Lake Erie Surfers then Conneaut - September 2006

Labor Day Weekend was intended to be a longer trip with plans for one or even 2 stops in Canada. With the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto blowing through, our plans for an overnight passage or 2 went with the wind. Keith Otto, Troy Cain, Jack vanArsdale and I had a quiet dinner Friday evening, September 1 to discuss what our Labor Day Sail would become. Jack and Troy had activities at home calling them, so they made plans to join Keith and I on Sunday morning in Erie, after the weather cleared out of Erie. Keith and I went to spend the weekend on board, but no sailing on Saturday!

Photo from internet (not my photo)

After spending much of the day indoors at the impressive Erie Maritime Museum (including a terrific tour of the tall ship Niagara) we drove out to the lighthouse on the channel’s North Pier. The Pier had green water washing over the concrete and spray from the 35 knot winds was blowing Over the top of the lighthouse, 42 feet above the water! We were in our full foul weather gear and we never stepped in front of the lighthouse, figuring the lighthouse should take the brunt of the waves’ power. There were several SURFERS on the beach!! They would walk out onto the pier carrying their surfboards, then step into the waves on the beach side (north side) of the Pier and surf the 400 feet into the beach on the 6 to 10 foot breaking waves.

On Sunday morning Troy and Jack joined Keith & I for a couple days of day sailing off Erie. We sailed in relatively flat water out on the open Lake then had dinner in town. We stowed the fold-a-boat dinghy on deck for a towing trial on Sunday. After a quiet overnight at anchor in Marina Lake, Presque Isle State Park, we had a great breakfast cooked on board. The trial was to see if we could tow the fold-a-boat lashed fast to the stern. The idea was to test if the dinghy might be towable, even in waves, if secured to the stern. After just a few minutes of towing the dinghy on Presque Isle Bay, Keith discovered that the rubber caps on the ladder legs were vibrated off and the ladder legs were gouging grooves into the plastic hull of the dinghy. Due to the growing damage, we had to drop off the dinghy at the marina. We did learn that if we could rig a viable chafe protector over the ladder legs, then the stern lashing may work quite well.

Keith, Troy, CaptMurph

We finished Monday by sailing several times up and down the bay, enjoying all points of sail. Although we had 2 nice days at sail, all of us are hoping for better weather the next time we plan a long trip on the Lake.

Chart courtesy of NOAA

Sunday, September 10th, Warren and Whitney Stewart and Jack vanArsdale came to Bay Harbor Marina for a work day sanding and applying Teak Oil to the external and internal woodwork on Kelly III. Even so, we took advantage of the fine weather for a brief afternoon day sail. We had a fun time, as short as it was.

Kelly III’s final sail of the season took place this past weekend as Nino Forlini, Bill Paviol and I sailed to and from Conneaut, Ohio. We had hopes of a sail to Canada, but the forecasted South winds (on the nose for a return from Port Dover) led us instead to sail a broad reach to Conneaut and a beam reach back to Erie. As most of you know, the weather was benign and beautiful. The light air enabled us to fly the twin genoa jibs and full main. Our PVC pipe whisker pole seems to fill the need in these light airs. Although stronger winds were forecast for Sunday, we didn’t see a strong breeze until the last hour as we approached the corner around Gull Point and sailed for the channel. A novice sailor, Nino finally experienced a 40 degree heel and some exhilarating deck washing!

While in Conneaut we met the dynamic and exuberant Dakota, a 7 year old dynamo of would-be sailor. He quickly stole our hearts as his dad, Rich, did some fishing and Dakota clambered all over Kelly III and Sea Capers, our neighbor at the Conneaut Municipal Pier (also an Erie boat). Of course, Dakota was very polite and did not come aboard until he was formally invited, a perfect gentleman! As usual, we frequently meet new friends that make every destination a great trip!

Presque Isle Bay Sailing - August 22, 2006

This past weekend we were hoping to sail to Port Dover, but the rain was too intense. Jack, Bob, Jim and I sailed through the rain, but stayed in the bay and soon anchored in Marina Lake for lunch. We spoke via radio with a visiting ketch, but without the dinghy (we left it at the dock) we were unable to visit. Later we sailed to Smuggler’s Wharf for dinner, then back to Bay Harbor Marina for the night.

Our good old Boy Scout Trail Tarp covered the cockpit so despite the rain overnight, we were cool and comfortable AND DRY! :-) On Sunday morning we sailed around the bay, avoiding the morning EYC race boats, then ended up back at anchor for another great lunch provided by Bob. We were so tired from sailing and eating that a nap was called for. Eventually we had a lazy trip back to the dock and went to Joe Roots for dinner. A lazy weekend, but still fun and we sailed about 21 miles up & down the bay.

Emerald Green Water - August 2, 2006

This past weekend Warren Stewart, his son Whitney, Jack vanArsdale and I had a terrific sail to Port Dover.

The wind at 8:15am on Saturday was a little on the light side, about 5 – 8 knots. We decided to put up all the sail Kelly III has: Twin Genoas and full Mainsail. My homemade whisker pole made from schedule 40 PVC pipe was severely tested as the wind kept increasing and actually bent the pole into a “U” without the pole breaking! Finally, as the wind got to about 12 knots or so, we pulled down the extra genny.

Guy, Whitney, Murph sailing Kelly III

Within an hour or so we began furling the standard genny. By Noon we tied in a reef in the Main, but almost immediately put the 2nd reef into the Main. With the 2nd reef we unfurled the genny to full size, but only for a short while. The wind continued to build and we continued to furl the Genoa. By 1:30pm we were approaching Long Point, but due to the weird, hazy conditions, still could not see Long Point until we were within 1.25 miles of the lighthouse!
We also saw the strangest water color I’ve ever seen in almost 20 years of crossing to Port Dover: There was an almost perfectly straight line from West to East, dividing the dark green water south of Long Point from a very pale, emerald, opaque water coming off of Long Point. My theory is that the sand was being washed off the southern shore of Long Point and the white-capped water kept the sand suspended so that the water off the Point was so pale the green was almost white. 

Emerald Green Water Off Long Point

All of us took turns steering but sometime after Jack took the tiller North of Long Point he took Kelly III to our max speed of the day of 8.3 knots! And this was with a double-reefed main and half-furled genny! My estimate is we were seeing a wind speed about 20 – 25 knots and waves of 2 – 4 feet. We saw the speedo hit rates well over 7 knots with some regularity, but when we checked the GPS, it showed a max speed of 8.3 knots which could only have happened while Jack was steering. Look out Troy! Jack has your record in sight!
Sunday was beautiful, but hot and with no wind at all, so we motored the entire trip back to Erie. Clearly, after the boisterous sail Saturday and the endurance motoring on Sunday, Kelly III is now working great!

Sailing Out, then Back into the Slip - NO MOTOR - July 15, 2006

On July 8 we had beautiful weather, although little wind for sailing until late at night. Since the motor is on the blink (a new fuel pump is on order) we SAILED FROM THE SLIP!! That’s right, the wind was light but steady out of the SW, so we sailed Kelly III directly from her slip into the open bay. Bob Allison, Mark Johnson, and Keith Otto were excellent crew as we had to warp Kelly III into a position to take advantage of the SW breeze, but once we were in position, it was an easy sail on the partially unfurled jib. We did have some work to do stepping the mast, so we could replace the masthead sheaves. With that in mind, we sailed to Presque Isle Marina to use the free gin pole there to step the mast. Unfortunately, the SW wind meant we’d have to short-tack the very tight channel into Marina Lake, so we accepted a tow from another friendly sailboat as the better part of valor.

Bob, Mark and Keith did a great job as we brought Kelly III into position to step the mast. However, I told Mark to “keep on cranking” even though he warned me there seemed to be a lot of tension. We soon heard a loud “BANG” which we discovered was the catastrophic failure of the port spreader casting on the mast. We replaced the 2 damaged masthead sheaves, jury-rigged support for the cracked aluminum casting and finally cast off into the light but favorable SW wind. I say favorable, because what was a short-tack situation coming in, was an easy run to leave Marina Lake. Only 100 yards out of the channel and into Presque Isle Bay, the wind died completely. Since we had plenty of food and drinks, and Excellent Companions, we decided to wait until the wind came back. We only had to sail about a mile back to Bay Harbor Marina, so it seemed a reasonable decision. Well, we tried my new whisker pole made from 2 sections of Schedule 40 PVC pipe, we hoisted both jibs, we tried multiple rigs and trims of all the sails, but to no avail. In fact, we were very slowly drifting toward the shoals east of the channel entrance to Marina Lake. As a precaution, we dropped anchor to stop our drift. It was after 11pm before we really got enough breeze to sail again, but the wind was changing to a southerly breeze. Easy enough to tack across the bay, but it would require our heading directly into the wind to enter Bay Harbor Marina (BHM) – with no engine! Well, it took 3 practice tries, but the fourth time was the charm! We organized ourselves, so that everyone knew exactly what their job was. I had the tiller and sailed close-hauled along the new seawall outside the Commodore Perry Yacht club to get some speed. Mark and Bob prepared themselves to fend off, then warp us in as we came close into BHM. Keith furled the jib at the proper moment so we didn’t drift backward, but kept our momentum thru the marina entrance. It looked like we knew what we were doing!! With about a knot of way still on, we unfurled the jib a few feet for a little more way, then just as quickly, furled it again as we turned upwind into the slip. Keith, Mark and Bob all were professional in the crewing and warping as we neatly came alongside – classic seamanship at its best!!

The sail into the slip was especially gratifying as the week before on Troy Cain’s Persistent, we sailed the mile or so up Whitehall Creek, Chesapeake Bay, without an engine and pulled into his slip along the seawall there. It was with a great feeling of accomplishment that our crew sailed Kelly III to her slip. The new fuel filter should be installed soon, as well as the new stainless steel replacements for both spreader castings. For some reason they think it is wise to replace them after 30 years and who am I to argue?

Three Sailing Weekends, May & June 2006

Memorial Day found Kelly III with crew of Keith Otto, his daughter, Amanda and her friend, Tom. We had to motor almost the entire way to Port Dover over an “oily sea”. We were out of sight of land for several hours on both Saturday and Sunday, due to the extremely thick haze.

Freighter on the horizon, "oily" seas

Still a quiet, comfortable 2 days on the water. An exciting event as we closed on Port Dover in the late afternoon, was that we got to try the second headsail. It was recut to fit the 2nd luff groove in the new roller furler extrusion. With a very light following breeze (maybe 3 – 7 knots) Kelly III made about 3 to 3.5 knots with twin headsails and the main. The great news is the 10 – 12 knots of breeze for the entire return trip on Sunday, from Port Dover to Erie! We had a terrific sail with the new roller furler doing a great job. Amanda proved she is every bit as talented a sailor on a displacement boat as she is on a Sunfish! Her dad confirmed his ability to prepare excellent sailing cuisine!

This past weekend we had 2 wonderful days of sailing! Troy Cain, Anthony Lewandowski and his better half Megan, and their friend, John Ricci, all arrived on Saturday morning for a day of perfect sun, wind and flat water for a beautiful first time sail on Lake Erie. Troy had no problem explaining that the weather didn’t always cooperate as well as it did on Saturday. All of us caught a sunny “glow” from the bright sunshine, but early application of sunscreen prevented a really harsh burn. Megan and Anthony prepared excellent sandwiches for lunch, huge subs with a ton of meat (just the way I like it!).

Sunday brought experienced sailor, Jack vanArsdale, who helped me host Warren “Guy” Stewart, his mother, Betty, and his three children, Justine, Whitney, and Kayla. Whitney and Guy have both sailed before and lent their helping hands as they demonstrated their sailing skills in front of the ladies. Mrs. Stewart was every bit as nimble as traditional crewman Jim Clark of a similar age. I believe Mrs. Stewart is the first “Royalty” we’ve had on board, as she was truly Queen of the boat! She presided with a calm, easy manner, quick laugh and shining, smiling face, despite her white, windblown, naturally beautiful locks. She was a joy to have aboard.

Murph, Guy, Whitney sail Kelly III

No less enjoyable were the entire crew on Sunday as Jack, Guy & Whitney did all the heavy lifting, while Kayla and Justine helped serve a terrific lunch while 5 miles offshore. Kelly III beat the rain to the dock by about 5 minutes, so we all climbed below during the brief rain to stay dry, if a bit warm. All in all, a terrific day with excellent breezes and a great daysail.

Prep for a New Season and Sailing! May 8, 2006

What a great weekend!

It was cool in temperature, but hot in accomplishments! Jack vanArsdale, Mark Johnson, Warren (Guy), Whitney & Justine Stewart, Troy Cain, and Jim Clark all came to Erie for the mast stepping and splashing of Kelly III. After stepping the mast we thought we discovered a problem with the newly recut and refurbished roller furling genoa. It seemed that the sail was cut about 4 inches too long. It seemed that I would need to return the sail to the sailmaker for cutting the excess 4 inches back to the proper length.

Even though the motor started with little trouble, we found water flowing out of the block at an alarming rate, by the time we inspected it while running in the slip. It seems the soft plug had been pushed out by the water pressure. Fortunately, Mark Johnson found the plug and reinstalled it. This reduced the leaking water to a trickle from the water pump gasket.

After sleeping on these 2 problems, “First Mate” Jim Clark suggested we prepare the roller furler for when I returned in a couple weeks with a repaired genoa. As Jim and Jack worked on wrapping the furling line onto the drum, they discovered that I had installed the rotating upper drum upside down. Meanwhile, Guy discovered problems with the fresh water pump at the galley sink. Guy and Jim took off to buy new plumbing for the fresh water system. Jack & I set to work on the roller furler. After significant consternation and effort, Jack & I disconnected the forestay, removed the lower furling drum, disconnecting the lowest extrusion tube, pulling off and re-installing the upper drum (but right-side up this time), re-assembling the extrusion, lower drum, and re-attaching the forestay.

Guy & Jim returned with Whitney and Justine and their team re-plumbed the fresh water system with new hose. While the hose was necessary due to the old and cloudy nature of the old hose, it seems the galley hand pump has failed and needs to be replaced. We decided to do that later.

After heading Kelly III into the wind, the entire team began the final rigging and furling of the roller furler and sail – now it all worked great! During this wrap up of the genoa, Nelson Roller (mechanic extraordinaire), showed up and inspected the motor. His verdict: “Go Sailing”! The leaking water pump gasket is not critical (though we’ll get it replaced next week) so we all head onto the bay for a brief, but beautiful sail on Presque Isle Bay. Well, all but Jim, but he did get his lost ring back from the marina, so even Jim is happy.

It was a challenging but satisfying weekend. Especially since we thought we had 2 MAJOR problems (a sail needing to be recut and a water gushing engine). Instead, we got things accomplished and went sailing!