Finally, we were sailing again.  All better now!

We are about to start our last year of homeschool.  Despite what some people think, it is not a lackadaisical thing if you do it right. It’s a lot of work and takes significant preparation. This year I am teaching Current Events, Civics (for the first semester and Economics for the second semester), and Chemistry.   Gayle teaches language arts, writing, and math–all the hard stuff.  There is Spanish and extra curriculars too. I am also an adjunct professor for the Marine Corps Command and Staff College Distance Education Program teaching a seminar one night a week at Camp Lejeune.  So, once the school years kicks off we have to find time to work on the boat and to sail.  Poised at the beginning of the school year I needed to get out for a sail to charge up my psychological batteries.

So, we managed a daysail on 4 September. There was zero wind on the Neuse River.  We drifted for about an hour under warm sunny skies. I didn’t care. I needed to feel the Far Reach moving under my feet no matter how slight the movement might be. But after awhile the breeze filled and settled in at a steady 12 knts.  We sailed with the big jib, the stays’l, and full main. We tacked, reached, and ran.  It felt wonderful. The Cape Horn windvane, however, seemed a little sluggish.  It was a very nice day. We were back in the slip a few hour later. I felt “mo betta.”

The next day, I went back to the boat and looked the vane over closely. I could feel friction in it when I turned the linkages. I suspected that sand and grit from the large gravel parking lot at the boatyard was the culprit. For a year, the Far Reach had her stern to a near constant breeze that stirred up clouds of the dust and stand intermingled with the gravel. No doubt some of the debris had found its way into the fittings and bushings of the vane.  So, I removed the windvane tower and took it home.  I took it apart on the bench–I had exchanged emails with Eric Sicotte, the Nephew of Yves Gelinas, who builds them.  I flushed the UHMW bushings with water, wiped them down with clean rags and sprayed silicone lubricant on the parts. I greased the only part that requires it and put it back together.  A couple days later I took it back to the Far Reach and reinstalled it.

Hopefully we will get back on the water soon.