward. Despite my efforts to find another point of sail negating this option, it had to be done.

Dancing on the foredeck of a moving sailboat with a 17 foot aluminum pole in your hands trying to catch the clew of moving sail with the small hook on the end of the pole is neigh on impossible. Remembering all the frustration from before I secured the pole again and walked back to the cockpit to think. Eventually, the obvious solution came. Furl the sail, lower the fore end of the pole to deck, run all sheet slack forward and through the jaw, pull the topping lift to the correct height, then reset the sail. Wham! Finally, with the main and mizzen to leeward and the jib to windward, Jargo began sailing and surfing from 6 - 9 knots. The rig's been moved to the other side once on a jybe, but otherwise I've been flying steadily under this set ever since. Jargo loves going downwind and I cracked a beer to celebrate my small victory.

The other object of my attention is the Sailomat windvane. Half the day on Thursday was spend trying to tune the vane to work with and steer Jargo. About the time I finally thought it was going to work, the 1/4 inch control lines begain slipping through their cam cleats. No matter what I did, this rig wasn't going to do it's job. Sleeping on it, I woke the next day and pulled the old controll lines out that came with the unit. By running the larger lines through the cam cleats and blocks on the vane then tying them to the smaller lines used on the wheel adapter I got it working. I've probably got 12 - 18 hours into this unit but finally, she's steering Jargo independently. And, not too soon either since one of my batteries just turned up voltage of 10.2, or very, very dead.

I do still have to rebuild the prop lock underway as it is allowing the propeller to spin under sail. Not good as it puts undue wear on the transmission and creates turbulent flow right where the Sailomats servo rudder works. I've tweeked the unit all I can and have no more options but to pull it out entirely and change the break pads. Not a fun job in the bilge of a tossing and turning sailboat. Ahhh, life at sea.

Otherwise, the beauty of a day at sea makes all the difficulties well worth it. Orion looks like he's been painted in front of a backdrop of other stars and the Big Dipper keeps me on course. The evening sunsets have been clear with just enough small clouds so that the sky lights up a brilliant red just before the sun settles down for the night.

I am holding a course of ~ 195 hoping to drop South to pick up the SE trades making the westing a little easier. Cheers everyone. Life is good on Jargo.

Lee