Trans Superior

I’ve always loved the word cruise. It denotes action with purpose though not necessarily result. In days of yore a cruise could result in a rich harvest of prizes if a war or pyrate cruise. Currently it has more recreational connotations. Conversely I’ve never liked the word training. It suggests a certain monkey-ness. I’ve since learned that it’s not a bad thing and it is not a bad thing. I guess I would like a different descriptive word. At any rate, we had our first cruise as a crew. I’ll go with the word first rather than training.

We departed for our cruise about 6:30. We had quite the send-off, so many people, it reminded me of the last race’s sendoff and we’re just going for an over-night cruise. Thanks to everyone for the sendoff, I know I felt warm and fuzzy! We had a North breeze about 10 knots or a bit less. We were able to steer about 90 to 110 degrees compass at 6 ½ knots. The breeze backed north probably 20 degrees that made us figure we’d clear Bark Point. Unfortunately the breeze didn’t stay there or keep backing so we were obliged to tack when we were about 5 ½ nautical miles from shore.

About 01:00 the wind deserted us, if not a bit before. I’ve always said that the 0:00 to 04:00 watch is the worst. It’s the longest part of the night. We had no wind, and were obliged to drift for the most part. We had a couple of puffs that pushed us a bit more in the direction we were headed but we ended up sailing with bare steerage come 04:00.

Shortly after 04:00 we had a strong Southwesterly breeze that had us firming up on a course west, figuring we would beat home the way we beat out to where we were. Unfortunately that breeze too deserted us. About 04:30 we fired up the diesel and headed back for home. There were a couple of spots of breeze but certainly not enough to attract interest.

We arrived back at 09:30 with most if not all the crew in need of a good, long nap. It was bitter cold out the entire cruise. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that this is the worst case scenario when it comes to cold temperatures. Having done the race, I was frankly surprised at how warm it was in the early part of August. None-the-less, I have every confidence in a 30 degree night out on that lake.

I hope the rest of the crew is as jazzed as I am at how this cruise went. I just hope the next cruises get some wind involved!

Today, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, I was able to get up to the marina to work on the final parts of the WhimSea bottom prep. Matt was going to take care of the rudder himself, but I thought it would make sense to be up there too and do some sanding and stuff. Because we were planning on having Matt working on this stuff he took the paint and some extension cords. As I was prepping, I plugged in one cord, that was way short, like a 75 footer, then I put in a 25 footer and ended up about 2 1/2 feet short. I had a splitter that I had to hunt around for on the boat and after getting that plugged in ended up with about 10 extra feet. Just as I was about to plug the whole shebang in, Matt showed up. I didn't know whether to curse or what.

Matt shaped up the leading edge while I worked a bit more on getting some of the old paint smoothed out. While this was going on Jerry finished waxing the hull and it looked spectacular! I'm definitely groovin' on this new wax recommended by Scott.

After lunch the marina folks were able to pick her up in the lift and gave us a bit of time to do some sanding and finish the painting. We got 9 of the 10 pad spots painted before running out of paint. I did have another can but am figuring on returning it to Marine General. The effort is such a huge improvement that I didn't see the need for that last $60.00.

I must confess, in the seven seasons that we've had WhimSea, I've never seen her splashed nor taken out. The guys at the marina did such an awesome job, Thank you Joey!! We got the engine commissioned and fired her right off. Matt and I went out into the lake a bit since everything was going so well, we got to be at her first curtsey to Neptune of the season.

Karen and I are heading up probably Saturday morning to put her insides to rights, they are all ahoo for her long winter's nap yet. I'm thinking we'll go out and do a bit of sailing on Saturday and Sunday.

Fair winds!!!

Troy

Friday and Saturday saw the race crew members up to Knife River getting WhimSea ready for splash. The goals were to; fair out the bottom paint, repair the leading edge of the rudder and wax the hull, with bonus points for getting the sails bent on. On Friday I got a bit of a late start arriving at the marina about 10:30. Matt was waiting for me and we got pretty much right down to work spending the day working on taping, sanding the old paint with Matt grinding the rudder and applying some glass to the leading edge. It was such a gorgeous day out that both he and I got sun burned.

Dave arrived about 4:30 and started doing the hard under hull sanding with Michael showing up shortly after Dave and working on the same thing. I worked primarily on the rudder yet, that bottom paint was stubborn. But we got the sanding all done and gave her an acetone rubdown before calling it a day. It was Dave's birthday, though I didn't find that out until Saturday. Happy Birthday Dave!!

Saturday morning opened cloudy, cold and rainy. Dave had stayed in the marina too and was up pretty early. It was disappointing to hear the rain on the cabin trunk but what can a person do? Dave and I gave the above the waterline hull a bath, getting rid of some of the dust that had accumulated on her sides. 10:00 saw more of the crew arrive to help out but it being rainy and cold it left us with not much to do. Seemed like a good idea to get the sails bent on and the crew took to those tasks with gusto. It's kinda nice to get to put get those tasks done since the sails really stay on the boat without having to be taken off ever during the season. After that, we all broke for lunch.

After lunch it was pretty apparent it was going to stay cloudy and cold though the drizzle stopped. We were able to do a quick wipe down of the bottom, and got that painted. We had some issues with the rudder getting cured yet, it was in the upper 30's out and cold still. With the bottom painting finished, we put up a tarp and used a portable heater to try and help things along with the curing. I only had one buffer but it seemed like a good idea to have folks trade off so that one person doesn't get too tired. We got most of the hull waxed except for where the tarp was, a good 85% of the hull. It was getting on in the day so we figured we'll hafta take care of the rudder later in the week, Matt volunteering to take care of it on Wednesday.

With the calling of the day we all went out for pizza to DoNorth Pizza as a thank you to the entire crew for all the hard work and effort and giving up a Saturday to get things squared away.

Posted by; Troy

Posted by Karen A. Brown

This weekend Troy and much of the 2009 Trans Superior crew are working away on WhimSea preparing her for splash down and for the 2009 Race. They are fairing out and painting the bottom as well as looking to some issues with the rudder. The hope is to get the work done this weekend and have the marina splash her down during the week.

Troy has also worked out a tentative schedule for training events out to the Apostle Islands. The plan is to leave the marina on Friday evenings and take WhimSea on a trip around Devils Island. The idea is to get everyone used to overnight sailing through these multiple trips.

I have created a special page on information on the Trans Superior to help support providing information to the crew. Click on the title for a link.