After three days of dawn to dusk work on the Wake-Up Riley, we got him in the water the evening of Tuesday, June 28th. Since it was evening, all we did was use the trolling motor and put him in his slip.
June 29, 2005
Mom and I were going to take the sailboat out for the first sail of the season today, but we didn�t get to the boat until late morning and by the time I had finished up some miscellaneous things (attaching the boom, bending the sails on, fixing the shrouds) the wind was blowing hard and we decided it wasn�t a good time to take the boat out after so long.
June 30, 2005
Mom and I motored out onto Siltcoos Lake around 10 am. The wind was blowing pretty good. Once we got out near the middle, I had Mom take the tiller and point us into the wind so I could raise the sails. The jib sheets got tangled in the mast-raising pole, and the main didn�t go up very easily. We sailed downwind wing and wing for awhile, then when turning I accidentally jibed us, but no one was hurt. As we were tacking back, the jam cleats for the jib sheet failed � little plastic ball bearings poured out of each of them. The wind really picked up at that point, with big gusts tearing down the lake towards us. I decided to lower the sails and motor back � I wasn�t having fun. The electric trolling motor I had purchased wasn�t making any progress against the heavy gusts, so I decided to go west towards the shore, hoping the trees there would shelter us against the wind a bit. If anything, the wind was harder there. I was at just over half battery power and I felt we wouldn�t make it back. We dropped anchor near the shore so as not to lose any ground. It was then I noticed that the fierce wind had blown my excess mainsail halyard off the cleat and up into the rigging � there was no way to get to it. I was hoping somebody would give us a tow back to the marina, but the only person that passed close wouldn�t come any nearer. It wasn�t uncomfortable � it was actually pretty warm between gusts. Mom and I just kicked back, had a couple of sodas, and hung out for a bit. Finally I was getting a bit bored so I made a plan to cut the anchor line ( I didn�t feel the trolling motor was strong enough to dislodge it against those gusts), drift a bit south with the gusts, using the trolling motor to steer until we would be in a cove just aways from us, raise the jib in the relative calm, and sail back under jib alone. I told Mom to get ready, that we were going to go after the next gust, and after it ended I cut the anchor line and we were off. However, suddenly it felt pretty calm so I just headed back with the trolling motor going. There were a couple of intense gusts, but it was not near as bad as it had been. We got into the slip just fine and I created a new �to do� list.