Summer Cruise Day 11

This morning, we slept in.

There was no rush to raise anchor or set sail as we were peacefully tied up in Deltaville.

We cooked a proper breakfast and then I decided to stop waiting around for someone else to fix the prop. I didn't want to get in the water as there had been a series of shark attacks lately and the attacks seemed to be moving north. I was concerned that the sharks might have come into the bay and therefore didn't want to go in.

While I was eating breakfast, I watched some kids playing in the waters just next to the marina. They were thrashing around, kicking the water, doing all the right things to attract a shark, but none came. I figured that if they are ok, I'll be fine. 

I lashed my GoPro to the boat hook and stuck it down around the area of the prop to see why the drifter sheet wouldn't come free. I could see that it was leading to the propeller, but on the starboard side. Somehow, the sheet dragged through the water, went behind the rudder and forward into the propeller. I have no idea how this could have happened, but that is the situation as it presented itself.

I donned my dive gear and went in to take a closer look. The sheet was lightly wrapped around the propeller, but the cotter pin at the end of the shaft had pierced the drifter sheet. My original intentions were to remove the sheet from the prop without cutting anything, but this whole section of line was chewed up and worthless. 

I cut the line in two and easily pulled the ends off of the propeller. Later I long spliced the two ends so that we would once again have our fully functional drifter sheet.

Once that was completed, we spent some time in the pool at the Deltaville Marina. There was a gorgeous Fallmouth Cutter tied up near the pool. While Maddie was swimming around relaxing, I was admiring the beauty of its lines. There is something very stunning about a sailboat with a long bowsprit and boomkin. They seem to be a forgotten part of the design on modern sailboats. It really was a gorgeous sight!

Later that day I figured out why my housebank was not able to run the fridge, the whole bank was dead! Rightfully so, as it consisted of batteries from 2007! To not put too much of a dent in our cruising kiddie we, we decided to only install one battery for now and then worry about the rest of the bank once we have returned. So I signed up to use the courtesy car in the marina and when my turn came, the car would not start. I wasn't too disheartened, as I figured I would just load the battery in a cart and walk the mile to West Marine. 

This is where the hospitality of the people in Deltaville really showed. Sketch, the dockmaster said "Don't worry, I'll drive you after I finish work." Being from Baltimore, I first thought these were empty promises, but when he got off from work, he knocked on our hull and off we went!

Out with a dead battery, in with a new Group 31 AGM, giving us 105Ah. We figure it would run the fridge for about a day, and then we could recharge it from the motor bank as needed. 

We spent the rest of that afternoon walking through the maritime museum next to the marina and then settled in for another relaxing night. as the next day, we would be back to the old routine.

Summer Cruise Day 10.5

After our hair raising adventure to arrive in Deltaville, we were exhausted and just wanted to relax the rest of the afternoon; we arrived in the right place.

In the marina office, we received a map and a description of the town from Sketch, the dockmaster.

"Here is the restaurant, here is the West Marine, here is the grocery store, and there are the bikes you can use to get around town."

It was a small town, but everyone seemed so nice and laid back. There was no hurry or crime, we didn't have to lock up the bikes when we went inside a store. Everything was surreal and peaceful compared to what we had just been through.

I did inquire about getting short hauled to check out the prop, but was informed that no one would be working until Monday, and this was Friday. I was given a phone number for a diver who might be able to take a look sooner, but he never got back to us. We decided to just relax and enjoy the afternoon and deal with the prop tomorrow.

We spent the rest of that day walking through wooded trails and biking around the town. 

That night we stayed in the boat with air conditioning and watched a movie while relaxing without a care in the world! 

It was the perfect end to offset the ludicrous morning. 

Summer Cruise Day 10

This morning I awoke to the sound of waves pounding our stern. The current had us riding over our anchor rode, laying stern to the 4 to 6 foot seas.  

The tow boat called to let me know he was on his way. Sitting stern to the seas while riding over the chain should have been a warning to how messed up our morning was about to be.

The plan was for me to tie to his tow line, raise my anchor, and then be off. This is the logical way to proceed, but I didn't realize yet that I was dealing with an idiot.

I tied off and told him I was going to raise the anchor now. He then starts pulling the boat! The chain is clearly going into the water! He begins pulling and the boat turns side to the waves and the chain slides out of the roller and tears into the headstay. I yell for him to stop, and he does for a moment; but as soon as I look away to continue raising the anchor, he does it again! The chain actually broke the frapping knot on the deadeye, which was easily fixed later.

I finally get him to stop pulling the on the boat and let me raise the anchor up. When the anchor came into the bow roller, he went full speed ahead without making sure we were ready. Maddie was down below and I was in the forepeak trying to untangle the anchor from the painter so that we would be ready to tow.

Mind you, no one is at the helm, Maddie is in bed and I am up on the bow while he starts towing us very quickly through 4 to 6 foot seas.

Wisdom deviated to port since no one was steering to keep us behind the tow boat and we began to heel over excessively and started to pull his boat by the stern.

I am holding onto the bow rail with all my might while flailing my arms and yelling for him to stop as we are now broadside to this tow. After what felt like an eternity, I yell out some harsh words at him and he cut his engines. When he comes up alongside of us, he asks if we are ok? He says that he was hailing us on the radio but didn't hear a reply. 

How would we reply? And if you see a large sailboat being pulled onto its side, wouldn't it be best to stop rather than just call asking if we are ok?!

When he was along side of us, I asked the captain:

"Do you have a bridle?"

His response still echoes in my mind:

"What's that?!"

I explained what they are and how they work. He looked at me confused and said:

"I don't see how that would help."

I told Maddie that we are going to be on a sleigh ride through hell to Deltaville, and then we can fix the fouled prop to resume our journey.

We were tied up improperly and set off on our tow, led by our moronic tow boat captain, beam to the seas! We were pitching and rolling horribly as we were taking waves straight onto the topsides. Some waves would catch us in a roll and we would board the vessel, crashing into the cockpit and rolling over the deck. I radioed him and asked if he would please quarter the seas and slow down, as we were moving along way too fast for these seas on the beam. 

Once again, I was astounded when he responded telling me that he doesn't know what "quarter seas" are and that he's being pounded out there.

We grew tired of his poor navigational choices and decided to make the most out of the situation. When we would see the king wave in the set coming, we would turn and quarter the seas with our rudder, and yank him along for the ride. When you match up a 17 ton full keel sailboat against a 17 foot whaler, size does matter, and he would be pulled along like a toy in a bathtub. 

As we arrived in Deltaville, he then brought us into the pier at a rather high speed for a boat under tow. I need 1.8 knots to maintain steerage, but I dock using prop walk at around 0.5 knots. We came into the pier doing 2.5 knots and the dockhands at the marina began yelling at him to slow it down. He did what looked like a crash stop to bring all of my mass to a stop before plowing into the vessel in front of us.

I've been towed many times, it's what happens when you have an old diesel engine and not enough sail area. It would always end up that the engine would die when there was no wind, or there was no wind so I was forced to rely on a death stricken diesel engine. Either way, ALL of my previous tows with Boat US have been delightful. They come along side, they throw you a bridle, they make sure it's attached properly and that everyone is prepared for the tow, they ask if you are ready and await your response, then they begin the tow slowly and gradually bring you up to speed while keeping everything manageable and under control.

This moron simply tossed us a line and gunned his engines. It was so bad, that Maddie has told me that we must exhaust every possible resource before we call a towboat. This was Maddies first tow, and now she is traumatized by the thought of another.

At least we were now in Deltaville, VA and were ready to have the boat hauled to fix and check the fouled prop.

Summer Cruise Day 9

Today began with raising anchor in the wee hours of the morning and settingall the sails as we made our way South. 

We were sailing in relatively light airs, so we had the drifter flying. At times, we were barely moving, then we would be charging along making wonderful progress.  

For long periods of time, we were sailing along between 6 to 7 knots, and the electric motor was able to recharge the batteries the whole time.  

Our fridge is the biggest consumer of amps on the boat. When drawing off of the engine bank of 8 group 31 batteries, it will consume about 10% of the bank over the night. A few days of this and the batteries begin to run low. This is why fast sailing days are so highly appreciated on board Wisdom. The motor acting as a hydrogenerator is our only method of recharging.  

That morning, we gained nearly 30% in the engine battery bank! The equivalent of 3 nights of running the fridge. This was all possible thanks to the drifter that was able to power us along on such a light air days. 

As the day grew on, the winds began to build. When the winds were sustained around 10 knots, we decided to drop the drifter and raise the jib to continue our journey South.  This was also the end of our progression for the next few days, we just didn't know it yet. 

I released the halyard and lowered the drifter, but didn't pay any attention to the sheets. The port sheet fouled the prop and our speed decreased from 6 knots to a mere 3 knots.  

We decided to get away from the ship traffic along the western shore and head over to the eastern shore to sort out the issue.  

The wind continued to build and we sailed across the bay with 1 reef in and the stay sail in winds of 20 to 25 knots while moving along at barely 3 to 4 knots.  

We dropped the anchor on a shoal and I got into our dinghy "Tooth" to try and free the fouled line. In my optimism, I figured that the line was merely looped around a blade and then wrapped around the propeller. I figured it would just as easily come free.  

I spent two hours fighting with the line trying to free it, but to no avail. It was a calm sunset on the bay in unprotected waters. I called Boat US to schedule a tow in the morning.  

I was to be towed to Deltaville marina to be hauled out and to free the prop from the fouled line.  

We settled in and rested up as we had no idea the drama that the morning would bring.  

Spinnaker and Code 0 or Drifter?

When I had my 150% genoa on the furler, I found that I didn't have the right sails for sailing off the wind or in light airs. The genoa was too heavy a fabric to fly in light airs, and would twist when sailing off the wind.

I contacted my sailmaker and his suggestion was to add a spinnaker and a Code 0 to my sail wardrobe; the spinnaker for off wind, the Code 0 for light airs.

Being how I used to single hand my 45 foot Morgan cutter, I was very interested in how these sails would be managed. The options for the spinnaker were a sock or a continuous furler.

The sock would require me to go forward to douse the sail, which would then cause the balance to shift to weather as the sail was taken doused while no one was at the helm.  

The continuous furler caught my attention as I could retrieve the sail from the cockpit with ease. This also would make jibes easier as I could furl, jibe, and unfurl on the other side.  

Now, as a rigger, I was very interested in how these sails would all be attached to the vessel. The continuous furler needs to be forward of the headstay and the drum; I also had a bow rail in the way. My only option was to add a bow spirit to move the tack point further forward. In my case, the tack needed to be around 4 feet forward to clear everything; that's quite the addition!

That much of a bow spirit would certainly need support to keep the upward pull of the sail from ripping it up off the deck. Now I need a bobstay and a bobstay tang, which needs to be attached to the stem. Then I need whisker stays to keep the spirit from being ripped laterally. As you can see, this got complicated in a hurry! We haven't even discussed where the deck members would go in my crowded forepeak.  

I already didn't like this idea, but since I don't have an iron jib, I needed the sails to keep me moving in all conditions.  

Aside from the incredible complexity of the addition, there was the cost factor as well. Each sail needed is own furler, plus the cost of the spinnaker and the Code 0. I scraped the whole endeavor when the calculated cost climbed over $20,000 for sails that would be used "sometimes". 

In the Pardey books, they frequently mentioned using their drifter. It is pretty much a giant nylon genoa, but with a higher clew, allowing better trim when off the wind.  

I mentioned this idea to the sail maker but he didn't seem too crazy about it. He did have a good reason, if drifters were so wonderful, all the race boats would fly them. You can't beat a spinnaker on a run and a Code 0 will take you to windward like a boss! But I'm not racing, I'm cruising! 

The drifter was a very cheap sail! If I had kept my furler, I could have gone with a flying drifter and not have it stayed. But since I decided to switch to hank on sails, it was very easy to have a hank on drifter made that would fly off of the existing headstay; no extra rigging, no extra parts, no extra cost!  

Our drifter is about the size of a 180% genoa, so a rather large sail.  

In light airs, the drifter is king! We can reach, run, tack, and jibe; all while moving along towards our destination. We usually do about 1 knot less than the wind. Our takedown wind speed is 7 knots apparent, because the nylon will stretch and can easily tear if flown in too much air. This said, we have had it up in winds of 15 knots (as we scrambled to get it down) and it doesn't appear to have sustained damage. A Code 0 is made of a much stronger laminated material, allowing it to be flown in winds above 20 knots! So I see the sail makers point there, but I like to reef in winds above 20 knots instead of flying a monster sail. 

Off the wind, the drifter is also wonderful! it has a bit of a full belly, which doesn't let it point as high as a Code 0, but this gives it plenty of depth to fill with air on a run. On a board reach, it simply fills with air, and pulls the boat along on a gentle ride. On a run, the drifter can be placed wing on wing, with it flying by the lee. On Wisdom, we have around 1200 square feet between the main sail and the drifter. This will catch any whisper of wind and move you towards your destination. 

They say the two least used sails are the trysail and the spinnaker.

I have flown my trysail only once out in the Atlantic and boy was I glad to have it! Yet I have used the drifter about 25% of the times we go sailing. It really is our light air sail that we can use on all points of sail. We don't have to switch between the spinnaker and the Code 0 as we make our way around shoals entering rivers in the Chesapeake since it can run and reach.

I feel that we fly it often because of its versatility and ease of management. 

Do you have a spinnaker or a Code 0? How often do you fly them? Do you think the average cruiser would benefit from these sails over a drifter?

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