We take a mouse sailing

04-07-2007

The boys and I got to Roosevelt Lake around 12:15, parked, and walked down to the marina. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, and once I got inside the store there were more people inside than I have ever seen. The line to checkout was about 10 people deep and circled around the back of the store. Outside, there were a lot of people fueling up at the gas docks, carrying fishing gear, and generally getting ready for a day on the water.

I paid for a launch & retrieve and a guest slip. The usual slips were apparently all taken, so they put us in slip C-23 out on the regular docks. While I was doing this the boys examined the bait tank. Once we were ready to go we went back up and drove to the boat. Setup went pretty quickly, since I’m leaving the boom on and all I really had to do was bend the mainsail on, and attach the outboard and rudder. It was fairly breezy, around 12 – 14 kts, so I went ahead and put the first reef in the main while we were in the dry storage.

Kenny from the Marina showed up presently and towed us down to the water. I am so glad I don’t have to do that launch and retrieve routine any more. The marina staff are much better at this than I am and we get in the water with minimal fuss. The dry storage is working out great. For $37 a month you can’t beat it. They tow us down to the water and send us on our way, then pick us up when we’re done. No muss, no fuss.

The launch ramp was a hopping place. There were about 5 boats at the dock or milling nearby, and a girl was in the water, swimming by the ramp. Don’t think I’d do that with all the propellers in the water! Kenny backed us in and I started the outboard while he got us unhooked.

I put the rudder down, gave Kenny the thumbs up, and we backed off the trailer. The boat tended to veer to starboard while backing, and it was difficult for me to keep it from doing that even though I was using the outboard and the rudder together. I’m not sure why that was the case, but I suspect it might have been windage pushing the bow to the left. I was getting a little concerned because of the other boats to the right as we backed out, so as soon as I could I switched the outboard to forward and powered away from the congestion at the ramp.

As we motored slowly East I had #1 Son steer while I winched the daggerboard down and secured it. Before we got on the water I had explained to the boys why we wanted to have the board down before we raised sail. When I told them we might roll over otherwise they thought that was cool.

We got outside the no-wake buoys in a few minutes. I had #1 Son point us into the wind while I raised the main and unrolled the Genoa. I shut down the outboard and we were sailing!

We reached on a port tack towards Haystack Island. The wind was perfect, and the boat was performing great. The boys were really enjoying the sailing now that we had a decent wind. I put #1 Son on the tiller and stood in the cabin to take a movie of #1 Son at the helm. Right then a small puff hit us and heeled the boat; #1 Son gave out a small yelp and looked surprised, but handled the puff well. I got the whole thing on video, and it was very amusing. Every time Felicidade heeled the boys would whoop and holler. They loved it, especially #2 Son. There was another sailboat out down by Windy Hill and we could see that it was heeling pretty good. I explained how the Potter likes to sail fairly flat, but the boys didn’t care, they wanted to heel like the other sailboat.

We tacked back and forth while the wind built slightly. I rolled up the Genoa a few turns. Both boys got to steer, and did a great job. #2 Son was steering when a big gust laid us over. He loved it, #1 Son wasn’t so sure. After a while I took the helm and while I was steering another stronger gust hit. This time we buried the lee rail, and water came into the cockpit. The boys were thrilled. I gained a few new gray hairs.

When overpowered, the Potter just rounds up and stops. It’s a wonderful behavior, and comes in handy when a newbie is steering. I showed the boys how to round up a little in the gusts if the boat leaned too much, and we sailed along merrily. Whenever the boys didn’t round up enough in a gust, the boat did it for them. What a great little sailboat.

After a couple of hours of great sailing, it was time to head in. I showed the boys what happens when we hove to. Felicidade settled down and went from banging along in the chop to quietly floating along while I went below and fetched the fenders and dock lines.

We made our way into the marina under power and docked with no fuss. While I was tying the boat up, a guy came over from the houseboat next door to admire Felicidade. He asked me a bunch of questions about the boat and seemed really impressed by our little Potter.

We had Cocktail Hour at our slip (Root beer for the boys, wine for Dad), then fixed dinner. While I was putzing in the cockpit, #2 Son discovered a mouse inside the boat! #1 Son and I didn’t believe him until I went below and saw it for myself. I tried to catch it but it was too quick. I was puzzled about how it got in there—Later I discovered we have mice in the garage, so it must have hitched a ride in the provisions.

Anyway, we all went dock walking after dinner to check out all the cool boats. The boys favored the various swoopy speedboats; I was more into the sailboats. We explored the entire marina, including the humungous- pontoon-houseboat section with the Astro-Turf lawns, yapping Chihuahuas, and plasma TVs. Those things were pretty impressive, but I wondered how well they did going to weather…

Back at the boat, we all turned in for the night, including our stowaway. The humans, at least, slept pretty well.

The next day we had breakfast and visited the member’s head. On the way back, the boys were fascinated by some guys fishing from the end of their houseboat. The fisherman caught a big fat crappie while we were there and the boy’s eyes almost bugged out. They asked the guy what he was going to do with the fish, and when he replied that he was planning to eat it, the boys got that deer-in-the-headlights look that only a lifelong vegetarian can pull off. It was funny.

We left the slip and took the mouse sailing for a couple more hours. Then we pulled out and called It a day. A very nice sailing trip.