Knitter at work

Starting off April right, Mary and I took a nice little sail down the lake for several miles then back up to Tanasi for lunch.

It was kind of a shakedown cruise for 2012 and things went remarkably well – no blood, no inadvertent swimming and no broken boat parts – that always counts as a successful trip.

It took us about 30 minutes to square everything away and get underway.  Not a terrible amount of time considering a winter of disuse.  We had a gently SW 3-5 breeze and Mary took the helm once we cleared the marina breakwater.  (Note:  All these pictures were taken AFTER lunch when the wind died.)  Our course was NNE toward Tellico Dam and Mary held her on course while I kept her in trim.  We sailed under full main and jib and decided to put the Bimini up early to get a feel for sailing with it up.  We did have to adjust the topping lift so she would tack & jibe without dragging the boom on the Bimini (Note to skipper – rig that cleat so the topping lift can be adjusted without taking the Bimini down!) but she perked right along with a variable 3-7kt breeze on the Port quarter for almost an hour so we just kicked back and enjoyed the ride.

As we passed Tanasi heading down river,  we lost the wind completely and cranked up the iron jib to

Silos mark the entrance to Tanasi Harbor

blow the winter’s crud out.  It started missing at about half throttle and we double checked fuel connections and vents before deciding to open it up more.  After a few minutes at 2/3 throttle, she cleared the fouled plug and ran smooth as silk.  We ran at about 8knots up to the spillway silos then reversed course and headed back to Tanasi for lunch.

At the 3 silos, we turned into Tanasi Cove and entered the harbor.  A few nervous minutes later, we arrived at the guest dock.  At several places around the docks, we had only 3 feet of water and we draw 2 1/2 with the centerboard up.  Anyway, no groundings.  Reuben sandwich with fries and ice water put us back in fine shape!  We lunched on the deck outside the clubhouse watching the golfers swat balls into the water below the 18th green (they were adding to the stack of balls I started there myself.)

Leaving the Tanasi Clubhouse.

Leaving Tanasi (clubhouse in the middle of the picture above) we watched the thunderheads beginning to build in the NW and decided on a motor run back to the Yacht Club and home (about 3 miles upriver.)  Mary broke out the knitting and I handled to boat.

Heading for the fuel dock

Back home, we headed to the fuel dock to top off – $4.27/Gal at the Marina for treated and stabilized fuel – it is nearing $6.00 at the public marinas on the lake.  We took 2.1 Gallons as we hadn’t topped it off since August.  About 12 miles traveled, 1/2 under sail and 1/2 under power.

Great day on the water, sailing video of Mary at the helm below.  I got about 30 seconds before my Flip batteries died.  Camera batteries died.  GPS batteries died.  (Note to Skipper – Charge the stinking batteries and carry spares!)