LMSA - Rum Race

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Another great day on Lake Monroe. Sadly the summer Rum Race series is coming to an end soon. Daylight savings time will affect the amount of sun light available to race on a week night.

A big thanks to Jason for coming out and crewing on Endurance. Jason is starting to get the hang of things (or he is in fear for his life when I go forward and decided it was better to help, hehe). He was doing a great job setting the sails at the beginning of the night and securing them after the race. Beverage service was also exceptional. lol

In fact a great crew day for the Lake Monroe Sailing Association. We had 3 new crew members show up for the evening race. All three were able to secure a ride. We had a couple new comers and one very experienced sailer show up.

As usual I was worried about the wind falling off as the evening progressed so crossed the line right at the start of the 6:00 - 6:30 PM window. The wind was ENE and I elected to go wing on wing with main on starboard and the mizzen on port. We sailed with the main's boom about 5 degrees forward of the mast. We were about 1/2 way across the course when a wave shifted the boats balance and the main sail jibed unexpectedly. It gave Jason a good scare but when I trimmed the sails the boat took off. The boat speed was up about 1/2 to 1 MPH. While surfing waves we hit speeds as high as 8.8 MPH.

Once again when we rounded the mark the real race began for us. This time I was committed to rounding the mark and trying to point high enough to go strait back to the start finish. We actually did decent for a first attempt. When pointing the right heading of 120 we were able to maintain speeds in the low 5 MPH range. That's not fast enough to win but for most of the leg we were pointing high enough to have a chance at making it.

I took some pictures of my GPS screen and I can see a couple of things that are worth noting. The first picture is of the entire course. As you can see we did have to tack on the way back. This may have been avoidable. When I rounded the mark you can see in the second shot that I fell off badly. At the time I was trying to get up to speed. I don't think that I was in a wind shift or header. That was poor sailing on my part. I need to tack cleanly and start reaching immediately. Figuring out how to do fast tacks in a Sea Pearl is going to take some practice.

In the 3rd picture you see me falling off again. That was a wind shift that I expected to happen as we got closer to the start/finish. Typically as you get closer to the island off of Sanford the wind bends a little and becomes more easterly. This meant we had to tack so that we would make the start finish line. After looking at this 3rd picture I noticed two things. First, I may have gone to far off course. I say this because when you follow my track after the 2nd tack you can see I didn't sail a strait line. I was actually falling off to the mark. What I don't have pictures of was the fun part that distracted me. The faster two S2 7.9 boats in the fleet were almost on top of me when I tacked. When I came over and was on a starboard tack I passed very near the first boat just behind him and in front of the 2nd one. It had the potential for being a dangerous move but we pulled it off perfectly and it would have made for a nice little video to review later. In hindsight I would have enjoyed tacking back to port and covering the 2nd S2 7.9 just for kicks.

The other thing I noticed in this last shot of my GPS was that we had two very clean tacks. No wandering around or falling off. That could be because of two reasons. One we weren't trying to point that high so it was easier or we did something better than when we rounded the mark. Not sure but I am going to try and do it again when I round the mark next time. I need to start analyzing some of my tacks and see if I can determine my angle of sail when reaching too.

Our finish time was good, 38:25.That's almost 4 minutes better than last week. And instead of being 8 minutes behind the leader we cut that in half to 4 minutes too. Other than the unexpected jibe it was one of our cleaner sails too. Overall results ended up like this.

Rank Boat Helm Name Elapsed Corrected
1 Risky Business Fisk Hayden 29:08 35:58
2 Show Me Andy Forrest 35:15 36:43
3 Sail Gator Jerry Brinton 30:04 37:07
4 Endurance Tom Dyll 38:25 39:46
5 Free Spirit Don Hoofring 36:20 41:39
6 Cavu Jack 41:09 41:54
7 Catalina 25 Bob 44:01 46:52

After the race there were some interesting conversations at Wolfies. Fisk from Risky Business complimented us that we had come a long way on Endurance and it may be time to move into a more competitive boat. I can't deny considering it. I started going to the Rum Races in order to learn how to get the most out of my boat and own abilities. I can not fault the boat at all. Its a lot of fun to sail in a small package. But I need to consider something a little more stable and roomy for my 5 person family and at the same time would be able to race well in the club. I haven't committed to doing anything yet but my days as a Sea Pearl 21 owner may be numbered.......

Video of My Hatch Cover

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Several people were asking for more info about my hatch cover. I did a quick sail on Lake Fairview and when I went to take down the boat I shot this video. About 1/2 way through I show off the hatch cover a little. (Tip: Once the video starts switch the 360p to 480p or higher. The video will look much better. If you have high speed Internet access watch it in 1080p and full screen mode.)




Here are some of the things people asked about:

3:30 Accessing the hatch from the side
3:45 Picking up the entire hatch cover
4:10 Taking apart the two sections
4:25 Close up of 1/2 of the cover
4:50 Stacking the two sections and walking on it
5:20 Putting the sections together
6:15 Latch close up
6:30 Seal between two halves
7:15 Walking on the deck while taking down the masts

Another Wednesday Night Rum Race

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First off, thanks to my friend Jason for showing up and helping out. Great having you on the boat. If your willing to crew again I will supply beverages.

Last nights race was a little more tactical than my past attempts at sailing the course on an east wind. At first I was concerned about too much wind. Earlier in the afternoon it had been up to 18 MPH with gusts up 25+ MPH but the breeze was quickly fading as the evening came progressed. 

We have a 30 minute start window and I was going to go over the line right at 6:00 PM to maximize my wind. I fumbled the start a little bit trying to jibe and get wing on wing with the main on the starboard side and the mizzen to port. My logic (and I don't know if its right) was that the wind was ENE on the starboard side and this way both sails would be fully exposed to the wind. Also the main could be flown forward of the main mast. This worked well and we made good time to the mark while enjoying a cold beverage. We monitored the GPS seeing constant speeds in the high 6 - to low 7 MPH. Our peak speed hit 8.5 MPH.

As we rounded the mark I failed to notice the wind shifted slightly further out of the north. I was on a starboard tack going north when I should have rounded the mark and tried to head strait back to the start/finish. I might not have been able to point high enough to pull it off but I definitely should have tried. It would have been a better course than the one I sailed.

I started thinking about this more and more. Finally I decided that I would analyze it carefully. I looked at my GPS. Below is picture of the screen. The triangle on the left is the race course. (The triangle on the right is just sailing after the race was over.)

 

I took the GPS positions and entered them into Google Earth using the mark and path functions. From their I could see the total distance I sailed vs. the distance sailed by the more experienced racers in the club sailing sloops.  (evil Precision 23s and S2 7.9s)

 

First thing I noticed was that I sailed an extra 8/10ths of a mile. Thats a 24% increase in distance. My down wind leg was 15:30 and calcuates to an average speed of  6.8 MPH. That leaves me with 26:38 to cover 2.58 miles. Which means I was traveling 5.8 MPH on my two tacks trying to get back to the start/finish. (Are you still with me?)

So let theorize that I rounded the mark and headed strait back. (That's a lofty goal to hope that I could point that high but I am theorizing). That means I would have had to maintained a speed just under 4 MPH to complete the course in the same time. This might have been possible.

Ok, last one. If I take 8:30 off of my time I would be competitive with the fastest boats. To do that I would have have rounded the mark and gone strait back to the start finish at an average speed of 5.8 MPH.

So my conclusion is that if I figure out how to point high and maintain fast speeds I may be able to pick up some additional time. And does anyone's head hurt besides mine?

St Johns Trip - Sea Pearl 21 Lessons Learned

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• A tiller tamer is a must. I pulled a MacGyver and got one working but I need to rig a real one.
• Keeping the centerboard slightly down allows for easier turning.
• You can never have too many bungees.
• Pull the plug when it rains. Pull it when anchored for the night. Its much easier than bailing.
• Remember to put the plug back in before going again.
• Hang fenders horizontally off of the oar locks for better protection
• Oars don't last long when you use them for pushing off the bottom.
• Storing masts off of the centerline frees up a lot of space and access to the compartment. Need to come up with a slick way to do that quickly. I might add additional oar locks that are sized for the masts.
• Electric rigging with navigation lights would be nice.
• PVC rollers do well for getting over land obstacles such as weirs.
• 2 HP Honda 4 stroke on a Sea Pearl 21 will get around 40 MPG.
• The 2 HP Honda 4 stroke has a manual tilt adjustment with 4 positions. Nice for very shallow areas.
• You can stand on the starboard rail and make the motor come up a couple inches when negotiating shallow water. 
• A few hatch modifications are in order. New buckles on the sides, Perko latches on top. A couple of spacers are needed to make the hatch lid line up better and be easier to open and close.
• A Sea Pearl 21 fully loaded with camping gear is very hard to load on the trailer compared to an empty boat.

St Johns Trip - Update 5

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Well  it's finally here. Our last day. Johanthan and I elected to take out at different locations. He headed to Sanford and the Lake Monroe public boat ramp where his family would pick him up. I choose to go up the Wekiva River because Wekiva Island is only a mile from my home. Its a 15 mile run up river. The Wekiva has a good flow to it and can be a little tricky to navigate due to submerged logs and and lots of eel grass getting rapped around the prop. But its a place I know very well so I was sure it would be a relaxing trip.

Not really much to report. Just a few pictures of the river, Wekiva Falls and arriving at Wekiva Marina.Total time to get up the river was just over 4 hours. Distance was 15.1 miles. I arrived at noon just a head of some light rain.

Mark 96. Entrance to the Wekiva.

Check out the bottles.

Entrance to Wekiva Falls.

Cool tree.

Wekiva Island

Thanks for reading my trip blog. I had a lot of fun making the trip and sharing it. A big thanks to Johnathan for inviting me along. I would have never considered a trip of this magnitude on the St Johns. Especially the distance covered. I learned a lot about Sea Pearl 21 sailboats and the St Johns too.

Trip Distance Log

Camp Holly @ 192   (Mile 0)
520 Bridge 28.7 Miles
528 Bridge 37.4 Miles
50 Bridge  50.8 Miles
46 Bridge  72. 5 Miles
46/Lake Jessup   91 Miles
415 Bridge 94 Miles
I4 Bridge 101.3 Miles
Wekiva River  107.5 Miles
44 Bridge 120.3 Miles
Deleon Springs 135.1 Miles
44 Bridge 152.4 Miles
Wekiva River 165.2 Miles
Wekiva Island (Tom) 180 Miles
Sanford Lake Monroe Public Boat Ramp (Johnathan) 176 Miles

St Johns Trip - Update 4

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Its a day late but here it is. I tried to post last night but there were several things working against us. First was destination. We didn't set anchor until around 10 PM. Then there was the humidity and my need to try yet another sleeping arrangement on the Sea Pearl that just didn't work out. And finally I couldn't get Internet access on the river for some reason.

So back to yesterday. We had a relaxing night at Hontoon Island. This time no blind mosquito/midge hatch and no rain. Finally a good nights sleep. The sunrise made for some nice pics but we were off early trying to reach Deleon Springs before the rain threatened again. Arriving at the 44 bridge mean our first draw bridge opening. This being my first sailboat it was as cool experience. (forgive the dork moment).

Sunrise tided up at the docks at Hontoon Island.

SR 44 bridge opening for two Sea Pearl 21 sailboats.

With our destination being Deleon Springs we left the St Johns for Norris Dead River. The entrance was the tightest part and other than a couple of slight turns here and there it was no problem for the Sea Pearls with masts up. Great short cut if you want to visit Lake Woodruff and Deleon Springs. The biggest disappointment was the lack of wind (again) as we crossed another lake.

Entrance to Harris Dead River.

Take this waterway to another fish camp.

Lake Woodruff. No wind (again)

Even with no wind we made amazing time getting to Deleon Springs. I am so impressed with how much you can do with a 2 HP motor. We arrived at our furthest north destination at about 11:30 AM. Our total distance so far, 135 miles in 3 1/2 days.

The plan was to swim and eat. I brought my free diving gear and checked out the spring. I was stunned to find that Deleon Springs is a pipe feeding an artificial pool. Still it was a very refreshing swim. One that I had been looking forward to since the begining of the trip.After that we headed to the Old Spanish Sugar Mill which is now the "Grill and Griddle House". I thought I was going to have lunch but after seeing that you cook your own pancakes right at the table I was easily talked into giving it a taste. I have to say their multi-grain batter was darn good. I am not a big pan cake eater. I walked out stuffed and with a big smile on my face.

Od Florida private properties just before Deleon Springs.

Arriving at our final destination. We were the only boats.

Pulling into the dock.

Huge swimming area. Nice cold water too.

Brunch spot.

Tom and Johnathan enjoying pancakes.

By mid afternoon it was time to move on. This time we were headed back up river. Instead of backtracking right away we went towards Tick Island Mud Lake and out to the St Johns. As we went over the small lake our motors stirred up the bottom releasing tons of bubbles. Below is a shot where I pulled in front of  Johnathan and yelled, smell my swamp gas. Next is passing through a narrow creek before coming back out on the St Johns. 

Swamp Gas Bubbles

With mast up we could usually find each other.

St Johns Trip - Update #3

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Day three. I am tired. I will probably be rambling and not finishing my thoughts very well.

Motor sailing for 3 days has been fun but exhausting. The little air cooled Honda 2 HP motor is like having a lawn mower always running next to you.

The biggest disappointment today was no wind. Especially as we crossed Lake Monroe which has become my home turf for sailing. Also the sun continues to beat down on us. So far I have avoided getting sun burn. Still there were several high points today so let me start at the begining.

Our night on Lake Harney was uneventful, at least once we hid from the midge hatch. I tried to sleep below deck but it was too uncomfortable dealing with the center board. I gave up a little after midnight and slept on the new hatch lid. It was actually very pleasant compared to being below. The mosquito net did its job and on deck I felt a nice breeze all night. We did have one visitor. It was around 3 AM. Probably a fisherman setting some lines.

Crossing Lake Harney and going north brought about a big change in scenery. More buildings lined the river. There were now channel markers leading the path. More and more boats. No bad. Just different.

Johnathan got into the Buff crazy today. I gave him one of my extras so he could give his a face a rest from the sun.

One of my goals for this trip was to get some photos of Bald Eagles. I thought that the good shots would come south of 46 but the only ones we saw were off in the distance and flying further away. I got very very lucky on this section of the river with two opportunities. The first was two egles in a tree and then a single bird on top of an dead palm tree and then in flight. Awesome birds!

 

Our first stop was a resturaunt at the 415 bridge called Gators Riverside Grill. They filled us up with ice but we still had enough gas to motor on. I put this place on my list to come back and eat at one day soon. Next to the restaurant is also a marina. They had this funky advertisement on the side of the building. Mail Pouch Tobacco. It had all kinds of cool old Florida character.

  

We crossed Lake Monroe at about noon. I was very disappointed that we didn't have enough wind to sail with any decent speed. I tried. I could  see the American flag in Sanford showing signs of a breeze but it wasn't happening on the lake. Multiple times I shut the motor down and felt for breeze that just wasn't there. I was also a little disapointed that we had reached  this point early. I had hoped that we would have arrived here in the evening to sail with the  Lake Monroe Sailing Association's Wednesday Night Rum Race.

Making it to I-4 signified 100 miles so far. As we made our way under I-4 we encountered our biggest traffic obstacle yet. The river ship Romance. The picture makes it look like we were clear but moments before this we were on an course to meet under the bridge. We both thought better of it and rounded up. Johnathan quickly snuck past after the bigger boat was through. 

Our intent was to make it to Blue Springs to finally go swimming after three sweaty days on the river but the weather didn't cooperate. As we passed the Wekiva River and marker 96 we were being overtaken by dark clouds. The Swamp House at High Banks was right there so we elected to pull in and have a bite to eat while waiting out the storm. The food here is good but expensive. Two cheeseburgers and soda ended up being a $22 lunch.

By the time we got back on the water it was too late to make it to Blue Springs and the weather had cooled off. Instead we headed for Hontoon Island which is where I sit writing this post. We really didn't have to stay here. Its another unforseen expense but it has clean showers. And Electric which is recharging my laptop right now. Enjoy the pics. Tomorrow may be our last day heading north.......

St Johns Trip - Update #2

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2 + 2 + 2 = 70. Two days plus two gallons of gas plus a 2 HP motor equal 70 miles of the St Johns River. Wow! What a day. We motored and sailed from 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM today with one short rain delay. I would have never thought it was possible but I am sitting on north end of Lake Harney writing this post. But back to the beginning......

Our night at Lone Cabbage tide to the dock was uneventful. I slept in my Hennessey Hammock tent tied between the two masts. A couple boats passed by, you could hear the traffic from 520, it rained a little but overall it was a good night and I was able to rest up. We took our time getting ready in the morning. I had a headache which I attribute to dehydration. Today I planned on drinking a lot more water (and less beer).

I measure the river from bridge to bridge. The first leg of the day was from 520 to 528. This was the first stretch that we saw plenty of cows. Johnathan's motor was acting up. It sound like a dirty carb to me. He can't idle but he can run around 1/2 throttle with the choke open. If he slows down the motor will die on him. It hasn't slowed us down though. If anything we are running a little faster than expected. Making it to the 528 bridge was all motoring and uneventful. I was starting to feel a little better too.

 
Next leg was 528 to 50. I knew there were some shallow areas just after the bridge. We found them but they were not that bad. We were able to get through with minimal bumping of the bottom so long as you followed the main channel. It had to rain sometime today and the down pour hit just south of the power lines. Johnathan elected to pull over and go below. Since I don't have a cabin I threw on my rain jacket and motored to Catfish cabin. Its an airboat shelter on the river just north of the power lines. There were two other fisherman there who were friendly. Interesting they were fishing for softshell. Don't worry if you don't know what softshell is. I  didn't figure it out either. It's softshell turtle. Pretty interesting.

We were surprised and stoked that we made it to 50 by 1:30 PM. It was another 23 miles to 46. The distance was not a problem but we had to navigate Puzzle Lake. Johnathan's motor started acting up again. I joked that if it died now we were at the 50 boat ramp. A couple off pulls and it fired right back up and we continued on. I was starting to worry about getting too much sun. I applied sunscreen at least 5 or 6 times today but as the day went on I got hotter. Hopefully I will not be burned too badly in the morning. The section of the river from 50 to just south of Puzzle is probably my favorite stretch of the upper St Johns. It is so fishy. Unfortunately we were on a mission and I did not break out a rod. It will have to wait until the next trip. I would love to tell you a story of how we got lost in Puzzle Lake near Hatbill but it didn't happen. It could have been luck or the water level was just right to be able to follow the main channel. Either way we made quick work of this section too. As we came out of Puzzle Lake and approached the Econ the winds started to come from a favorable SE direction and increase in speed. We motored under 46 around 6:00 PM ready to start sailing.

After we passed the Jolly Gator we set sail and cut the motors. We made it up the small section of river below 46 and out on to Lake Harney. Winds were gusty. We sailed over to the NE corner of the lake relaxed and looking forward to a quiet night.

Unfortunately as the sun set the sky erupted with bugs. I think its another midge hatch or the same one from last week still happening. It was all I could do to get my mosquito net up. No tent tonight. I am sleeping below deck to stay out of the bugs. Being below deck I did find that I could set up my rowing seat and new hatch cover like a desk and write away on my laptop. Thats probably why this post is so damn long. Anyways, enjoy. I will try to post again tomorrow but we may be a little more remote so Internet access could be hit or miss.

St Johns Trip - Update #1

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I am writing this sitting in a hammock tent docked at Lone Cabbage. No spell check so hang in there with me.

Today Johnathan and I launched our Sea Pearls from Camp Holly off 192 in hopes of making a one way trip down the St Johns. How far will we get? Not sure. There are a few things that could get in our way. Wiers, shallow water, weather. Good or bad we are making a trip going.

The morning started off fairly nice. We launched right at 10 AM. It took a while to get to the weir just north of the first lake. Our initial attempts at dragging the boats across didn't work. Too heavy. We finally wised up and used our mast tube extensions as rollers and made quick work of getting both boats across. Yeah, one major obstacle behind us.

As we completed the portage the weather began getting a little darker. It wasn't a 1/2 hour later and the rain and lightening set in. Johnathan and I had some discussion on weather we were better off with the masts up or down. I elected to put mine down on the deck and his remained up. The rain and lightening go so bad that we stopped for about and hour. Johnathan was able to crawl into his cabing but I remained above deck and bailed as needed. The bad weather didn't really let up for the entire afternoon but as we made our way onto Lake Pointset we had our winds at our backs and sailed across with storms chasing us the whole way.

We arrived at Lone Cabbage at 7:45 PM. Had a little dinner and now its rest time. Enjoy the pics.