First sail of the season

[JeffM]

I know the southern contingent has been on the water nearly all winter, but this was the first time I'd been out before mid May. I not only wore my dorky winter cap with the earflaps tied up with stringy things--I had the earflaps down! Two fleeces, warm sweatpants and neoprene gloves (get some!) completed my attire, and my boys were similarly bundled up. Blame my eagerness to begin the first full season aboard the Beatrice Ann. Or my eagerness to test a few of my improvements.

The wind was right for a trip on the Taunton River (SE Mass) and environs, so we put in at the ramp in Somerset at mid-afternoon Sunday, and spent several hours navigating the Taunton and Assonet Rivers, arriving back after dark. My boys were troopers (and 11-year-old Aron is learning to tack), though they did insist on cramming themselves under the foredeck toward the end to get warm. No pictures yet--I'm hoping my camera will recover soon from an accidental wetting.

The new mast steppers performed very well, though they were not used afloat--the real test. The removeable AA-powered LED running light worked as expected, though I found getting the attachment pin lined up a bit twitchy. The bucket head (http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/articles/toilet/index.cfm) works nicely--at least for a male crew out only for a half day. My yuloh was no good: it needs work at least to make the pivot loose enough to change angle of attack automatically, and a handle added to the loom to help it. I may have been asking too much for it to help me against wind and tide simultaneously, though. And did I mention that everyone who goes out in cool weather should invest in neoprene gloves? That was the smartest West Marine "sale" impulse purchase I've ever made.

The dodger and roof are still in the (slooww) works, but they're on the list for completion, hopefully before the first overnight. Then I'll also try out my transverse bunk: aft floorboard that spans the seats to make a side-to-side bunk for the under-6-foot set. With that I'll be able to sleep three in comfort.

[JeffM]

The camera made it--amazing, since it fell into a bilge sloshing with salt water--but, alas, no pictures of the right size for posting.

I forgot to mention one of my last-minute innovations: the Popcorn Speedometer, for those with no GPS. My oldest lays up on the pointy end and, on command, drops a piece of popcorn (butter-flavor, microwave) even with the prow and as close to the water and as far out as possible. Helmsman, looking at watch, counts seconds til popcorn is even with the transom. A table worked out in advance converts the time it takes the boat to move its own length directly to speed. (I thought of this a long time ago, but only just thought of an object I was willing to foul the seas with.) It nicely complements my present speedometer (a poly rope dragged behind from a delicate spring scale): the popcorn speedometer is most accurate at low speeds, while my spring scale is more reliable at high speeds.