Week 2 ..... saw the christening of Nikita in more than just the traditional way; a bump on the dock, a minor grounding, a dinghy painter entangled in the prop and whole lot of great sailing. We took the boat out for 4 days this week, ducking back into Essex for a rather large storm over the weekend, to test as many systems as possible. The first leg was down to the Thimble Islands nice 12 knots of wind on a close reach with 6-7 knots of boat speed. The second day we came back up the sound too Sag Harbour (after grounding in Coecles) in 5-10 knots of wind flying the spinnaker and getting 4-6 knots of boat speed. We took Wednesday to enjoy the Sag Harbour area, returning Thursday to Essex in 20-30 knots of wind reefed down and flying at 8 knots. In the end we got to see our boat in several different wind and wave situations and are very happy with how she performed, very stable and very fast. Cannot say enough good things about the spinnaker, something we did not carry on our previous boat, makes for great light down wind sailing.
The lesson was clearly stay away from port. As we left Essex on Monday I turned to early backing out of the Marina and was set onto a nearby dock by the current, small scratches to the topsides - annoying.
On our attempt to enter Coecles, notoriously difficult with a shifting sandbar, we saw progressively lesser depths, less than expected, so attempted to exit stage right... up onto a sand bar. First rule of thumb when you go aground is to get your dinghy tied up tight to the boat, instead we went into reverse and sucked the painter into the prop. I dove into the 50F degree water to untangle it; fortunately we had noticed our mistake so it was a quick job. We put up the mainsail to heel the boat, gave it some gas and off we went. A quick swim the following day confirmed just a wee bit of paint left on the sand in Coecles. By the way I do not recommend the water this time of year for anything other than polar bears. Jake is now designated keel dive boy.
On Friday, we noticed that our water pump was cycling even though we were not using any of the taps. A quick look in the bilge confirmed more water than was there last. After a quick search the hot water heater was determined the culprit.. in the engine room.. on the other side of the engine. So with my svelte frame in and over I went. The heater element is threaded into the water heater snugged down on a rubber gasket which was torn. I replaced it Saturday morning and water leak is fixed.
We seem to be christened.
The lesson was clearly stay away from port. As we left Essex on Monday I turned to early backing out of the Marina and was set onto a nearby dock by the current, small scratches to the topsides - annoying.
On our attempt to enter Coecles, notoriously difficult with a shifting sandbar, we saw progressively lesser depths, less than expected, so attempted to exit stage right... up onto a sand bar. First rule of thumb when you go aground is to get your dinghy tied up tight to the boat, instead we went into reverse and sucked the painter into the prop. I dove into the 50F degree water to untangle it; fortunately we had noticed our mistake so it was a quick job. We put up the mainsail to heel the boat, gave it some gas and off we went. A quick swim the following day confirmed just a wee bit of paint left on the sand in Coecles. By the way I do not recommend the water this time of year for anything other than polar bears. Jake is now designated keel dive boy.
On Friday, we noticed that our water pump was cycling even though we were not using any of the taps. A quick look in the bilge confirmed more water than was there last. After a quick search the hot water heater was determined the culprit.. in the engine room.. on the other side of the engine. So with my svelte frame in and over I went. The heater element is threaded into the water heater snugged down on a rubber gasket which was torn. I replaced it Saturday morning and water leak is fixed.
We seem to be christened.
