Posted by lance_ryley (lance_ryley@…>)
Hi all - just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you that sent
warm wishes for me and Pam. While the weather was a bit… eventful…
at times, our week out on Bright Star was fantastic in pretty much
every conceivable way. Except for a propane solenoid failure in
Cuttyhunk, everything else was pretty smooth. Say what you will
about West Marine, but after scouring MV for a new propane solenoid,
they had one overnighted to the marina for me. Not that we were in
any way starving, but it’s hard to do banana rum pancakes on the
force 10 grill.
The new main is crazy good. I had a hard time trimming it because it
had a tendency to look good no matter how it was set. definitely
having the loose foot gives you a lot of options for
powering/depowering the sail before you ever have to reef. We did
have one reef in it for a while, with two reefs in the mizzen, and
we were still motoring along at a good 5 kt clip. the best
performance, as always with the CK, came on beam - broad reaches. We
crossed from Vineyard Haven to Woods Hole with an easterly breeze at
an average speed of 6.5 kts. It almost made the stinging rain and
sub - 60 degree temperatures worth it 
Our last sail was from Sandwich marina to Boston on Saturday. They
predicted W winds and rain - it turned out (for the majority of the
day, anyway) to be NW winds and partly sunny. Very pleasant sailing
conditions, almost right on the course I wanted, except close
reaching to keep the boat speed above 4.5kts. The single mar on the
day was when I was putting out the Ensign just inside the canal,
turned around, and ran smack into the end of the mizzen boom. Pam’s
nothing if not a trouper, and had me butterflied up in about 5
minutes.
Maybe an hour out of the canal I saw a pleasant sight - a Freedom
schooner passed us to windward, putting a reef in the main but with
full fore as she went by. It’s a very good looking vessel with a
pilothouse - anyone know the length? 39 or so by the looks of it.
Anyway, she went by, we got a wave, and it wasn’t long before she’d
dusted us. I would have liked to have seen how we looked side by
side on a beam reach instead.
We sailed into the outer harbor just in time to watch the city of
Boston disappear behind a squall. Sails down as the wind blew
through, and then we were treated to a double rainbow over Minot’s
light. We motored in to Charlestown and found that to get back to my
little bit of pier (the locals call it ‘boat jail because it is
between a sea wall and the dock, and generally requires a modicum of
close maneuvering to get past the other boats), I had to get past
the “mazumba maru,” 21’ feet of beam. I passed between her and the
sea wall with less than 6" of clearance on either side, and finally,
around 11 pm, we were home. Overall, despite the Northeaster and
some rainy days, it was a great honeymoon. I’m already looking
forward to our August trip to Maine!
Cheers,
Lance
Bright Star
p.s. anyone know a reputable marine transmission repair service in
the boston area? the output shaft seal on my hurth is probably in
need of repair, and I read on diyboats.com that it’s not advisable
to work on a hurth yourself because it essentially needs to be
disassembled to replace the seals.