Saturday was the last day of the 2010 USODA Layline Nationals. Kids left. The place went back to being a sleepy little marina in rural Virginia.
While the Optimists were coming in after a day of racing -- we went out. The wind had died and the best we could do was a hot, unpleasant drift.
We did, however, learn several lessons on Saturday.
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Hot and no wind is awful. From the NOAA Heat page: "when you lose much fluid or salt through dehydration or sweating, your body temperature rises and heat-related illness may develop" We were doing projectile sweating. Everything involved dripping sweat. Rigging the sails was so strenuous, we had to rest after horsing the main up onto the boom. We learned that we shouldn't doubt the NOAA heat advisories.
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When the engine is not in neutral it will not start. That was an agonizing 15 minutes of trying to get Mr. Lehman to take over when the sails were shown to be useless. I checked the starter wiring. I banged the starter with hammers to free it up. I checked batteries. I used the "cold starting" device. I did everything until I checked the transmission. Once we were in neutral, Mr. Lehman did his job flawlessly. We learned that we shouldn't doubt Mr. Lehman.
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With wind from the South, approach the slip from the North -- slip on our port side -- heading into the wind. Hang a quick turn to starboard -- only 30° worth -- and start backing. Between prop-walk and freeboard, the bow will continue to swing around clockwise as we're backing into the slip. We have to snag the front-most piling with the after spring line and keep chugging back before Red Ranger pivots too much. We learned not to doubt the immense power of prop-walk and freeboard.
Sunday, the temperature roared back to 100+ with severe weather alerts on NOAA weather radio. I had an expectation that severe weather meant "storms". No, it also means a heat index off into the 100's. Here's the NOAA Heat Page. "The National Weather Service statistical data shows that heat causes more fatalities per year than floods, lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes combined."
So, we were babies. We ran the A/C, looked at the weather, and decided we couldn't handle the heat.
Instead, we're working on two projects from our air-conditioned apartment.
Putting slugs on the mizzen. Currently, the mizzen is held to the boom with a bolt-rope. A bolt-rope is simple and effective, but sail covers are simpler when there are slugs instead of a bolt-rope. This is a debating point. Folks have many opinions on slugs, slides and bolt-ropes.
Assembling Sailrite Stack Pack sail covers. This is a very, very big job. Much fabric. Long seams.
