After the Fun

OMOO’S next stop with be a haul out in spring 2023.

Like any exciting trip there is always the clean up after. As sailors and boat owners we all experience the joy of taking friends and family out on the water for a day, weekend or week.

It always boggles my mind that cases of beer, bottles of wine and spirits can always find their way onto a boat, but the empties never off the boat. I also enjoy scouring the boat after our guests leave to find what they have forgotten. It’s not uncommon to find the extra pair of sunglasses, a beach towel, jacket, shoe or hat. What’s really puzzling are the big ticket items. There’s the telephoto lens of a $10,000 camera, the paddle from a kayak and a wedding ring. Haha, kidding about the wedding ring… that may not have been a mistake.

The most common thing left behind are the repairs. I apologize ahead of time to the Skipper cause this isn’t fun, or funny for him. The last trip of the summer I brought along a gorgeous young friend who stepped onto the boat and caused the crew to get completely distracted.

We wound our way out of a busy harbor, dodging sport fishing boats, a few kayakers and a very large B.C. ferry. The next day after setting sail in 15-20 knots on a broad reach, with gusts up to 25 knots, we were all giddy with adrenaline from blasting across the waves with the sun on our shoulders and the sails full of power.

As the sun sunk, and the wind eased we turned the boat toward a bay to anchor for the night. As everything settled down, the sails were pulled in, the engine started and we put all the loose ends away, we competed for attention from our attractive guest. Then…

THUNK, thunk and thunk again. The crew yelled, “you don’t want to see how big that log is.” The Skipper looked back, to his dismay a 20 foot long log, at least a foot in circumference, bobbed in the wake of the stern. He slowed the boat to check on the bilge, no water was coming in and no apparent damage could be seen. The steering was intact since the boat was keeping course.

Revving the engine up again, we could feel the new vibration of the propellar. Pushing the rpms a little more and the vibration increased. “Damn it!” We had all taken our eyes off the water at exactly the wrong time.

We always make sure somebody is looking ahead for obstacles on the surface of the water. Where we sail in the Pacific Northwest there are always logs floating around, either set free from the beaches at high tide, or from log booms that break loose.

OMOO has a feathering prop, so it’s a tricky fix. Next spring before we head out, the boat will get hauled out, the prop taken off and shipped away to get repaired. The old spare prop will be dug out from under the floor where it’s lived for the last ten years and put on for the summer.

We really were lucky, as those logs can cause so much more damage. A log that size can take the rudder out, or punch a hole in the hull.

The Skipper and crew had some rip roaring sails this summer with taking the sails out fully in some big wind. Now we’re wondering if the new “ish” jib is too big, since the sheets would snap against the front panels of isoglass on the dodger. Later in the season the isoglass was held together with more and more gorilla tape and patched with pieces of hard clear plastic saved from covering our salon table top to protect the wood surface.

Now the dodger is removed and off to be repaired, OMOO is tarped over and covered to protect her from the rain and snow.

The pocket book takes a hit with the repairs and getting the boat ready for next summer is a full time job. Hershey is kept busy, which he loves. When you’re retired and a boat owner, there are no days off!!