Saturday, August 1, 2009

Why yes - I *am* an abysmally bad blogger - why do you ask?!!

Wow. Almost two months since my last "blog!" How bad is that?!! (don't answer - that's a rhetorical question!).

There's actually been plenty of blog-worthy "stuff" going on (being wed to an un-diagnosed OCD is "good" that way!), but I just-plain-haven't been able to keep up with all of it!!!

My bad - but what're ya gonna do, right?!!

You can lodge a complaint to 1-800-Who-Gives-A-Sh**! Right?!!

Yeah, so... Anyway - Yes, we have a BOAT now. Rog, in his typical OCD fashion has taken Tazz-The-Spazz's refrain of "Throw-my-Toy, Throw-my-toy!" and converted it to "Let's go sailing, Let's go sailing!" It's positively f*cking maddening, I tellya!

Well, one of the clinchers for us (initially) was the fact that Lazy Lightning (who IS a good boat, BTW) came with a 110% genoa. Well, San Francisco Bay SUMMERS are pretty challenging - windwise - all on their own. Add a genoa to that and, well, that's just a bit TOO much sail for MY tastes!

And my goal, after all, is to spoil ALL of Roger's fun!!!

But - and let's Get Real here - all of my bay-sailing experience has been with folks who have - wisely - only had 90% Storm Jibs.

And - for those who might be unfamiliar with "sailing stuff" - let me clarify: The foresail on a sailboat is the sail on the FRONT of the boat. Jibs, generally-speaking, only go as far back as the mast (100%). Storm jibs fall slightly shy of the mast (90%). Genoas exceed that (110-150%+). And Spinnakers (big, colorful "hot-air ballooon" lookin' things) are like genoas on steroids. The foresail is your "Power-Sail." They are particularly powerful on downwind runs (Spinnakers, especially).

Well, with the "challenging conditions" on the SF Bay, I had some reservations about the idea of sailing with a genoa. In fact, I pretty-well "dug my heels in" and made it PAINFULLY clear that we would NOT be sailing w/a Gennie... So the first half-dozen sails (or so) were Mainsail Only - much to Roger's dismay (so no upwind-runs - since you can't go upwind w/o a foresail).

In fact, I took it a step further and indicated (quite clearly) that we needed to order a "working jib" and a roller furler. Working jib = foresail that makes it "as far as" the mast (and does allow you to sail upwind). Roller Furler = a doohickey that makes it possible to open (and CLOSE!) the sail from the cockpit by "spinning" the foresail around the forestay - as opposed to having someone scramble up onto the cabin top to hoist (and/or unhoist) the sail.

The beauty of a roller-furler is that it enables you to decide how much foresail you have "open" to the wind. We opted for a CDI FF2 Roller Furler and IT ROCKS!!~!

Anyhooooo.... We ordered the Furler and a new 100% Working Jib. We opted to hire a professional rigger to install the sumb*tch. It's on the boat and all is good....

We got the roller-furler and new, working jib installed just over a week ago, Life is good.

But "Small Craft Advisories" STILL apply to us! I really don't want to turn this blog into a b*tchfest so I'll skip much of what I'd like to blog about.

Anyhoooo.... I figured I'd post some videos to keep ya'all (whoever ya'all might be!) entertained, in the meantime!

Rog haulin' @$$

Rog getting ready to dock the boat...
 


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