July 3, 2009 - The Great Search for Breeze....

Crew: Tauri, Chris & Arabella / The Austins

Got to the boat early and did a little cleaning, including pulling the knotmeter transducer again. This thing just will not stay clean. Time to figure out a way to keep the growth off. Also took the kayak for a quick spin and scrubbed off as much of the growth on the starboard side as I could. The bottom paint is still doing a decent job, but I think I may change it up again next time.

Tauri and the Austins showed up around 1015 and the debate over whether there would be any breeze raged. We all stood in awe, watching the thermals work their way down from Beaufort and totally crap out about 100 meters from the mooring. We decided to go for it anyway and left the dock at 1045.

1045 - Wind NW 0-5, Sky Clear, Temperature 90F, Tide Ebb, Engine, Mainsail

Left the dock and headed south towards McTeer Bridge. Raised the mainsail on the way towards the bridge. Still no breeze...

1210 - Wind WNW 0-5, Sky Clear, Temperature 95F, Tide Ebb, Engine, Main & Genoa

Reached G "37" off the NE corner of Parris Island. Ran the engine back and into neutral to see if there was even enough breeze to drift...nope... The kids were getting hot and the fishing lines started getting all tangled, so we decided to turn around and head back to the club.

1240 - Wind NW 5, Sky Clear, Temperature 95F, Tide Ebb, Main & Genoa

Turning north into the Beaufort River, there was just enough breeze to get us going upwind and we sialed along at about 3-3.5 knots for about 20 minutes. It was a good sail while it lasted, but the breeze eventually crapped out again. We saw some dolphins, so we turned downwind and drifted a bit watching them play. There was a very large dolphin and 2 smaller ones playing alongside the boat. Unfortunately, whenever a powerboat would come along, they would disappear for a while. Eventually, we totally lost even drifting steerage and decided it was time to head back to the club. Tim drove while I furled up the genoa and flaked the main.

Dolphin Watching Drift:

1315 - Wind NW 5, Sky Clear, Temperature 97F, Tide Slack

We arrived at our mooring (#5), since all of the club piers were taken up with the junior sailors. We had lunch on the boat and watched the juniors sail out, then motored over to the docks.

Lunch on the Mooring Drift:

We had some drinks and capped the day off at the pool.

After everyone left, I stuck around to install the new galley faucet.

Total Distance: 8.8 nm

Avg Speed: 3.0 kts SOG

Total Time: 2h 39m 5s