FFR with Alex and Johnny

There were almost no winds.  Natalie was invited to cancel, and she did.

Shawn and Alex were there, and Johnny was looking for a boat, so he joined us.  Pierre had not agreed to crew with Shawn on Espresso, but it seemed Pierre was single-handed, so Shawn chose to go with Pierre.  

There was almost no wind.  We put our head sail up before the gut and sailed past the gut and then drifted back through the gut.

The race was cancelled, we had a beer and then motored back to the club.  I noticed the fridge was not working.  It turns out I had pulled the connector off the circuit breaker while I was working on the bilge blower earlier in the day.

We got our 15 points.

Bilge Blower - replacement

The old bilge blower started complaining and eventually failed about two years ago.

I finally decided to change it.  Although it is not necessary for a diesel, I figured I should fix it since I had all the parts that I bought in Florida on my way back from the Bahamas.  I got a new SeaFlow blower and some new 3-inch hoses.

The old blower was under the starboard gunwale and not accessible. I installed the new one under the port gunnel and reversed the direction of the blow.

Now it was time to wire it up, and this should have been an easy job.  It took 6 hours.  The wiring behind the main DC panel had not been seen for a couple of years, and my memory of it was poor.  

It was wired with a Manual/Auto switch, with Auto using a thermostat to cool the engine and providing feedback if the engine compartment was hot.

I could not figure out why the thermostat circuit was not working.  Eventually, I determined the DPDT switch was broken.  I found a replacement in the storage locker, fixed it, closed the DC panel, and replaced the trim just before the FFR.  

After the race, I noticed the fridge was off.  I accidentally pulled the spade from the fridge circuit breaker.  Fixed it after the race and gave the boat a good soaping to try to get all the shad fly cadavers off.  The fourth time I washed her since Sunday's episode. 

Thursday GNS with Maud and Scarlett.

Scarlett came late, and we rushed to the start line.

Not many boats from the Royal, and we finished last. 

We could not get a good start timing.  There was a general recall.  We did not have good timing on the second start.   Messed up the first windward mark, and we tacked too far.  Too bad because we were just catching up to Slow Dancer.

First overnight

I got to the club for the Lakeside Chat on Emergencies on the Water with Michael Martin.  It was pretty good.

I tried to reassemble the Johnson motor, but I had a few issues.

Lounged around, visited Sonic, which was pretty sad.

Cleaned up the locker a bit.  Set up a shelf in Norm's locker.  

The day was very windy, but it calmed down about 5. I had a Blue Moon aboard Zig-Zag, then I set off for the lake.  Halfway down the channel, I put out the head sail and tacked to the Gut in somewhat light and shifty winds.  I considered anchoring at Valois, but the winds looked promising, and I made it to anchor outside PCYC, anchoring zero-carbon. The almost full moon rose with the sunset. Lots of shad flies.

I made myself Conard Confit and went to bed about 10.  It was a rocky night.  

Got up at 8 AM, and there were thunderstorm warnings, so I headed back to the club. Had breakfast and drove home

.

Homeward bound

FFR cancelled - Lousy weather

 Friday race cancelled

Thurday race with Maud, Scarlett and Mark E

Had a good Thursday night race with the standard crew plus Mark.  Mark is quite good. Invited him over again.

FFR with Andrei and Greg s

My crew was limited.  Only Andrei had confirmed.  Greg wanted to join us as we were walking to the dock

Andrie had very limited experience.  He had taken a sailing course and wanted to buy a Hunter 35 in Lake Champlain.  Greg was very good for a power boater !!.  He raced on Slow Dancer often.  Andrei helmed the start and the first circuit, and Greg took over as we approached (pinching) the first windward mark.  The start was fairly hectic, but Andrei handled it well.

We did fairly well.  3rd place.  That's going to hurt our handicap!!!