The Adventures of Twoflower

May 30,2022:   It’s one year to the day since I started this blog.  It’s been 9 months since I posted.   (If I thought it was hard to keep up when we were on the trip around the Mitten, it's quadruply so when I'm working full-time.   We sailed Twoflower as late as we could push it in the Fall and then laid her up for the winter on the hard.   Last sail of 2021, October 23 We bought Twoflower with the mast up.  So we really had no idea what to expect when we unstepped her.  There was good and bad.   Unstepping the Mast:  Oct 30, 2022 Let me just say that the NSSC club members are awesome.  With everything else, we ended up with a cold rainy day when the mast HAD to come down.  Members left the warm inside to help us even though it was the day of the big MSU/UM football game.  We had helped a few other boats unstep[ to try to learn the ropes (lines?), but we still needed technical help, and more muscle was absolutely critical.   She’s a funny looking power boat.  It's hard to

Daysail (and swimming)  Lk St Clair Thursday, August 26 93°, 91 % humidity.  Seems like a good day to be in the water. (not much wind for sailing in the afternoon. We anchored off Strawberry Island, and floated around until we were actually chilled.  We scrubbed the bottom of the boat a little, but it wasn't in terrible great need, and we're not racers to care about a 0.1 kph difference in hull speed. better day to be in the water than on the water Might as well make ourselves useful or playful.... Spying his quarry, the intrepid hunter stalks his prey, harpoon at the ready. Now he has it in his sights For those who don't understand this sequence, harpooning is a traditional Greenland Qajaqing skillset that we practice at Qajaq Training Camp, which should have been this week.  Once we finally cooled off,  and with the wind picking up, we set sail.  Unfortunately, as we were leaving we hit bottom just a little. Sandy bottom, Probably nothing to worry about, so we put it out

Lk St Clair It was a perfect day to sail.  The winds were much better than forecast, building to about 20 mph around 5 and then lightening up a bit to 10-15mph.   We had to reef in the strongest winds but we rarely got below hull speed.  It was a good day!  We sailed as far south as we've been in Twoflower on Lake St Clair and then we turned and sailed east all the way into Canadian waters (just barely, as it became legal last week) the view from the peanut gallery (clipped in setting the first reef point) red and green buoys mark the Freighter channel  In our continuing effort to get to know Twoflower and all the rigging that came with, Chuck and I took advantage of excellent conditions to play with the whisker pole once we were headed downwind.  .  We've flown the spinnaker using the whisker pole (we have an asymmetrical spinnaker), but this was the first time using the whisker pole on the Genny.  First, we figured it out together (with autopilot driving) and then we took it

North Star Sail Club Top Gun Twilight Race series Race 2 August 10 Lk  St Clair Off to the races again (on the Race committee boat). Tonight I brought my real camera (and not only my iPhone) Baker sets the course Crazy Train Checking in Hat Trick Island Moon Venom Audacious Xcessive Reverie Relentless and Venom Wild Life? Otis B Driftwood Xcessive Mr Bill's Wild Ride? Crazy Train   Finally, they're off in a light wind. Spinnakers up! Mostly anyway... Indigo Indigo (problem solved) and Hot Water Huntress Desire and Lady Godiva Finally, it was decided that at this rate, we'd all be out all night, so the RC called for a shortened course; this involved us (the RC boat) racing to best the first boat to the new finish line... which we did but barely.   At the Finish Line Huntress (1st in Spinnaker Racing) Audacious Island Moon Honor Roll Small Fry (1st in JAM Racing), Wavelength, Island Moon and Venom Crazy Train, Lady Godiva and Katana headed back to the barn.