The Great Wander

On Facebook, when I published last week’s post, I wrote that we were hoping to leave for St. Augustine the next day.  I later posted that it was not a full blog post, but that we didn’t get to depart.  The more I’ve thought about it, there really is a story there that I think is probably worth sharing.

Our plan had been to depart on Sunday.  Sandy had been repairing our sailbag. On Friday she finished that up.  So, Saturday morning we were set to put the sailbag back on the boom.  In order to do that, you have to raise the mainsail.  Since we were at the dock, that meant that we needed to wait until we had no wind.  This would reduce the stress of the boom, mast, and not either push or pull us off the dock.

At the same time, we’ve had it on our to do list to replace the lazy jacks.  Lazy jacks help fold your sail as it comes down into the sailbag.  They form several triangles going from about halfway up the mast to about two thirds down the boom.  It’s a series of lines (ropes) running through some pulleys with four fixed points on each side of the sailbag.  Two lines would be easy to replace, because we could reach them easily from the roof of the salon.  

Two lines could be replaced without going up the mast if we taped the new line to the old line and pulled it through the pulley.  So, we started to do that, only about half way up, the tape came undone and both the old and the new lines came down and landed at our feet.  That meant, someone, Sandy, was going up the mast. As long as she’s going up, might as well replace the next level too.

So, I hoisted her up the mast and just then the wind picked up.  She was probably forty feet in the air, so any movement on the boat is exaggerated up there.  And then the wind and waves picked up.  Which meant that after she came down, the opportunity to raise the sail was gone.  So, Sunday morning was spent putting the sailbag back on.  That took longer than expected, it’s now brunch time.  We finished eating and a stomach bug hit me pretty hard.

Monday was off the table because of work.  I looked at the tide charts and the wind and determined that if we can get off the dock by 9:45, we should be ok.  The tide will have turned and we will be getting pushed off the dock, but it’s a narrow window because the wind is going to pick up.

Everything is ready, we are down to one dock line holding us on to the dock..I’m watching it. Once it gets tension, we should be good to go…and then the wind picked up a little bit earlier than anticipated.  There was no tension on that line and at that point it was time to put all the other dock lines back on.  Tuesday was no go. 

As I write this, Wednesday is predicted to have an 80% chance of thunderstorms, so I don’t think we are going to leave.  Thursday is 50% chance, so maybe we can leave Thursday.  Looking at the tide and wind charts, Friday from 12:30 to 2:00 is our best shot.  I haven’t looked at Saturday yet, because I’m hoping to publish this Friday morning and be on our way early Friday afternoon.  

In the boating world, you can have the best laid plans…but really you are at the mercy of any number of other factors.  You have to be willing to let go of your plans when things are not working out the way you expected.  You have to be willing to say, “Well, we’ll try again tomorrow or the next day.”  When things do go well, they go really well, when they don’t…sit back and enjoy where you are!