It was a overcaste morning, but the weather report said, the temps and the wind were going to be good so, I was set to sail. My 1st plan for the Sat & Sun was to go see the Polka Dot Racing Team race in Berkley. However an email from EVK4 said his team was out for the count due to injuries. So much for the Sat. race plan, since I did not hear back about the race on Sunday which I had planned on going to for some photo ops, I cancelled that and planned on getting my sail-0n.

The day was cool, partly cloudy, and windy. There was this guy out doing his wind kite surfing , maybe it is called kite boarding, thing in the marina parking lot. I’ve seen him before, I thought he was a kid at first, but he is at least 45-50. When he is out one can be sure of good wind. The flag was standing out right and there was only a small chop so It looked like a good day to be on the water.

I quickly made ready I was in good spirits for a sail. My good spirits took a sharp drop when I check the bilge and there was about 1-2 inch of water in there after I had dried it out just a few days ago. Now I’m worried. Maybe that is normal for an inboard boat to have a small accumulation of water-in the bilge. However after hearing from a Islander mentor that his boat was having some leaking problems around the drive shaft that he had to haul out to fix, gave me some real concern with us being on money watch.

I put it on the shelf in the back of my mind for the time being and set out for a sail. The other day I was out and I had the sails out full, today I reefed the main before setting off. I had the jib also reefed at first, but let it out fully after a bit.

It was a brisk sail and I re-reefed the Jib after a bit, to even out the ride as it was gettting more gusty. I noticed several boats were under main sail only.

It was a great day to be out, the temps were comfortable, not too cool, not too hot. I keep going back in forth between wind breaker on and wind breaker off.

There were more people out today on the striat sailing than I had seen in a long time. It was perfect sailing weather. Enough wind to move you along if you wanted zip or reef down and have an easy trip.

After I while it came to me I could practice heaving-to to get a real feel for it on my boat with some wind power. It was an easy transition the tiller extension worked perfect for holding the tiller.

Once before whilst out sailing I thought about doing some meditation whilst underway. Not a good idea. However I remember reading that people do lunch break and stuff whilst hove-to. So I sat for a while to get the feel of things and it was better than and easier than dropping anchor. I was able to get a bit of Zazen time in. It was great. Reminded me of what Yoh Sensei had said about doing Zazen on his boat. It was a different feeling to be floating and listening to the sound of the water on the hull and the birds in the distance whilst the boat just sat with a little drift. Even though there were a fair about of sailboats out, there were NO tankers , tugs and only one or two power guys. Oh, and these guys

Otherwise it was a sailboat day. There were at least 5 others out, for this area it was a lot. Anyway I had no concern about being run down, I just drifted for 45 min or so. It was great, way better than anchoring as there was no mess to clean up or put away, just change the sail angle and go.

After my meditation break, I sailed a bit more before heading back in. Just about to the marina I got the great idea of going in under sail. Now I have done this before so I was not that concerned. I do it under jib as my main sail does not go out far enough for me to control the wind flow to stop and drift. After a bit a maneuvering I drop the main and just head in under jib. Things went smooth until I made my slip approach. My concern was stopping and having too much speed. I misjudged how much I needed to get in to the slip. I tried doing the rudder (sculling) thing, but was not steering toward where I wanted to go. I found myself headed for the end of the dock, not in the slip. I abort the mission and fired up the motor. If I had no motor I would have held more speed, or I could have made another pass. However I fired up the motor and backed off, swung around and made another pass at the slip. This time, not quite focused as I should be I my approach was off. I was in the slip but not close to the dock as should be, I figured to jump. As soon as I did I knew it was wrong. I did not have a line and the boat was still moving off away from the dock. I could grap the life line but I was stretching pretty far. Having done enough Kung Fu moves I knew where my balance was, I was on the edge. Even though I was able to grab the boat, I knew if I tried to pull I was going in the water and had no leverage. Rather than making a big splash I pushed off and re-boarded the boat which was still drifting away from my slip finger into the next boat. Luckly it was a small power boat so there was some room to drift. I quickly put her in reverse and backed out of the slip, at a BAD angle as she does not steer well in reverse. However without a mishap I swung around again and re-did my entry this time much more mindful and slow. Perfect.

I do not know if anyone was watching, but I would have been the April fool event of the day if I went in the drink. As it was I was an amusement for anyone who caught the action. It was my turn today (heheh)

After all was shut down and put away, I turned my attention back to the bilge. I pumped out two wine ( sake ) bottles worth of water. This is my first boat with a inboard so I do not know if that is normal or I have a problem. ( anyone ?? )

I drained it an sponged up most of it, I will keep an eye on it over the next few days. There had been water in there before, but when I checked before I would always see the top of the bilge pump so did not give it much thought. Then I noticed it was much higher even though the bilge pump was still not under water. Which turned out to be because it was not fastened down it was just floating! DOh! This I figured out and pumped it out before going to Japan. Once returning, there had been rain so I just re-pumped it. This week no rain but there was water, so now I’m worried. I also found out even though my elec punp works it is not strong enough to pump the water up the height it need to go to reach the drain flow. So I’m glad I got a hand pump and found a Heavy duty water electric liquid pump on board from the PO. It is not a bilge pump but I can hook it up for pump-outs.
So ends April fool’s day sail. I had a good sail, a good meditation, returned home dry and oh I forgot to mention. I had to drink the last glass of Sake from the bottle in other to have something to measure how much water I pumped. Seemed like a good reason to me.

I went home and made dinner for lady Zen, instead of doing band practice. She worked today, I went sailing, so she deserved a break as well.