Yet another week has come and gone here at Driscolls boat yard. Not only did this week bring the official beginning of summer, but also a jobs list that never seems to shorten. While we have had a lot on, the stress level seems to be a bit lower than in weeks past, as jobs are less vital for departure of Dorade on the Transpac. I do not mean to say these jobs are unimportant, but rather that we are confident the Dorade would make it to Hawaii if it was asked to leave today, but with them done the boat will be sailing faster, safer and more beautifully.
The first task I tackled this week was to whip and code our lines and sheets with the help of Chewy, who provided the coding document. This should stream line the time spent rummaging in the forepeak and at the mast. Chewy, with some revisions from Ben and I have created a color and numerically coded system and spread sheet that will help the crew to find the spin sheets, jib sheets etc. We did this buy whipping the tail end of each line. Hopefully this will reduce change over times, and increase our performance. That process took me the better part of two days, with odd jobs being completed during that time, one of which was to convert ply wood into clean cut emergency boards, which will be kept under the bunks during future sailing. The other time consuming job I was given this week as too do some leather work on our new spin poles, and on our spreader tips. Being relatively inexperienced with leather, I started slowly and cautiously but began to pick up the pace. I am quite happy with the final product I was able to produce though, with help from Ben of course. We were also able to get the Mizzen boom sent off to Manny in order to put on a new swiveling gooseneck, which is a smaller version of the main booms new gooseneck. Another small job was to have the new J-2 sent off for some alteration, as well as the Staysail sail bag. In full, we had a very successful week; I gained some new skills as well as feeling as though Ben and I work efficiently.
While we had a busy week here on the Dorade, Ben and I were able to enjoy the best of San Diego harbor. Greg Stewart invited us out for a Wednesday night cruise on his beautiful 6 meter, Sprig. The weather was perfect, with a strong breeze, which it is many evenings here in San Diego. We watched the start of the beer cans race series while enjoying great vistas of the city. It was my first time sailing in San Diego harbor, in the past I had only seen it as we tried to quickly leave, or on a tired return trip home. I am also looking forward to a bit of sailing that we have planned for early next week. We plan to sail Monday and Tuesday, in order to test some more new sails with Kevin, and to thank some of the people that have helped us out while we have been in San Diego. I am glad that there is a weekend between now and then though, and I hope you enjoy yours!
Max Lewis