Boat chores.

As much as we’d like it, not every weekend ends up with a sail.  This last weekend was looking like a bust wind-wise, but that wasn’t going to keep us from heading down to the boat.  Nope, it just meant that this was going to be a weekend for some boat chores – and apparently two trips to Defender.

We stopped at Defender on our way down to pick up 75 feet of dinghy line for the new dinghy slip.  We’ve joined Shennecosset Yacht Club (the subject of a future post) and they have some sort of pulley system for tying the dink into the slip.  I’m sure there’s a name for it, but my Google searches so far haven’t helped me to find it.  I can’t even describe it well, so a picture will have to suffice.

The line did not come with the slip so we took a guesstimate at 75 feet, which worked out well.  Defender was having a sale on lines (yay!) and I was also able to pick up two pairs of boat shoes at a blow-out clearance price of $11.50 each.  Score!!

When we arrived at Shenny we spent a good 30-45 minutes figuring out how to rig the dinghy line which involved much laughter on my part.  We must have sounded like we were never going to figure it out, because at one point a guy who was docked in the slip behind the dinghy poked his head out of his boat and offered his assistance.  It was very nice of him, but we were just about all set.  We realized that it was going to be a much easier process if we had a snap hook for the bow and the stern, so it looked like we’d return to Defender on Sunday.

After we rowed out to Pegu Club (the dinghy outboard was sold on Craigs List and taunts us no more), we settled in and eventually got to work installing our tiller clutch that we purchased at Defender’s Warehouse Sale in March.  The tiller clutch will give us the opportunity to let go of the tiller for short periods of time while (mostly) maintaining our course.  This will give the helmsman a break on our longer sails and will make it easier to maintain our course when we’re both doing something together, like tying up the mainsail after we’ve doused it.  Some people use bungee cords but that didn’t work too well for us, and we didn’t want to spend several hundred dollars on an autopilot.  So for us, and for this boat, a tiller clutch was the way to go.  We installed two fairleads and two mini cam cleats down low on the lazarette, attached the tiller clutch to the tiller, and we were all set.  Another project finished.  Time to laze around in the sun and drink cocktails for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday was a beautful, warm, windless day, so a few more boat chores awaited.  We went to the Sunday breakfast which benefits the Shenny sailing school where we met a few more members, and then it was off to Defender again.  This time we were going to buy the snap hooks for the dinghy line.  And because we never seem to stick to the list when we go to Defender, we picked up a flag for Jeff that he’s been meaning to get for a while:

Back at our mooring we polished the stainless, took off the anchor bracket and only dropped one small bit into the water (the bracket will be staying in the basement until we get the next boat), washed the strap marks off of the hull from when Pegu Club was launched, and cleaned the growth that has started sprouting on the outboard (not a good sign given that it hasn’t been all that warm – we’ll be trying a different kind of propeller spray next year).

All in all it was a successful weekend tending to some tasks that needed attention.  It was sunny, warm, and we were on the boat.  No complaints from us!