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| November 22, 2015 Post 49 |
| 2015 Season |
The season began in early May with a distinct downer. The “rebuilt” starter went on strike right after launch. Chris bolted on the Perkins starter and got us down to the Pleasant Beach dock. At the suggestion of the marina mechanic I took the old one over to Auburn's D W Diesel the next day. Within a day or two it was fixed! And it stayed fixed all summer. Yay!
The rest of the summer went off pretty smoothly. This year was a bit different from her previous seasons with us. We did a fair amount of day sailing and also took lots of photos of Sara B. She is playing an important role in an educational video, financed by a $5500 Kickstarter campaign plus other donors (the Rochester Community Boating Foundation among them).
As part of that project, we sent Sara B off to Main Duck Island once again. She sailed with Chris, Sue, and Rich S aboard. We did not do a lot of sailing on the cruise and mostly proceeded under diesel but we were blessed with some fantastic weather for photography. Among the other gear for this expedition Sara B hauled our little Iris+ drone in its plastic trunk “hanger” out to the island. We took some great aerial shots of the island and our harbor with it and also got some interesting underwater video of fish, the School House Bay wreck and a very cooperative snapping turtle. The snakes were shy though.
Later that summer on a brisk sunny July afternoon Chris, Rich, and Jim sailed a reefed down Sara B around Fair Haven Bay while I tried to take some video from anchored Titania. I got a few interesting shots, though a lot of them were a bit wobbly thanks to the chop and boat wakes hitting my photo platform. We decided to try again to get some sailing video from a steadier viewpoint in August. Chris did the camera work while Jim, Rich, and I sailed in a grand breeze back and forth in front of the west side jetty of the channel. That worked a lot better!
In between helping with the video the old boat did lots of day sailing. There were windy days and calm days and a few successful pick ups of the mooring under sail and a few misses. The water pump leak seems pretty stable. Dump the catchment bottle once a week, and the bilge stays dry. I think the drag and creep when in neutral might be improving a little. We hauled out Oct 8 too early for our preference. Then it got really nice for a week or two. Sigh. We also are experimenting yet again with winter covers in our windy winter storage location. This year we are trying a piece of roofing membrane spread over cabin top hatches and cockpit. It's heavy rubber. We shall see. The stuff does look pretty durable- I'll give it that.
We're thinking next year about trying to do a bit more of a trip. Possibly we might aim for an exploration of the Thousand Islands, Clayton, maybe some Canadian ports if we can figure out a way to do a crew swap mid way. And somehow keep the home front cats happy! Would anyone like to house sit in a quiet secluded woodsy spot in North Wolcott?