3 St. Mary’s Adventure

I have just returned from a weekend cruise of the Cumberland Sound (St. Mary's River entrance, Ga.) and had a wonderful time. To all those skeptics of the chine runners I can now attest to their performance as I spent almost five hours short tacking against 12 kt winds and a foul current to get to my anchorage Friday evening. My average speed for the 18 nautical miles covered was 3.6 kts. I was tacking thru 110 degrees to keep boat speed up and on a couple of times as high as 90 degrees but I felt the loss of drive against the chop didn't warrant the higher pointing. One problem I found was that the heel of my mast has about 3/16 inch play from side to side and while this doesn't sound like much it works out to about 4 inches at the top of the mast and I'm sure it hindered windward performance and cost me my running/anchor light as I turned it on just before getting to the anchorage and the mast head whipping was severe enough to break the hot filament on one tack. Shimming it of course will be an easy fix.

Another Paradox owner had remarked, on the Paradox Builder’s discussion web site, that he had a helm balance problem so I played with the position of the halyard on the yard and was able to go from heavy weather helm to heavy lee helm and then to a balanced helm by moving it thru extremes and then tweaking it for balance. Not sure if it will be balanced in different winds in its current position yet but it was nice to be able to let the helm go and have her stay on course for long stretches at a time. Another aid I found was to tighten up the tiller lines, there by creating enough friction in the system to hold the helm where it was placed unless hit by a strong gust. I didn't like the feel of the helm adjusted so and abandon it in favor of one less tight but would readily tighten it up if I needed the boat to hold her course for long periods. It should be noted that I don't have an engine on Zoë and the weight of one will play a big role in helm balance.

Cabin heat has been a hot topic (couldn't resist the pun) on the Micro Cruiser discussion group and I can contribute the following: the temp. Friday night was in the low thirties so after the cabin cooled off from the effects of preparing dinner I placed my clay flower pot on the stove and ran it for about five min., which was all I could stand and while I didn't time the cool down the cabin stayed comfortable for some length of time as I read before turning in. I have a down sleeping bag and was snug as a bug in a rug through out the night. There was a lot of condensation on the windows and overhead the next morning, which was easily removed with an "Absorber" (synthetic chamois). I had plugged all the vent openings and I'm sure this contributed greatly to the problem.

I can now also report on the addition of a skylight in the hatch, the chart table and using a wheel barrow inner tube for a cushion All worked out better than hoped for and it was a pleasure to have the chart up out of my way and accessible. Friday was overcast, cold and dreary and reported to be clear and sunny by 9:00 but the sun never appeared and I spent the whole day helming from below with the hatch closed. What a joy to be able to see the sail for trimming thru the skylight. An added bonus, and one I had not thought of, was that when well heeled you can see to leeward and don't have to bend over to peek out the leeward windows. As for the inner tube, this was an idea from Charles Stock’s “Sailing just for Fun” and a treat it is, taking the misery out of the wood helm seat aboard the Paradox.

Least everyone should think the weekend was perfect for me I can tell you of having a blowout on a boat trailer tire before getting to the ramp and the horrors of not having a spare, fortunately for me it was a short walk to a tire store for a replacement. Imagine being twenty miles from anywhere when this happened. I had not been concerned because the trailer was brand new but I can tell you also that I had a spare with me when I left St. Mary's for the trip home.

Another fun happening was when getting underway Saturday morning, as I hoisted the sail the halyard knot on the yard let go just as the sail reached the mast head and the whole works fell into the drink, what a mess, after getting it back aboard I had to re-anchor, go forward and drop the mast, re-reeve the halyard, re-step the mast, up anchor and hoist sail. I would normally hoist sail before retrieving the anchor but it's a bit tricky walking around on a Paradox deck with the sail raised in 12-15 knots of wind. Anyway, once underway I noticed that the sail wasn't up all the way but the halyard was tight. The problem revealed it’s self to be the furling line, which had jumped off the reel and jammed around the axle. Oh wonderful, I couldn’t get the sail up or down with the furling gear. The sail was setting OK so I beat up a tidal creek with the current and elected to deal with it later when I had more room. Once clear of hazards it was down sail, down anchor, on to the foredeck, rewind the furling line and then get back under way. The moral here is to check the halyard knot before raising and keep some tension on the furling line as you hoist sail, if allowed to run free and the sail is caught by the wind and unfurled too fast it runs the risk of jumping off the drum and fouling.

The bright side to all this was that Saturday had dawned clear and sunny as well as breezy. Once every thing was straightened out I had a very pleasant beat with the incoming current up to Crooked River where I turned and began the long run back to St. Mary’s and while I was against the current I still saw speeds of between 4.8 and 5.2 on the GPS.

Back on the St. Mary’s River I elected to sail up Peter Point Creek and do some exploring. Once again we were short tacking up a very narrow creek perhaps no more then 100 feet wide in places and Zoë never missed a tack. So confident in her tacking ability was I becoming that I found myself tacking at the very last minute. As her head passed thru the wind her stern would be but a foot or two from the steep bank. After sailing up the creek a half a mile or so I spun her around and sped back down wind and, upon reaching the mouth of the creek, jibed her over and into the St. Mary’s again. The tide was now on the ebb as I reach along up river. A young couple aboard a C&C 25 was motoring down river and they let out cheers as I passed them close aboard. Their vessel looked so large as I passed. Once around the last bend and with the town of St. Mary’s fine on the bow we beat the last mile with her rail mere inches from the water and sail hauled in tight, the GPS indicating 4.6 kts. Oh how I wish I had a picture of her coming up toward town, rail down and driving hard. Once in the lee of the town docks we reached quietly up to the ramp area and furled the sail, made up the docking lines and sculled the last few yards to the dock and ended another adventure.