Evanston: finally
Evanston: finally
Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico has been colliding with cold air from Canada over the Midwest for several weeks. It did yesterday. Thunderstorms with gusts to 40 knots, torrential rain, and golf ball size hail were possible. At Winthrop Harbor, where North Point Marina is located, the chance of rain was 40%. But I have learned that the Chicago metropolitan area is so big that the world could come to an end in one part while another remains untouched.
In Evanston the morning was sunny and the sky clear. Internet radar images showed a band of rain in eastern Iowa, and as we drove north haze and a few clouds formed to the west.
I did not want my first sail on GANNET to be an ordeal, nor did I want to subject Carol to one; but when we got to the marina, the wind was light and apocalypse did not seem imminent.
I fit the Torqeedo to the outboard bracket, untied the dock lines, and pushed GANNET out of her slip.
Handling the throttle on the Torqeedo and the tiller on GANNET was easy. One hand on one, one on the other. The distance is short.
Slips at North Point are smaller as they are more distant from the breakwater entrance. GANNET lives on ‘I’ Dock, which is the second farthest inland. We powered slowly up the main channel. The Torqeedo had plenty of power to move the hull, and the display on the GPS equipped tiller arm indicated the relationship between speed and range. At less than two knots, we could power thirty miles. At five knots, less than five miles. I did not find it difficult to obey the no wake rules.
Harbor master emails had warned that near record low water on Lake Michigan and silting in the breakwater entrance had resulted in unusual placement of marker buoys; but even so as we made the turn to port I was surprised to see the marked channel reduced to less than a third of the possible width. Followed by three or four power boats and without a working depthsounder, we kept between the buoys.
We emerged into a glassy, windless Lake Michigan.
With Carol at the tiller, I raised the mainsail anyway, and then a jib.
I had intended to use the number 2 because I couldn’t find the cars for the number 1 track, but I pulled up the number 3 bag by mistake. It didn’t matter. I got the sail up, relishing again how easy it was to hoist the sail compared to sails on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, stopped the Torqeedo, and waited for cats-paws a quarter mile north to reach us.
In a few minutes they did and GANNET heeled and came alive. Soon by GPS readings we were making 6 and 6.5 knots in what I judged to be about that much wind. She will sail in a sneeze.
Sailing east on a beam reach, we followed the wind as it backed north, then tacked for the marina as a bank of fog formed.
The Torqeedo created unexpected difficulties.
On the advice of a former Moore 24 owner, I ordered a long shaft. Even tilted up this does not quite clear the water, and to get it that far I had to remove the tiller arm. The big propeller makes a substantial sound spinning in the water at six knots and creates an unacceptable drag. Eventually I ran a line around the shaft and tied it to the port pulpit to pull it completely clear, but this caused the battery to pivot to one side.
The Torqeedo breaks down into three parts: the tiller arm, the battery, and the shaft. Removing the tiller arm and the battery is easy. Removing the shaft from the outboard bracket and then remounting it would not be much fun but would solve the problem. It might be enough to install a center padeye to tie the shaft to. But something must be done.
We headed back in after a couple of hours, dropping the sails and turning on the Torqeedo just outside the breakwater. But for marina rules, GANNET would be a cinch to sail in and out of her slip, though not in all wind directions through the very narrow bend in the silted entrance.
Back in slip I-32 we ate lunch and then replaced the starboard stern pulpit.
We were on deck talking to our neighbors, who have a Westerly 26, when I realized that I had just had my first sail on fresh water.
GANNET’s quarterberths are pipe berths. On Friday I removed the laced cushions in preparation for a canvas man who was supposed to come by. He didn’t show. Without them, the interior is more chaotic than ever, but it was easier to crawl aft to reach the nuts on the pulpit bolts. Also without being able to use the quarterberths I had on Friday found the perfect place to sit on GANNET: on the cabin sole leaning back against the V-berth and facing aft. Full sitting head room there; although part of that space directly under the mast is where I intend to install bigger batteries.
We got the pulpit replaced and a few other jobs done as well.
On the way home I reached up and found that some sealant had dropped onto my head. Carol said, “You can cut it out.”
I replied, “What? And leave a bald spot?”
Sunday, June 5, 2011