OK, it was Father's Day!  My daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter came down for the weekend.  I had to work all day Saturday so sailing was out. But Father's Day you would think that it would be a nice gesture to go sailing... no lunch with other family and then a dash to the airport.  So at 4:45 after dropping the fam off at the airport the wife and I headed for the boat to squeeze in a few hours sail time.  Lat time I was sailing the sail slides were hard to pull up the mast so I had picked up some "dry lube" spray.  I sprayed on a gentle coating and off we went. We backed out of the slip at 4:30.  But for some strange reason I couldn't make the turn into the wind, so I backed around until I could power out. (I realized the engine which is supposed to be securely locked in line was a bit off kilter and left to its own devices it would make nice gentle turns to port.  Note to self to check this before backing out every time.  Then up with the main.  But I couldn't pull it all the way up! I looked and nothing was jammed that I could see. I went up on deck and behind the Bimini was a sail tie.  When I tried a 3rd time to raise the sail (sail tie now off), the sail flew up, but as I checked ALL the sail slugs were off the mast!  Another trip to the mast to investigate was made.  It seems that some of my dry lube made its way to the screwed metal lug just above the mast slot and the lug was now sitting just above the boom and just below the slot.  After re-inserting all the slugs I raised the screw and tightened it down and we were off like a heard of turtles.  I looked like a rookie tonight in spite of 30+ years sailing the same waters.  Then we set out of the river in a light breeze (8 knots).  We ran out wing & wing for an hour. Then we turned and tacked back in another hour.  Considering the earlier disasters it was a nice evening.  We drove off with smiles.  It turned out to be a nice Father's Day after all.

Joe McCAry

Aeolus II

West River, MD USA

The Chesapeake Bay

Joe's blog

Chesapeake Bay