Another river trip survived
Once again we cheat death in a death-defying feat of our (well, Shawn's) sailing prowess. Another time, Davy Jones...
Today we decided to do longer sea trials than last time - we went the other way down the river for about 6 miles. This time we were a bit smarter about things given the tide and the direction the wind always blows in the afternoon round here. Seems we can learn new things if given long enough.
After launching 36332 and tying up at the Petaluma Marina, we 'pre-positioned' the truck and trailer at the little marina by the Greek Taverna which we'd designated as today's destination. Coincidentally beer is served.
It's located in a bit of a run down old marina on the river but if you can get past that, it's a very convenient destination for an afternoon's outing. Papa's Taverna, while looking a bit scruffy, is actually excellent, and we'll do this one again as we can do the whole thing in an afternoon (well, depending on how many greek beers come into play). It's an easy sail with the wind behind us and we actually got up to quite a pace from time to time (about an hours sailing) with the bow actually planing a bit for short periods when the wind caught us.
Everything was going splendidly and Papa's was in sight then the usual mishap happened - as one might expect of course. A hearty gust got behing us and tore the plate out of the shroud block collapsing our sails. Oh, well, while tempted to make an effort to cat rig, it was easier to row in the final quarter mile as we had the tide in our favor so that's what we did after gathering everything in.
Below, Gilardi's with Sonoma Mountain in the background. Below that, happy Greek people dance and rejoice at our safe arrival in the downstairs bar. Unfortunately, despite some rather humiliating pleading, the river mishap survivor's discount was not on offer. We need to work on that with the owners.
So, all in all, 'mission accomplished', though some minor repairs on the shroud block will be needed. It stayed solidly in place but the screws ripped out so we're going to try a repair filling the holes with epoxy and turning the plate so it points upwards and we can screw into new wood. Suppose this is the eventual fate of all shroud blocks.
Mullings:
(1) We think our plate on the shroud blocks are wrongly mounted (now confirmed). Coincidentally, Jeff from adventure (1), just sent a picture of his boat with the plates clearly mounted 90 degrees to ours. Having the loops point upwards seems to make more sense to us so when we repair the shroud block we'll remount the plate this way, and change the others around at the same time.
(2) Not sure what to do about the Mirror sail numbers. They keep falling off so we removed some. Anyone got any tips on how to make them stick?
(3) The paint is getting scuffed up as we bump into docks etc. There's no way to avoid it so we'll just freshen it up from time to time if it looks bad.
(4) Having a destination with beer planned is a really good thing.