Hello sailors it’s time for another update on SV Seaweed!
She’s been on the hard since we got back from Florida, and I hadn’t even been out to check on her since the end of that trip. I did, however, take a trip over to the West Access Marina at Carlyle Lake in Illinois after I put her to bed, and ended up signing the paperwork to lease a slip for the summer! Move in day was 5/15 and she has to be pulled by 9/15.
So I got home from work on 5/19, planning to drive east 5/24 and see both my family and the in-laws over Memorial Day.
With packing and baby et al, time was scarce to pull off the launch but my wife let me go for it on Sunday morning 5/21. I left the house with the dog at 5am, dropped my flatbed as a place holder in the dry parking and had Seaweed at the ramp parking lot by about 7. Solo job, rigging was pretty straightforward but time consuming because I had completely stripped everything from the mast for the drive from Florida and the subsequent storage.
Overall it took about 2 hours. No real issues, aside from the bolt securing the mast to the bow pulpit had seized so I borrowed a grinder from the boatyard and cut it like butter. Always carry spares! The standing rigging definitely needs tuning, it’s very loose, including the forestay inside the roller. That one is going to be the trickiest one to figure out. I’m thinking about replacing all the cable but nothing is failing yet so maybe this winter. I’m going to order that tuning tool from BWY, does anyone have any thoughts on that? I also forgot to put the windicator on, which I didn’t realize until I had it in the slip! Not sure what to do about that, maybe I’ll beach it one day and drop it.
Anyway, I brought the boat to the ramp, launched it solo and tied it to the floating dock, parked the truck, and figured out a way to rig a quick release with the spring line so I could get free and clear without any help but a boat hook. The boat on the next ramp was having major issues trying to turn their engine over and stress was building as the line for the ramp was packed on a beautiful Sunday, so I was quite relieved when my Merc fired right up and kicked into gear. I backed her out, did a bit of a K-turn to leave for the short trip to the marina and in a few seconds I had that warm fuzzy feeling again that comes when you first launch after a while. Just me and Jake and Seaweed out on the open lake.
I didn’t have much time to play around, I had a deadline of 1pm back at home and an hour drive after I cleaned up, so I just rode the channel into the marina and figured out how to get to my spot. Earlier I had walked the docks and found a few sailors willing to catch a line for me when I made it to my slip. One even told me his first boat was a 26x. He in a beautiful hunter 36 now.
The wind was not blowing hard but it was definitely there, and it was about a direct crosswind to my slip. It felt easier to do everything in reverse until I had a big area to turn and then nose into the slip. While in reverse, I attempted to drop the keel to help with the crosswind and to my surprise it went right down. I guess in Florida i was still moving forward too fast when I tried and thought it was stuck. Great news! I still want to replace the line tho.
Navigating was pretty easy through the docks and I just kept it really slow on the approach. It turned out I didn’t even need the helping hand but I was glad they were there anyway, nice people to meet. I played around a few different ways of tying up and rigging the deck to be clean and tidy while I’m gone, picked up my truck and dropped the trailer at marina storage and got on my way.
That night my heart almost stopped when I get a call from the marina saying I’ve got a fuel leak and the mechanic went out and disconnected my tank and it stopped but I need to come check it out. So Monday morning again at 5 am I’m back in my way out there and I arrive to find that my 9gal tank, which was full, now has about 1-2 gallons left in it. No standing fuel is in the fuel compartment, and the motor well is dry but looks like there is some residue. I think the problem was I pinched the fuel line at the motor when I raised it before leaving. I turned on the battery and dropped it a little to remove the pinch, but I didn’t want to mess it up so I didn’t try to start it or anything and just removed the tank and brought it home.
Anyway pretty long post for a simple rigging and a quick motor to the marina but it was a really big day for me in my Seaweed Saga, because now we can just go to the marina and fire it up whenever we want to get out in the water without having to rig anything. Plan is to do at least one day a week. Also anyone have thoughts on a good dock box?
Thanks for reading!
