Monthly Archives: April 2014

It’s blowin’.  Again.  And the forecast calls for it to blow a gale overnight when the front comes through with thunderstorms and the possibility, it’s said, of a tornado.  After the winter we all enjoyed, it’s been that kind of spring.  But as odd as it may seem, with what was seen aboard yesterday, the rain is well-timed.

Steadfast has been back in her slip for more than a week, so you’d think the focus would be getting her squared away to shove off.   Instead, shoreside obligations have taken precedence, the days getting ready to move out of the Richmond apartment by selling, consigning or shipping to storage everything there.  The S40 and Jetta were pretty much packed solid with stuff to be kept at the cottage.  Not a lot of stuff fit into that last category but enough to leave stacks of crates, boxes and bags in the guest room and make the sunroom unusable.

Bit by bit, that “stuff” has been sorted and stored appropriately in the attic or elsewhere.  The cottage gradually is becoming livable again.  So last week, on a day that–what do you know?–felt a lot like spring, it was down to the pier with vacuum and buckets and towels for the first step in getting the cabin ready, i.e., wiping down all the bulkheads, lockers and cabin sole.  You want to do that (right?) before you bring down the cushions and start filling lockers.  You want to get in all the corners (right?) and clean up the gradoo that just appears over the winter.  And, of course, that brownish-yellowish-sort-of-streak on the cabin sole that looks as if some water trickled out from someplace, maybe over there at the base of the mast.

Ahhhh-GHEEEEE!  The MAST!!  Oh, man, not a leak in the mast step.

Whatever caused the streak that stained the gelcoat in this corner, the streak wiped up and (so far) hasn’t returned.

Therein begins the string of thoughts of what-could-happen-nows (deck rot, mast coming down under sail and other such thrills) and what-may-not-happen, as in, our planned departure on / about 19 May.

No doubt sensing the angst then rampant here, Adam agreed to stop here on his way home from work, Friday evening no less, to take a look at it.  Adam’s the yard manager at Zimmerman Marine, the diagnostician, so to speak.  It’s good to know some “doctors” still make house calls.

After discussing at some length over a cold IPA all options, alternatives and permutations we could think of; then Sunday aiming the dock hose at the suspect area of the deck for 20 minutes; and talking it through on the phone Monday with Gerry Hutchins, the builder, at his office in Clearwater; it was decided…there’s a good chance the stain was from something the skipper spilled on one of his trips below over the winter.

There was a heckuva storm Friday night, a real downpour with gale-force winds, but no evidence of a leak Saturday morn.  And nothing since, despite the rain and drizzle that continue this week.  Another good soaking is forecast tonight and, as much as it’d be good to get going on the boat, Nature’s help in further testing is okay, too.

This one we want to be sure of.

Steadfast, out.

It’s Patriots’ Day, which would seem an appropriate occasion for a fly-over by the three F-15s that roar overhead, seemingly just above the treetops.  But celebrating the patriots of ’76 is not the reason these three fly in formation over the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  This is Virginia not Massachusetts.  And these Eagles are northbound on a training flight, a near-daily if brief interruption of the usual quiet of Queens Creek.

Down here on the creek, a light southerly caresses the deck of Steadfast.  Yes, she’s home.  Finally.  The vacant slip seemed so forlorn but it was a good year to have her out of the water, safe from the ice, snow and succession of nor’easters that punctuated winter.

But there’s only so much to be done under the cover that zips from stem to stern.  When the chill finally abated–for a couple of days, at least–the scramble was on to polish and wax the hull.  Big job in a short span.

Polished and waxed, the hull reflects neighboring boats in the late day sun.

The next morning, the ZMI crew had her back in the water and it wasn’t long before she was on her way ’round Stingray Point and back home.

Now the work begins in earnest, getting her ready to head back to New England.  Today, the cabin bulkheads benefited from a good scrub.  The cabin sole went back in place after lunch, dressed in a fresh four coats of varnish applied in the shop in weeks past.  And then the full-length battens, which were underfoot in the cabin, were slipped into the pockets on the main.  The longest, of course, seemed not to want to cooperate.  This led to an inspection of the batten car at the mast, which meant lifting each flake in the luff rope, one at a time until a stowaway emerged.  An angry hornet, hoping to find a home, made known his displeasure at being disturbed.

No harm done, though.  He buzzed in a tight circle, then flew off.

Still, the earlier fly-over is much preferred.

Steadfast out.