Late Friday night Guy Stewart drove to Erie and we bunked on
board planning an early start as we were scheduled for a 9am launch at Bay
Harbor Marina (BHM). We still had a
number of things to prepare: moving a
car to the LeClair Point Marina, filling the jerry cans with diesel, preparing
dock lines & fenders, checking all the thru-hulls and removing the ladder
from the boat.
Gerard and his helper were right on time and immediately
began moving Kelly to the launch well at BHM.
The new radar unit atop its 8 foot pole provided a significant challenge
to using the BHM travelift. Fortunately,
Gerard, Harbormaster Extraordinaire, found a solution by lowering Kelly and the
radar post below the crossbar, then raising Kelly off the hydraulic lift with
the radar unit aft of the crossbar and the backstay forward of the
crossbar. It required very careful
handling as any fore & aft sway would have easily damaged both the radar
and the backstay/rigging, but Gerard was cool and professional and accomplished
the task with aplomb.
Once Kelly was floating and free of the travelift straps,
Guy and I warped her quickly forward to a dock space well away from the busy
launch well. Once there we got to work
confirming that all thru-hulls were doing their jobs keeping the lake on the
outside. With that priority handled, we
methodically went through all the work, FUN WORK :-) ,
of getting Kelly ready to sail. I truly
enjoy the work of rigging the boat and getting her ready to sail. Guy and I bent on the genny and mainsail, rigging
the sheets, barber haulers, furling line, lazy jacks, and making all the lines
shipshape coiling and hanking the tails.
After some past history I have where we needed the sails on an initial
launch trip, I insisted that Kelly be fully rigged for sailing before we left
the dock for her new slip at LeClair Point.
The trip out of BHM was very short as we immediately stopped
next door at the fuel dock at
neighboring Perry's Landing Marina to top off both new fuel tanks. Fortunately, the old problem of fuel bubbling
out of the fill hose is now gone with all new fill and vent hoses, so the
fueling was entirely uneventful. Guy and
I proceeded to the new slip where we tied up and I carefully reminded Guy to
get his car keys so he could drive me back to pick up my car at BHM. It is only a mile so Guy had me at my car in
no time. I hopped out and dug my hands
into my pocket for the car keys that I conveniently left on board Kelly, back
at LeClair Point! Fortunately, Guy had a
coat hanger and I had left the rear windows slightly open so I rigged a door
lock opener and used the spare key I had left in my bag in the car to drive
back to LeClair Point.
Just as we were driving away from LeClair Point to get my
car, we saw Bill and Sarah Paviol arriving, so they were already loading gear
on board for our overnight sail weekend.
That was done in a few minutes, so Guy and the Paviols left for food
shopping while I continued with some last minute preparations for our weekend
sail. They stowed the food and off we
went.
 |
| “We're Sailing!” |
“We're Sailing!”
Well actually, we were motoring so it might be more accurate
to say “we're cruising”. At least we
were off the dock and enjoying the freedom of the unbounded waters and clean
air. Speaking of air, while clean, it
was also quite calm. The motoring was
smooth and easy, so we took off through the channel, fiddling with the new
radar to match the radar with the underlying chart features. Once free of Presque Isle Bay, we set the
sails, killed the motor and drifted quietly to nowhere. There was absolutely no wind at all. Nobody cared, as we were finally on Kelly,
enjoying the beautiful day and each other's company. So after 15 minutes of drifting aimlessly, we
struck the sails, fired the motor and drove directly to Marina Lake within
Presque Isle State Park.
The new anchor was connected to the old rode and lowered
over the side to fix our spot for the night.
Bill, Guy, Sarah & I lowered the dinghy from the davits, clamped the
new Torqeedo electric motor into place on the transom and we each spent
significant time playing with the newly motored dinghy.
We easily fell into our routine of years past when Guy &
Bill returned, fired up the propane grill and prepared a delicious dinner of
grilled chicken wings and burgers. I washed the few dishes quickly and we enjoyed our beers in the cockpit. Guy & Sarah did damage to their root beer
inventory while Bill & I made our mark on the supply of Yuengling.
Sunday morning dawned early when Guy & Bill went off at
6am to play with the dinghy & new motor.
They said they were fishing again, but I suspect they are merely suppressed power boaters! :-)
On their return to Kelly IV, they prepared a wonderful
breakfast of eggs, toast, ham and juice.
As Sunday morning was cloudy and gray, we were slow to move and just
hung out in the cockpit until
Sarah's fun with the motorized dinghy was not to end
anytime soon as she took me on a trip to dump our garbage in the proper bins at
the park's fuel dock. Then she took her
dad and Guy on another trip into the ponds and marshes on Presque Isle. When they finally returned, we had a tasty
lunch and chased the newly minted sunshine across Presque Isle Bay to Kelly's
new slip. The Paviols departed for
points south while Guy and I rigged the dinghy suspended from the davits with
her boat cover, but hanging on her side to shed any rain and avoid any
resulting puddles in the cover.
Guy's commitments with his kids dragged him away to leave me
to repack the v-berth to accommodate all the charts, books, sewing machine, and
tools I had brought with me from home.
It took a few hours, but I finally got the two big plastic bins full of
charts and books secured safely behind the new lee cloth in the v-berth. I also got the first few bags of food stowed
away.
Monday began windy, cloudy, grey, and rainy, but that didn't
stop my progress in the final preparations.
I took some measurements, bought a board, some u-bolts and eye screws,
then built a spot for the 3 jerry cans to be lashed at the port bow. Kelly had several pieces of chain in various
places, fore and aft, so I took all of it off the boat, laid each length of chain
side by side and measured them, so I'd know what we actually have. It turns out that our chain inventory
includes 35 feet and 10 feet lengths of
5/16” chain, 20 feet and 17 feet lengths of 3/8” chain, and 7 feet of 1/4”
chain. All of these fit nicely in the
forward on deck anchor locker once I removed all the line. I retied the new anchor so it should be
secure on the bow and tied hanks of the other lines on the bow pulpit. The bow
pulpit has two anchor lines (150 feet and 200 feet), 4 dock lines (75 feet
each), 1 block and tackle with line for the crane (100 feet), and two bow dock
lines (30 feet each) tied on both sides.
Once I refilled the water tank, Kelly IV was level on her
waterline. Previously, with all the new
weight added to the stern (radar, solar panels, larger fuel tanks, jerry cans
in aft starboard lazarette, dinghy and davits), Kelly was down a couple inches
at the stern. Shifting the chain, lines,
jerry cans, and chain forward helped put Kelly back on her proper lines.
In other words, we're actually beginning the provisioning
for the Big Cruise! It is hard to
believe that in less than a week our departure date will be here.
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