What We've Been Up To

Summer Plans

We’re trying an experiment this summer ... We’re trying to see if it’s possible for us to slow down a bit. Instead of trying to get somewhere, we have just a rough idea of the places we want to visit. For sure we’re going to spend some time on the Chesapeake Bay, then head up to Narragansett Bay to sail around with some great cruising friends in that area.  Then we’ll continue on to Maine, but after that, all we know is that we hope to end up somewhere in Canada, then make our way back south with the weather...

Ty recently took over as President of the Seven Seas Cruising Association (Hail to the Chief!), so we hope to make all the East Coast get-togethers this year, from Islesboro, Maine, to Annapolis, stop in at Trawlerfest in Solomons, and on to the annual gam in Melbourne. Will we see any of you there?

Upgrades to Liberty

Here’s the scene:  we’ve just spent a relaxing Saturday afternoon pierside at Jabin’s boatyard in Annapolis, doing laundry and plotting our track for a nice Fall cruise down the Chesapeake Bay. We’re here for 10 days of work on Liberty, but the yard workers are off on the weekend.  Just as we were getting ready to enjoy a glass of wine to usher in Saturday evening, Suzanne took a break to make a head call. She stepped on the pedal to flush and ... you guessed it:  nothing happened. We know, we know:  keep things simple. A manual head is much less complex than an electric one, but Liberty’s previous owner had installed the high-tech gizmo.  Who were we to complain when faced with no more pumping?  The electric motor has died before, which is why we keep a spare on hand. Suzanne even proved to herself that girls can do anything by replacing the motor herself as a surprise to Ty.  But this time, both of us agreed not to replace the motor again.  It’s one thing to have the head die while pierside in the sailing capital of the world with a West Marine a mile away. It’s another thing to have it die in the middle of a passage. In such an unpleasant, but likely scenario, pumping a handle would be far preferable to sitting on a bucket. By unanimous vote, the crew of Liberty decided to ditch the electric head in favor of a good old, reliable pumper.  (Actually Rudy the Sailing Wiener Dog and his hairy sister Gretchen didn’t have a vote. They’re more into grass these days -- the kind dogs pee on). So, as Suzanne writes this, Ty has his head in the head, so to speak. Not the most pleasant job in the world, but certainly a vital one.
new boom
Ty and Chesapeake Rigging’s Mike Meer check out a potential boom.

The new head will be nice (albeit less fancy), but the actual upgrades we came to Annapolis for are far more exciting. While at the Annapolis boat show, where Suzanne was signing copies of her books at the Blue Water Sailing magazine booth, we wandered on over to the Harken display.  There we both got stars in our eyes upon viewing a set of nice new battcars for our mainsail.  One of the biggest problems on Liberty has been that her mainsail is so hard to raise that Suzanne always leaves that job to Ty. This has proved to be a major frustration. We’ve looked into electric winches and furled mains, but no solution was ever economically viable.  The battcars, however, looked like just the answer we needed.  The friendly folks at Harken assured us that it wasn’t the weight of our

mainsail that was a problem, but friction. Our current sail slides created way too much drag. With the new battcar system, either one of us should be able to raise the main all the way to the head of the mast, very likely without even using a winch.  This thought has Suzanne so excited, she even had a dream about raising the sail. Now, that’s a dream only a sailor would have! 

Another consistent thorn in our side has been the difficulty of getting the sail cover on.  We have often lusted after boats with in-boom or in-mast furling--those who never have to bother with a sail cover.  Our boom is so high that once again Suzanne couldn’t help Ty with this near-daily task. Eight zippers and much fussing made dealing with the sail cover such a pain that given the choice of taking off the cover for a short sail, we’d often (hate to admit this), not even bother.  The solution, finally:  a Doyle stack pack.  Thanks to the new Harken battcars, the sail will come down very easily (frighteningly easy, they tell us, so we’re also installing a rope clutch on the mast for the main halyard) and will fall right into the stack pack.  Once inside, it’s a simple matter of zipping it closed across the top.  This is what they tell us anyway.  We’ll let

corrosion02
Liberty’s old boom:  corrosion, external reefing lines and all

you know how it goes in a future update. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to now raising the sail with ease and stowing it with equal ease even if for a mere 30 minutes of joyous sailing.  Sounds like a dream.
Taking boom off
Ty helps the rigger remove our old boom from the boat.

You may have noticed that all of the photos on this page involve our boom, and not the battcars or stack pack.  That’s because when we asked Chesapeake Rigging what it would cost to get rid of the corrosion on our boom and repaint it, they very wisely pointed out to us that we would be much happier with in boom single-line reefing.  And who wouldn’t? They happened to have a used one in stock. Being cruisers on a budget, it seemed like yet another great solution -- especially just as Doyle sails is fitting our new stack pack. So everything is coming together very nicely. We can’t wait to get underway and try out all the new improvements.  Some will improve our daily cruising quality of life, and others, like the new and improved reefing system will be great improvements in safety.

So whats next for Liberty’s crew?  Next summer (2009) we’ll head north to Maine, Nova Scotia, and possibly on to Newfoundland. Our plans may be curtailed slightly as Suzanne’s new book, The Priest and the Medium, comes out in May (see www.SuzanneGiesemann.com) Any detours for a publicity tour are a worthy cause, as the more books Suzanne sells, the more boat gear we can buy!

Lots to think about ... For now, Ty is just about finished installing the new head.  Time for that glass of wine.  Thanks for joining us, and smooth sailing.

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