At any rate, we boarded about 0930 this morning and motored out of the Mobile Yacht Club marina into Dog River; passed under the bridge, and headed out the channel into Mobile Bay. My neighbor put me on the helm while he hoisted the main. Winds were quirky; starting around 5-10 knots out of the SW. After a bit, the breeze started to build to a steady 10 or better which the boat appreciated. The motion on the Packet 31 was noticeably less than my 26M - as one would expect. The bay was quite calm, the temp was relatively cool, and our speed ranged from 3.5 to 6.0 knots during the outing. You couldn't have rubbed the smile of my face with an angle grinder and a 60-grit disc. We went from the mouth of Dog River on a East/Southeast track across the ship channel. I fiddled with his port traveler stop to get it moving (14 years on the hard had left it stuck pretty good). Also, the fairlead to the headsail Furler didn't result in a good angle to the furling drum. This caused the furling line to get hung up on the stop knot in the drum.
We ran through a couple of tacks to get a feel for it. The boat tacked fairly easily. There was no traffic in the channel when we crossed going east, but coming back we had to work around a ship and a single barge tow. We passed just astern of the tow boat and I was surprised at the turbulence in the water and the impact it made on the Packet.
We saw four Coast Guard boats going south in the channel at high speed. Soon afterward, a ship that was well south of us in the channel executed a u-turn. I had never seen that before, but my neighbor said he had seen it a few times. We didn't know if the Coast Guard turned him around or if he just remembered that he left the toaster plugged in at home... I was amazed he was able to turn it around without running aground, but he did it easily.
Lunch was Cuban sandwiches and beer; with salted dark chocolate for dessert.
We saw several porpoises that came out to see if we needed assistance.
So, if you think docking a Mac in a cross-wind is fun (it is); you would enjoy a 31 ft full keel boat, also. It's different, but exhilarating nonetheless. There is a windage issue, but the maneuverability at low speed is virtually non-existent. Maneuvering in reverse at very low speed is almost impossible. It's the first time I had seen a really strong prop walk, and it wasn't walking in a direction that worked for us. At any rate, we had to abandon our first attempt and try again with a new approach - using what we learned from our first flop. The second attempt went much better and we backed her into the slip with minimal grunting and foul language. My neighbor was very happy that he was able to improve his docking performance over his first two attempts. His very first attempt resulted in some rub rail damage (glad I wasn't with him for that one).
Sorry I didn't get more pics, but I was too busy enjoying myself to do much documenting. Had a lot on my plate lately and really needed some time on the water.
View from the helm.
The rain stayed around us, but didn't find us during our 3-1/2 hour trip. View looking north at a hazy downtown Mobile.
I begged him to let me help him change it, but he paid the local yard to do it. He said it was too tight of a spot and you had to be almost hanging upside down to get it. So, I probably dodged a bullet...
His boat rode out Ida in the marina with a lot of extra lines. Fortunately, there was only a few feet of surge, so no problems with the boat. I would have had a stroke...
