AUTHOR’S WARNING- To get the optimum experience from reading this blog you may be required to tilt your head 90 degrees to your left or rotate your computer screen 90 degrees to the right. This instruction will be understood as you read this FIRST blog for the month of April 2018.

This past weekend on Saturday, we finally took Flapdoodle sailing, anchored out over night, then sailed some more Sunday morning before returning to our Chula Vista slip that afternoon. This was a BIG milestone in the life of Flapdoodle, as many of the instruments and equipment that have been installed over the past 15 months were utilized under sail for their FIRST time. We wore the new life jackets and sailing gloves and tested the spade anchor, the anchor alarm, the VHF radio, the sails, the new rigging, the fuel polishing unit, mast lights and deck lights, diesel and water tanks, bilge pumps and the radar- to name a few.

Saturday morning we were up and about by 0630 hours. If Flapdoodle was going to sail it would be heeling. This meant that nothing could be left in a precarious position where it might fall. We have so much excess stuff on the boat that we had to fill both our cars [our mobile storage lockers] with some of that excess. We then had to lower other potential missiles to floor level and secure all doors.

Cleared bench tops.

Floor level “stuff” behind the mechanic.

Before departure we worked diligently through our departure checklist. Yes, it was a FIRST time for this too. Previously we have relied on remembering [or not] the many preparatory steps; but this time we had the steps in writing. As we drew near to the end of the checklist, we started the engine and found that the engine was not running smoothly. Harry bled the air out of the engine fuel lines and we were one step closer to leaving. The very last check was to see if water was dripping from the propeller shaft stuffing box. It was not! Harry was ready to pull it apart, if there was no drip we were not leaving port. Fortunately in the preparation to embark on yet another fix-it project, the water started to drip and we left the slip at noon just 2 hours after our predicted departure.

Bleeding the Engine.

The dripless propeller shaft.

We motored out of Chula Vista Marina , raised the mainsail and headed toward the mouth of San Diego Bay. There was quite a lot of traffic so we chose to stay motoring until out in the open sea.

Hasta manana Chula Vista.

Past large freighters in port.

Past sailboats.

Past tall ships.

Once free of the harbor we unfurled the genoa/staysail.

The genoa is a type of large jib or staysail that overlaps the main sail, sometimes eliminating it. It was originally referred to as an “overlapping jib” and later as a Genoa jib.

Then we sailed about 10 nautical miles out into the open ocean.

[PLEASE NOTE: OOPS! As this is a FIRST attempt of me taking videos of our adventures I didn’t know to rotate my phone to landscape orientation. Hopefully you will get the general idea though.]

“On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day.” Rumi

A cruiser would say – “Home is where the anchor drops.” Our home for the evening was to be east of Zuniga shoals a free anchorage and boat graveyard; consequently there are a number of abandoned and sunken ships in the area. We were not abandoning ours, nor did we want it to sink. The seas were a little rolly; but we cautiously set the anchor with an excess of rode[chain] and set the anchor alarm. There was time to grill dinner and test those new mast and deck lights. We slept soundly to the splashing of the ocean on our home’s hull.

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When we awoke to the sun rising, our anchor had not shifted at all. The waters were calmed.

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As we breakfasted and relaxed we were entertained by a grey whale that was investigating the Zuniga shoal anchorage. [The photos were not good, but bear witness to our sightings.]

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We pulled up anchor and set sail once more. After lunch at sea and a few tacks back and forth we returned to the protection of the marina, pumped out the holding tank, and settled back into marina life by 1730 hours, having covered 57 nautical miles in all.

It was a very successful adventure. The captain was indeed a happy salty soul and the first mate did not succumb to sea sickness [with the aid of just one non-drowsy travel sickness tablet.] The next challenge is to do it again… and soon. The only way we are going to learn and gain experience is to actually do it.

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”
– John Augustus Shedd

To seek safe opportunity and not always marina [or anchorage] security; that is what the cruising quest is about. I predict there will be many more FIRSTS in our future.

Look at those smiles.

We did it!

POSTSCRIPT

As an afterthought, I would like to make a short explanation re my opening WARNING. It appears as though some of you viewing this blog are receiving the short video in the middle in it’s correct orientation, and some are not. This video caused me much angst. For the FIRST time I actually tried to solve my problem independently by “Googling” it. I did not meet with success, so next I referred my problem to my back up, Harry. He also could not come up with a solution. I decided that perfection was not necessary and posted it anyway only to discover that the orientation problem was solved for some recipients simply by merely publishing the blog. If you are one of those lucky ones you probably are left a little confused by the redundant WARNING and OOPS! statements in the above. So if you decided to tilt your head or rotate your computer while reading this you may have got a little of the sensation evoked when one is on the water sailing.