We left the dock with plenty of libations and great food again for a wonderful day of sailing -but of course no wind. But we made best of it - cracked open drinks and headed north toward Admiralty Inlet in hope of finding some wind. Ashley and Taylor were eager to help so we gave them some lessons on terminology relating to sails and lines, and they helped us get the main hoisted. With the main up, everyone settled and pulled out the rigging for the spinnaker we had aboard and got it ready to fly tacked from the bow. Got real interested in the chute after having seeing it out of the bag for the first time when John Wolfe, the Edmonds PHRF handicapper measured it in the morning to provide us with our rating for racing the rest of this year.
After getting things rigged, Ashley, Taylor and Adam teamed up to help get spinnaker hoisted and flying. With Sarah helming we worked together to get this huge chute flying the very little wind we had. It looked great, but was huge. I'm excited to get it flying in more wind and with a pole. After awhile we doused the spinnaker as a team and got ready to head north again under power. However, we got a bit ahead of ourselves leaving a spinnaker sheet over the side. No sooner than Sarah put the engine into gear, I was yelling stop as the spinnaker sheet in my hand began to quick get pulled out as it wrapped around the prop. Hooray for drama!
So we tried to pull the line a bit to see if it would free, but of course it wouldn't we wouldn't be that lucky. What's next? Well this was totally new territory but I'd heard that the best way to do this was a dive. Lucky enough I found an old snorkeling mask in the back of the boat that the previous owner, perhaps even the owner before him, had left on the boat. In just a few minutes, I was prepping to go on my first dive in Puget Sound since I was about 7 years old and apologizing to everyone about getting to see way too much of me on this sail (I did leave the boxers on). A quick fit of the mask, and nice jump off the stern later I was in the water - nothing like the chilly waters of the Sound.
I swam around to the fouled line, refit my mask, asked Adam to hold the fouled line firmly so I could use it as a guide to the prop. A few dives down and back later, I had unwrapped the spinnaker line from the prop without having to cut it - at least got to save a few bucks. Wasn't a fun process, but it was effective and interesting. Haven't seen that perspective on the boat in the water. My only real words after emerging from the water were 'Ah shrinkage' as I looked forward to testing the shower which still should be warm from the engine running earlier.
Engine started fine, ran a bit rough at first but soon it settle and was running like normal. The shower was great and we were soon back to normal headed north for Admiralty. In just a little while were in some wind, and Taylor took the helm after we unfurled the jib and got us sailing well.
We all enjoyed lunch and snacks, traded stories and enjoyed the sun and wind. Watched a few ships go out to sea and many, many cruisers returning from their weekend. Among the various bits of fun were a boogie down show in the cockpit, an unscheduled full moon on the bow, a lesson on how to properly relieve one's self on a sailing vessel, some story telling and much sailing with and without wind. We even saw a few dolphins hunting for their lunch.
After drifting through some tidal ebbs, we found wind south of Possession Point and sailed swiftly home.
It was a great day once again capped off with a crew picture taken after I asked them to 'assume the position'... here's the pics. Oh... we have a great group of friends!!
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