April 23 - Around the Islands.

Left 9 am for a sail.  Wind light and headed across the N. end of McNabs Island toward Point Pleasant Shoal.  Beautiful morning and I could see many people out walking themselves and their pets at Point Pleasant Park. Put kettle on stove and made myself a coffee as the boat drove herself.

Wind building pretty good now so put on my survival suit to stay warm.  Headed over near the entrance to NW Arm then out to sea on a Port Tack.  Wind out of the SW at this point and building.  By the time I neared Mars Rock I was doing 6 kts.  Sailed on out to Thrumcap Bouy (HN6) then turned for Barries Beach Bouy outside Eastern Passage.

Wind and sea on the quarter at this point and speed decreased because the sails were not staying full in the rolling sea. Rounded Barries Beach Bouy then in through Eastern Passage.  Was temped to dock the boat then but decided to do a pass of the downtown Halifax section.  Decided to make myself another coffee and have some Mr. Noodles........easy underway.

Boat speed was not under 6.3 knots and as high as 7 knots as headed from the Passage to Downtown Halifax.  Close hauled and 6.4 steady heading back to SYC. Tacked up the passage and put Odyssey on Autopilot.

At this point I rigged the lazyjacks, dropped and secured the mainsail. Furled the jib (Brad at Doyle did a nice job with the repair on that 100% of mine), fired up the engine and headed back to SYC.

Had a tough time securing her solo between the posts.  I couldn't hold the rope by hand in the 18 kts wind and started to blow off. Threw her in reverse and throttled up.  She started to swing and move...then I saw my rope just in reach...I decided to grab it and put it on the winch and pull her where I wanted with the winch.   As soon as I was in close to the rope I threw the gearbox in neutral.  That's all I would need...rope around the prop in 18kts of wind!!  Anyway, got it done without too much problem.  Would not be a problem only there are a bunch of steel pylons and the wind could blow me into shallow water in moments.  Had to have nerves of steel to even try it.  But I knew I could get it done solo.

Finally secured at 1245 hrs and put my anchor rhode as a spare line as I was not comfortable with the one I had in these conditions.  Cleaned up the dishes, put the mainsail cover on; chartplotter reading 31 nautical miles.

22 April 2011

Sailing today in NW wind 20+ kts.  Great fun.  Max speed today was 6.7kts.  Total mileage upon return 13.7 nautical miles.

21 Apr 2011

Rained all day...didn't go down to the boat.

April 20th ..first sail of the year

First sail of 2011; sailed downtown Halifax on morning of Apr 20th...it hailed on me.  Took the sails down and headed back to SYC. 2.9 nautical miles.

Had engine trouble on the way back ....spent rest of the day working on the engine.  After taking apart the carb, cleaning it, new filters, new points and condensor and cap....I find my problem with plugs and they were put in brand new a few days ago.

Odyssey launched on 18th

Launched Odyssey on 18 April.  Tied her between the posts at the yacht club because the docks won't go in for 2 or 3 weeks.