Nov 1, 2008
Yesterday we decided to take a nice day off from it all. Dan longed for grass and trees and I craved going to a beach. So we thought, hey, why not go up on West Hill and see what happens from there. So, we put some fuel in the tank and headed on our way. Half way up, the view was already magnificent. The day was so clear that it looked like you could practically reach out and grab Catalina. The island itself was mysterious looking, however. It revealed itself as a silhouette shrouded with low cloud cover, sitting amidst the gorgeous blue ocean. Once we get up and running, it will be one of our first shakedown cruise destinations.
The inaccessible island:
We followed the road all the way to the top of the the mountain, where it dead-ended with a radar installation crowning the peak. It wasn't a very welcoming environment, being surrounded by barbed-wire fence and brandishing a sign stating, "YOU ARE BEING VIDEO TAPED". So we decided to head back down the road a bit to try and get a scenic view. Sadly, there were no places to park near the peak. I wanted to get some pictures of the amazing landscape, so Dan dropped me off and went for a quick drive while I snapped some shots.
One of those shots (with fancy labels):
After Dan picked me up from the side of the road, we realized we hadn't satisfied our cravings. While coasting down the hill, we spotted some cliffs descending to a very alluring beach. We made this our new destination.
We found a parking spot near the beach path and followed some trails that lead right down to the water. The weather was perfect. There was a fair breeze but the sun was beating down hard enough to merit shirt removal.
We walked along the beach for quite a while, enjoying the fresh air coupled the coarse shale sand under our feet. During our leisurely walk, I thought I'd try using some of the features of this refined piece of technology I was lugging around. Most of my attempts didn't precipitate very well, but I did manage to get a pretty cool picture of a wave running up the beach:
Another pretty shot prevented itself when the same wave receded and left a highlighted feast of a photo. I switched back to aperture priority and shot this:
As we were heading back I took an shot of Dan, which completely dwarfed the cliff behind him. Our path down to the beach actually originated from the top of that cliff. It was a fairly short hike from a park stationed near a golf course that we set our eyes on. You can actually stand quite near the edge on a little grassy knoll (which a family had picnicked upon):
I also gathered two more nice shots from this foray, one I've labeled “Feets” and the other “Don't Do It, You Have So Much Sailing to Live For”:
All of the above shots were taken with the Olympus E-1 my father so kindly gifted me for this trip, with the 40-150mm lens attached. They were all taken with varying f-stops in aperture priority mode with the exception of the swell coming up the beach which was shot in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/20 sec while panning with the wave.
After this nice day of relaxation, we went right back the work on our sails. First thing the next morning, we went over the bridge into Wilmington and joined Erik at T/A Sails. We arrived bright and early (a few minutes before Erik, even) and immediately got to it. First thing we did was remove our newly-shined jib hasps from the white vinegar and gave them a rinse. They looked much better than before. Where previously they looked like these freshly-removed grommets:
They now look like:
After giving those a quick rinse, we got to work mending our sails. First was the zero light air spinakker that came with the boat. It had two small tears in it, that were easily mended. Erik showed us the procedure step-by-step. First thing to do is cut out an appropriate size dacron patch to be placed over the tear. Once that has been done, you line the edges of it with seamstick (a strong double-sided tape). From there, you take the sail and stretch it taught and tack down the edges. Then you place the patch on and rub the seamstick to bond it. Afterward, you sew the patch into place with a zigzag stich or (as Erik used) a triple step and then, finally, cut off the excess torn sail on the other side of the patch. Here's a picture of the tacked down sail, pre-patch. Erik is peeling off the seam stick, readying the dacron patch for application:
After fixing our spinakker, we moved onto our mainsail. This one had a bit more work to be done. There were many a rip in the tape (it seemed to be too lightweight) on both the luff and the foot of the sail. So I cut out about forty feet worth of four-ounce dacron tape and hot knifed each edge. While I was doing this, Dan got to work on removing the headboard, which disconcertingly involved taking a drill press to the sail:
With the headboard removed, we were able to append the new luff tape to the edge. Well, more like we were able to watch and learn while Erik did all the work for us. Here's one of the tears that littered the luff. This one happens to be the one nearest the headboard, making it the worst:
And the repair:
That pretty much wrapped up that day of sail work. From there, we flaked our sails up, bagged them, and headed back home. There's still much work to be done on our sails. Before we left, I got a very nice lady who walked in to take this beautiful picture of me doing my best contraposto pose:
And one more treat from the sail loft was this item. It fell out of one of the giant spinakkers that we were helping Erik inventory. It plays music when you wind it and all!:
November 7, 2009:
Today, we once again got up bright and early to work at the sail loft. It was a day of pure production. Most of our time was occupied by our original mainsail. It still needed a lot of work. We pulled it out and Erik finished the sewing the luff tape around the reefing grommets. After that was done, I was given the task of adding two number fives on each side of the sail with insignia cloth. We did this because we found the sail labeled only with a two on each side and our hull number is 52. So I cut out a couple fives and Erik demonstrated the procedure with the pure precision of a master sail worker. My attempt was a little less stellar although it still came out well enough. Here's a picture of my handiwork:
Erik stated that we needn't worry about the mismatched colors because soon the five will fade to the same blue as the two.
After the spankin' new numbers were put on, Erik sewed on batten pocket reinforcements. This left only the grommets and slides left. Erik wasn't pleased with the previous grommet spacing as it put too many grommets near the reefing area (an area of high strain). His experience with sails gifted him the ability to easily draft out new whole new grommet positions at about thirty inches apart on the luff and fifteen on the foot. He also had us add two grommets spaced closely near the clew to take the load if the clew were to become unlashed. Here's him and Dan pondering the new grommet spacing (that's Dan's pondering pose):
And here's another of him going it alone with a cool shot of the Cascade logo and our hull number:
While they were doing that, I cut out and folded a safety signal flag. The purpose being if we were to be caught in a storm and needed rescuing, we would be seen much easier with this thing strapped on deck. Hopefully it will stay in storage forever. After I folded it, Erik sewed it up for me then I punched in the grommets:
The day was nearing an end and we were growing weary of sailmending. Dan hammered on some new jib hanks that we had managed to scavenge and we headed home for the day. Monday we will resume our sail work or maybe even tomorrow if we're feeling frisky.
Nov 8, 2009
We did end up going back to the sail loft today. We learned some pretty cool new things, branding this my favorite visit yet. As soon as we got there we went straight hands-on into the main slides. Erik showed us how to sew our mainsail slides back on with a bit of webbing. We each grabbed a sailor's palm, a needle, and some thread and tackled the task in no time. Along with a few added telltails, that's all our main needed. I hammered on the remaining hasps for our medium-air genoa and that sail was finished as well. Tonight we came back with two more sails and a couple of grins on our faces.
In between our T/A visits we have been accomplishing other things as well. Dan has been working on our water tanks, both of which leak, and I have been finishing up the sanding on our hard bottom dinghy. The water tanks need another day of work but the dinghy is ready for its final coats. Along with those two projects, we installed a brand new VHF radio, an Icom 422. It looks pretty sparkly. The antenna may need some adjustment, but it works well otherwise.
I'll leave you guys with a picture I snapped of the Al Larson Marina harbor a few nights ago. I shot this in aperture priority mode with a shutter at 30 seconds exposure time:
Yesterday we decided to take a nice day off from it all. Dan longed for grass and trees and I craved going to a beach. So we thought, hey, why not go up on West Hill and see what happens from there. So, we put some fuel in the tank and headed on our way. Half way up, the view was already magnificent. The day was so clear that it looked like you could practically reach out and grab Catalina. The island itself was mysterious looking, however. It revealed itself as a silhouette shrouded with low cloud cover, sitting amidst the gorgeous blue ocean. Once we get up and running, it will be one of our first shakedown cruise destinations.
The inaccessible island:
We followed the road all the way to the top of the the mountain, where it dead-ended with a radar installation crowning the peak. It wasn't a very welcoming environment, being surrounded by barbed-wire fence and brandishing a sign stating, "YOU ARE BEING VIDEO TAPED". So we decided to head back down the road a bit to try and get a scenic view. Sadly, there were no places to park near the peak. I wanted to get some pictures of the amazing landscape, so Dan dropped me off and went for a quick drive while I snapped some shots.
One of those shots (with fancy labels):
After Dan picked me up from the side of the road, we realized we hadn't satisfied our cravings. While coasting down the hill, we spotted some cliffs descending to a very alluring beach. We made this our new destination.
We found a parking spot near the beach path and followed some trails that lead right down to the water. The weather was perfect. There was a fair breeze but the sun was beating down hard enough to merit shirt removal.
We walked along the beach for quite a while, enjoying the fresh air coupled the coarse shale sand under our feet. During our leisurely walk, I thought I'd try using some of the features of this refined piece of technology I was lugging around. Most of my attempts didn't precipitate very well, but I did manage to get a pretty cool picture of a wave running up the beach:
Another pretty shot prevented itself when the same wave receded and left a highlighted feast of a photo. I switched back to aperture priority and shot this:
As we were heading back I took an shot of Dan, which completely dwarfed the cliff behind him. Our path down to the beach actually originated from the top of that cliff. It was a fairly short hike from a park stationed near a golf course that we set our eyes on. You can actually stand quite near the edge on a little grassy knoll (which a family had picnicked upon):
I also gathered two more nice shots from this foray, one I've labeled “Feets” and the other “Don't Do It, You Have So Much Sailing to Live For”:
All of the above shots were taken with the Olympus E-1 my father so kindly gifted me for this trip, with the 40-150mm lens attached. They were all taken with varying f-stops in aperture priority mode with the exception of the swell coming up the beach which was shot in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/20 sec while panning with the wave.
After this nice day of relaxation, we went right back the work on our sails. First thing the next morning, we went over the bridge into Wilmington and joined Erik at T/A Sails. We arrived bright and early (a few minutes before Erik, even) and immediately got to it. First thing we did was remove our newly-shined jib hasps from the white vinegar and gave them a rinse. They looked much better than before. Where previously they looked like these freshly-removed grommets:
They now look like:
After giving those a quick rinse, we got to work mending our sails. First was the zero light air spinakker that came with the boat. It had two small tears in it, that were easily mended. Erik showed us the procedure step-by-step. First thing to do is cut out an appropriate size dacron patch to be placed over the tear. Once that has been done, you line the edges of it with seamstick (a strong double-sided tape). From there, you take the sail and stretch it taught and tack down the edges. Then you place the patch on and rub the seamstick to bond it. Afterward, you sew the patch into place with a zigzag stich or (as Erik used) a triple step and then, finally, cut off the excess torn sail on the other side of the patch. Here's a picture of the tacked down sail, pre-patch. Erik is peeling off the seam stick, readying the dacron patch for application:
After fixing our spinakker, we moved onto our mainsail. This one had a bit more work to be done. There were many a rip in the tape (it seemed to be too lightweight) on both the luff and the foot of the sail. So I cut out about forty feet worth of four-ounce dacron tape and hot knifed each edge. While I was doing this, Dan got to work on removing the headboard, which disconcertingly involved taking a drill press to the sail:
With the headboard removed, we were able to append the new luff tape to the edge. Well, more like we were able to watch and learn while Erik did all the work for us. Here's one of the tears that littered the luff. This one happens to be the one nearest the headboard, making it the worst:
And the repair:
That pretty much wrapped up that day of sail work. From there, we flaked our sails up, bagged them, and headed back home. There's still much work to be done on our sails. Before we left, I got a very nice lady who walked in to take this beautiful picture of me doing my best contraposto pose:
And one more treat from the sail loft was this item. It fell out of one of the giant spinakkers that we were helping Erik inventory. It plays music when you wind it and all!:
November 7, 2009:
Today, we once again got up bright and early to work at the sail loft. It was a day of pure production. Most of our time was occupied by our original mainsail. It still needed a lot of work. We pulled it out and Erik finished the sewing the luff tape around the reefing grommets. After that was done, I was given the task of adding two number fives on each side of the sail with insignia cloth. We did this because we found the sail labeled only with a two on each side and our hull number is 52. So I cut out a couple fives and Erik demonstrated the procedure with the pure precision of a master sail worker. My attempt was a little less stellar although it still came out well enough. Here's a picture of my handiwork:
Erik stated that we needn't worry about the mismatched colors because soon the five will fade to the same blue as the two.
After the spankin' new numbers were put on, Erik sewed on batten pocket reinforcements. This left only the grommets and slides left. Erik wasn't pleased with the previous grommet spacing as it put too many grommets near the reefing area (an area of high strain). His experience with sails gifted him the ability to easily draft out new whole new grommet positions at about thirty inches apart on the luff and fifteen on the foot. He also had us add two grommets spaced closely near the clew to take the load if the clew were to become unlashed. Here's him and Dan pondering the new grommet spacing (that's Dan's pondering pose):
And here's another of him going it alone with a cool shot of the Cascade logo and our hull number:
While they were doing that, I cut out and folded a safety signal flag. The purpose being if we were to be caught in a storm and needed rescuing, we would be seen much easier with this thing strapped on deck. Hopefully it will stay in storage forever. After I folded it, Erik sewed it up for me then I punched in the grommets:
The day was nearing an end and we were growing weary of sailmending. Dan hammered on some new jib hanks that we had managed to scavenge and we headed home for the day. Monday we will resume our sail work or maybe even tomorrow if we're feeling frisky.
Nov 8, 2009
We did end up going back to the sail loft today. We learned some pretty cool new things, branding this my favorite visit yet. As soon as we got there we went straight hands-on into the main slides. Erik showed us how to sew our mainsail slides back on with a bit of webbing. We each grabbed a sailor's palm, a needle, and some thread and tackled the task in no time. Along with a few added telltails, that's all our main needed. I hammered on the remaining hasps for our medium-air genoa and that sail was finished as well. Tonight we came back with two more sails and a couple of grins on our faces.
In between our T/A visits we have been accomplishing other things as well. Dan has been working on our water tanks, both of which leak, and I have been finishing up the sanding on our hard bottom dinghy. The water tanks need another day of work but the dinghy is ready for its final coats. Along with those two projects, we installed a brand new VHF radio, an Icom 422. It looks pretty sparkly. The antenna may need some adjustment, but it works well otherwise.
I'll leave you guys with a picture I snapped of the Al Larson Marina harbor a few nights ago. I shot this in aperture priority mode with a shutter at 30 seconds exposure time:
you put prevented. i think you mean presented. wow.
ReplyDeletewhat's your estimated departure date now?
From your neighbors from across the way. :)
ReplyDeleteNice site!
We're aiming for the end of this month now, but we're taking it one day at a time right now. We still have a hefty amount of items on our list. Hey neighbors! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience on how to make sails.
ReplyDelete