Sailing Sailing Sailing....oh and a Few Projects

We've been enjoying our time on Jomo, Keith and I have been out 4 times this week alone.  One day it was 18 knots and thick fog.  We figured it was a great time to play around with the radar and overlay, but we couldn't figure out how to turn the radar on.  Ok, a project for another time.  We decided to pack it in and head down to the city docks to wait for the wind to calm down, it didn't, and it kept getting cooler.  I figured I would make some hot tea for us and test out the stove since i had not used it yet.  After figuring out how to turn the gas on, determined our tanks were empty.  Ok, add that to the task list.  So, we donned our warm layers and foul weather gear and headed back to the marina.

The next day I needed some sailing therapy away from work, so we went out. It was 8 knots and warm, t-shirts and shorts weather.  We had fun chasing down two skippers single handing in the great conditions, they said they were heading towards Neah Bay the next day.   We played around with the light air spinnaker, just the two of us.  We gybed it 5 times, but only twice successfully, obviously still learning!  We headed out to the strait for a bit and then headed back home.

Then we went out again on Wednesday for weekly beer can races.  We had a full boat again, with nine of us aboard there was plenty of hands to handle the boat.  I loved that 5 of them were 21 and under, their enthusiasm is infectious.  We tried out one of the many jibs we received with the boat, a smaller #5 for heavier wind, with a double reefed main.  It was really great, comfortable and with the heavy weight spinnaker, made for some fun sailing.

We went out again yesterday into some stiff breeze.  As is often the case around here, it is a quite lovely 8-10 knots through most of the day and then builds to quite sporty in the late afternoon and evening, this was how it played out yesterday.  I kept peeking out my office window hoping to be on the water but alas we didn't get out until my days' work was done.  That meant when the wind had built up further, to 17, gusts to 19.  We double reefed the main and with the smaller jib up, we comfortably cruised at 7 knots just the two of us.  We didn't stay out too long but it was just what I needed to decompress. 

So today was project day!  We started by looking at the radar and determined that it works great on the system on the binnacle but doesn't seem to be connected down at the nav station.  We'd need to run a cable down there and it's not critical right now, especially as it might turn into one of those can o' worms.  We took the tanks to be filled and tested out the stove, it's working perfectly now.

Lastly, we started on the head plumbing project.  One of my biggest pet peeves is a stinky boat and we were noticing that there was a smell under the bunk of the forward cabin.  That's where the holding tank is so Keith ordered new Sani flex hose to replace the existing hose which looked ok but seemed to be lacking.  Our goal was to replace about 8 feet of the hose, two 4 ft lengths.  This has to be the nastiest job I've ever helped Keith tackle.  We had done a thorough flush of the system multiple times, but seems the hose was definitely in need replacement - it stunk.  Like when Keith cut the hose off, on a scale of 1-10 it was an 11.  I nearly lost my lunch due to the stench!  Once we replaced all the hose, we then worked through and cleaned everything thoroughly including the bilge just in case anything dripped in there.  All I can say is I am happy to check the box on that project, and glad that one is in the rear-view mirror. Blegh! Now back to more sailing and prepping for a cruise later in August.

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Flying the white light air spinnaker on a perfect day.

Working on the plumbing project.