June 2007

What a wonderful feeling seeing our home again after an eight month absence. Sitting in the rear of the storage building, where she had been protected from the harsh Maine winter, complete with a new coat of bottom paint and buffed topsides, we found KLOOSH… looking great.

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Well, that was until we climbed up on the deck. Lots of cleaning would be needed here. Then we went below and agreed a major clean up was needed first thing.

Peter Johanson, the boatyard owner, graciously allowed us to go to work getting KLOOSH ready to live on. We cleaned and stowed for the next four days. All the gear we brought seemed to fit, though most of it is still in a state of transit from one locker to another.  Establishing a pecking order of importance for each item is helping us to decide on which locker to stow each item in.  For example, how often an item is used, or how important an item would be in an emergency (such as safety equipment) helps us to  decide what to put in the handiest lockers.  Cheryl, of course, rates galley gear ahead of some of the hundred or so tools that John has.  John points out that it takes more tools to fix a diesel than to fix an omelet.   So, as usual we are negotiating a few items.

Not wanting to make for a dull couple with all work and no play, we spontaneously joined Denis and Pam for a meal at their secluded-in-the-woods < namespace="" prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xml="true">Camden home.  They smoked a chicken, tossed a salad and we brought the wine and dessert.  They also own a Sceptre yacht (hull # 1), which they sailed to Panama over the winter, and we thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie and conversation. 

Launch Day! The hydraulic trailer came and gently lifted KLOOSH with no problem. Amazingly, it was very similar to launching the family motor boat off the trailer at the lake. All our fretting for naught, KLOOSH floated free and was tied up to the city dock in a, thankfully, anti-climatic fashion.

Now all we need is a mast and we will have a sailboat. Boats are launched at high tide but masts are stepped at low tide so there was enough time to catch our breaths from the launching and work up a good head of steam on worrying about stepping the mast, attaching all the new standing rigging (wire cables that hold up the mast).

Peter and rigger Dale,  had all in hand until trying to attach the spilt backstay. This is the cable that goes from the stern of the boat to the top of the mast. About ten feet above the deck it splits into two cables, each one going to a rear corner of the boat. The cables came within a couple of inches of connecting, but would not.

After a bit of head scratching it was decided to replace the plate that connects the cables at the junction where the backstay splits ten feet above deck level. A new plate would be manufactured but not until Monday. So we were stuck in picturesque Rockport Harbor over the weekend on one of Peter’s moorings.  What a hardship!  Most crews pay to stay here.

Monday rolled around, the part arrived, it worked, and KLOOSH is a sailboat once again. Tuesday we went for our first sail of 2007. The wind held a steady 15 knots and KLOOSH sailed flawlessly. Peter and Dale did a great job in tuning the rigging and the mast stayed straight as we tacked upwind off Rockport to Rockland.

Wednesday arrived with a rainy cold front passing through, so we spent the day readying for an early departure tomorrow morning, bound for Portland, ME.

Thursday, June, 21^st:  Underway at 5:30 AM to take advantage of the tide.  We arrived in Booth Bay by noon, a distance of 44 miles by sea. At times we were approaching 8 knots over the ground with over 6 through the water.  We had two very good points of sail during the morning.  This is the stuff that makes all the efforts to go sailing worthwhile.

We grabbed a mooring in Booth Bay ($30.00!) and walked to the center of town for ice cream and a chance to stretch our legs. Booth Bay is pretty much geared for the tourist crowd, crowded with t-shirt and novelty shops.  Though the harbor is charming, it too is crowded.  We dinghied over to a 3 masted ship, an exact replica of the Bounty, which was built in 1961 for a Hollywood film.  It is being restored by Booth Bay Shipbuilders.

Awakening to an overcast Friday morning, Cheryl urged John to get going earlier than planned to avoid afternoon thundershowers.   A lucky call on her part as we later heard a report that a thunderstorm moved over Booth Bay packing 33 knot winds and hail. Meanwhile we had 15 to 20 knots out of the NW and were able to sail most of the 35 mile trip.

Arriving in Portland with winds gusting to the high teens John’s stress level gusted even higher while dreading getting KLOOSH into a new-to-us/sight-unseen slip. Cheryl suggested tying up on the end of the dock and taking a look at what we had to get into before committing. Another good suggestion as we were able to preplan the maneuver and it went fairly well.  We had rounded up the dockmaster ahead of time (just in case) who did give an extra hand as the wind attempted to push 21,000 lb. Kloosh  (not counting the weight of all of John’s tools and Cheryl’s mountain of galley gear) onto the dock.  

At any rate, we have thankfully snugged in for the night, are warm and dry and are safely listening to the wind, as it now gusts into the 20s.