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| May 28, 2008 Post 21 |
| Ready for a Sail |
Sara B didn't get over three hundred yards from her dock before a passing angler had her in his camera sights. It's not hard to imagine what he saw-a little schooner whose graceful lines were like a memory of past days on Little Sodus Bay suddenly become solid and real and now, a time of grace and style and wholesome boat design remembered and brought to life again. A time when yachts were built of cedar and oak and spruce sometimes in the model of working sailboats. Early season sails are especially sweet because the traffic on the bay is generally light and the water is quiet and peaceful for ghosting along on light winds. Then as we glide slowly over flat water we can savor memories and day dreams of past cruises and sails still to come. Another summer almost here, we think. What will it bring this year for old Sara B?
Dressing Sara B |
Two weeks passed before she got a second sail in, as blustery gray weather and mid forty degree temperatures prevailed. Finally Memorial Day weekend saw a change. We enjoyed bright sun and considerably milder temperatures, though the lake still remains cool. We got Sara B out for a good romp and stomp Saturday sailing with reefed main and no outer jib in 10 to 20, then out again for a Sunday drift. That sail included three young sailors-in-the-making who hopefully will assist Captain Sue in doing boat rides in late July and August. The trainees worked on hoisting sail and coiling halyards, furling and most important of all putting on sail covers! (No, we still haven't got the new sail covers made yet!)
After our short slow sail, Chris reeved off new halyards. We decided to spring for a six hundred foot reel of three strand polyester. We think this will do all six halyards that are used to go aloft on and maybe the topping lift as well. Replacing that nasty stiff old line that made up main and fore peak and throat halyards with new line was very satisfying. The replacement halyards do look awfully bright white though. Hopefully, they'll soon pick up some grime so as to match the rest of her rigging!
Duck's eye view of Sara B sailing by |
We are hoping we can obtain an updated filter bowl adapter kit for the secondary CAV fuel filter which we can no longer get filter elements for. If (big if) we can, then we may be fairly well squared away in the mechanical department for the time being. We are hoping to take Sara B on a short late June cruise as well as to a gathering of local schooners on Sodus Bay next month. Please consider signing up for one of these events. Watch the sailing log for more details. The schooner “gam” on Sodus Bay is June 21 and 22 and we'll probably sail down Friday if you want to go. We can arrange a ride back to start point, as we'll probably not all be staying aboard Friday night. That event could include several other schooners including 90 year old Lotus. We'd like to then head over to Canada with Sara B for a couple of days ( and if enough people want to go, maybe we'll take Titania as well).
New halyards |
Sharing a great fresh breeze Saturday with Sara B, Ron Gill on his newly acquired boat, Tiger Lily |