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Storm Preparation

Hurricane Jose is moving North but is expected to weaken to a Tropical Storm before having any impact on our coast. Even though sustained winds will be moderate, gusts could be as high as 50 kts. With the forecast I decided to prep Nauti Dog in case  Jose swung West.

Motoring the dinghy out I was greeted by a flock of bird on the deck, boom, rails and the brand new Lifesling. Other boats nearby were hosting flocks of birds too. I have never seen this many birds in the mooring field before. No idea if the storm pushed the birds up along the coast???

Other boats were preparing for Jose too. Before any prep started I cleaned the deck, sail cover,etc. Afterwards  I started with the following: Charged the batteries, tied safety knot on mooring cleat, secure mooring pennant float, removed and stow spinnaker pole below deck, de-sailed, secured halyards to the outer most points, secured & bundled lines to large winches, ops-checked bilge pump, secured/removed any loose gear below deck (brushes, grill, bucket). Then when I was ashore removed outboard from dinghy. Total prep time was less than 2 hours and most of that time was cleaning.

Lifesling2 "Installed"

It took me longer to remove the old horseshoe buoy mount than “installing” the new Lifesling2. All I had to do was hang the Lifesling2 on the stern rail and secure the flap with velco on the vertical and horizontal rail section. Then tied the retrieval line to the stern rail base. One key note from the manual is to “mount the bag inside of the stern railing or pulpit”. I have seen several creative mounting location and methods on various boats. Next is practice! Then we can decide if the Lifesling Hoisting Tackle is necessary. 

Summer is not over yet

The temperature might be cooling but Nauti Dog is still out on the water! We raced out of the harbor with only the main hoisted while meeting increasing waves. From the distance a similar sized sailboat was charging towards us. After they passed us port to port it continue a ways before turning back to chase us. They slowly closed the distance between us but when there was a chance of them catching us we unfurled the jib. Nauti Dog immediately jumped forward. Speeding away and increasing the distance between them they gave up their pursuit and turned back towards the harbor. We continued pass a few more governments marks before returning to the harbor for the evening. Unfortunately there was some bottom growth of the speedo so we never knew what our speed was. Also we accidentally erased the track on the plotter so didn’t a total distance either.

 

Evening Practice

We made quick time leaving the mooring. Sky has been awesome at the helm holding heading like no one’s business. Tonight, were practiced tacking and sail handling. We made countless tacks out before surfing back in.

Race Practice

With the Small Craft Advisory ending in the morning we hit the bay again! The goal was practice tacking and rounding marks. Steve took the helm for most of the sail guiding us out of the harbor. Finding a low traffic area we looked at the chart to setup a course. We sailed a simple 1.43 NM windward/leeward legs rounding the marks four times before heading back into port. It was a great sail to close out the long weekend! 

Bending Sails

Waiting for the weather for to clear we made a trip to Buzzards Bay Brewery. While listening to the band play under the tent the clouds started break! We headed back to the harbor but low clouds rolled back in. We hoisted and furled the jib and bend the mainsail. Also, a general organizing and tidying up the of boat from yesterday’s race.