Reenie K

This is her maiden voyage under her new name. We launched on Budd Lake on April 3, 2007. The weather was warm and sunny with some high clouds and light breezes. We spent about 3 hours on the water, checking her out. I found a leak where the centerboard pivot bolt goes through the pocket, but fixed it in short order. Other than that, she did not appear to take on water.

There is way too much lee helm (a tendency to turn away from the wind), which I need to resolve. That can be dangerous,as she might turn away from the wind and unexpectedly jibe, causing the boom to change sides with great force. I think I need to adjust the mast and tilt it back more.

Other than that, she sailed well in very light airs. We need to find some more wind next time we go out.

Here is the collection of pictures taken by Captain and Crew:

First, there was no water in the bilges when we came back! My fix from last time worked!
The problem with the helm is fixed. The Reenie K holds her course with a slight tendency to turn into the wind if left alone. That's what I was looking for. I have to make a few minor mods to the standing rigging, but I don't think that will be anything major. I'll talk to my rigging guru at Eggar's sail loft this week sometime.

We managed to put the boat in and take it out without looking like a couple of idiots. I have to look at one of the switches on the trolling motor - it failed intermittently to go into reverse.

We managed to get the Reenie K to heel today, even though the wind was light again. We got about a 5 degree heel! Brian was ready to go in til we hit one nice pocket of wind. Then he wanted to stay out! He did well handling the helm - a little unsure of himself, but that takes practice reading the wind and the boat

We're not ready for the Raritan Bay yet. Too slow on a couple of things and a few rigging fixes to do. But we're getting there!

So here's the stats:
Winds variable to 10 mph, calm seas. We were out from 12:00 to 16:00 today. Wore me out!

We took the Reenie K out to Spruce Run again today. It was cloudy and windy, with winds at 6-10 mph. (I think higher).

We grounded against the shore after we launched. The motor isn't strong enough to keep us heading into the wind and we broached to. We were towed off by a friendly fisherman (Thank you whoever you are...)

After that, we had quite the sail.This was Brian's first experience with a boat heeling, and heel she did. She caught the wind and took off! I kept easing the sail to lessen the heel so Brian didn't get too worried.
I am very proud of Brian! We ran into some problems between a lot of weather helm (I'll talk about that later) and a very undersized motor. He let me know he was nervous, and a little scared. He hung in there, followed orders with alacrity befitting a much older crew member, made suggestions about handling the boat, took the helm and steered straight and true (even when we heeled).

Here's the WAY cool part..... The theoretical maximum speed of a sailing ship is 1.34 the square root of the length of the waterline. For the Reenie K, her max should be about 5 1/4 knots. Here is the max we registered today:

We read this as about 6 1/4 knots the knotstick. By all reports, the knotstick is quite an accurate piece of mechanical engineering. We achieved this speed several times on a beam to broad reach, heeled about 10-15 degrees!

What I heard in the beginning has turned out to be true. The Reenie K does indeed sail sweet!

I talked to several people who regularly sail at Spruce Run - they all report that winds are variable there, gusting and changing direction unexpectedly.

The adjustment to the stay and shrouds worked well, There is still some weather helm, but no where near as much as last time.

All in all, a great day on the water!

Here are the pics!
There are pictures of a couple of boats we saw today, including a homemade sailing canoe! Pretty cool!

I took out the Reenie K to Spruce Run again, this time single handing. Boy, she sails sweet! (I keep saying that, huh?) She held her course as long as the wind stayed steady, which was about 5 minutes at a time.

The new motor is GREAT! Thank you Howard! It's more motor than I need, really. But I'd rather have a big motor used lightly than a little motor that has to strain. I have no qualms about the Raritan Bay (after the river), the Barnegat, Long Island Sound or The Chesapeake. That motor will get us home. It moved me fast enough on 1/2 throttle. I'm betting I could tow with it, if I needed to.

I made a few rigging changes after the last trip, too. I moved the jib cleats inboard on top of the cockpit rail. That worked really nicely. Much easier to cleat and uncleat!

I moved the horn forward to get it out of the way of the jib sheets. The jib sheets still hang up on the mast step, but I have the fix for that. I'm going to box the mast step with some oak. That way, the sheet will tend to roll up the mast on change of tack.

I did me first jibe on the Reenie K today (yes it was planned). The winds were very light, so I tried it out. I'm dry, so it must have worked. I also managed to sail her wing and wing for a bit. She tends to nosedive when I do that. A better way would be a spinnaker to lift her bow more, but that's beyond my skills right now.

Moving the boom crutch forward worked too. The main traveler doesn't hang up as much, the boom is easier to roll the sail around and I was even able to fly the ensign today for the first time.

Here are the pics for today. Not very many, I'm afraid... It was a little busy singlehanding (and the damn pager kept going off!) These pics show the Reenie K ready to leave the dock. You can see the portholes I made pretty well. You can also see the new location of the boom crutch pretty well. I need someone to take pics of her under way.

The last pic is a guy who was out on a windsurfer, Brave soul he!

What a frustrating day! My crew wasn't ready to go, so I went single handed.
Launching was easy for a change, but there was almost NO wind. I must have changed tacks about 100 times in 2 1/2 hours! The good news was that the mast step box worked fine! It sure got tested!

I had a leak in the fuel line for the outboard - Thank God I take a toolbox with me...

I tested the speed of the outboard. At about 1/2 throttle (which is as far as I can open it now because I am breaking the motor in), I get 7 knots of speed as measured by the knotstick. That's probably way more speed than I need, but that means I'm under-using a big engine rather than over using a small engine.

I did get a fairly loud thump from the engine at one point. I'm not sure what it was, but the engine kept running and later there was no prop damage visible. I also heard some cracking from the transom with the new motor. There was a reinforcement bracket I had taken off when I put the electric motor on. I going to put that back on today.

I'm going to take the Reenie K out again today... Well, I need to test her, don't I?
Well, don't I?

Brian and I took the boat out Sunday. We both came to the conclusion that Spruce Run is a weird lake. The wind is constantly changing direction and velocity. At one point, the wind changed and turned the boat over 90 degrees before we could react!

We also got blown up onto the shore again coming back and lost a batten again. I'll have to tape them in place I guess. That just makes it a little harder to furl the sail around the mast. But I can't keep losing battens.

We sailed out for about an hour and dropped the anchor for lunch. It was fun and very relaxing to just sit and bob around in the water. Coming back was when we had the challenges.

I need to adjust the stays and shrouds again. I am getting way too much weather helm, to the point where a 1 1/2" wide red oak tiller is bending while you try to hold a course! I can fix that by adjusting the length of the stays.

II need to also look at different ways of mounting the motor. I added some reenforcement to the transom, but that changed the angle the motor sits at, so I couldn't use it in shallow water. I might have to bite the bullet and buy a mount bracket. (ouch!)

I have some time - I go on standby today and won't be able to take the Reenie K out for a 2 weeks! Damn!

Next time, we're either going to Lake Hopatcong in North Jersey or in the Raritan Bay. Time to find a place where the wind doesn't change every 30 seconds.

OK technically, it isn't blue water sailing. I went down to the Shrewsbury River and put the Reenie K in down there. The river is tidal, so the water is brackish - a mix of fresh and salt water.

I have to admit I was a little nervous about sailing there, even though the shore is visible. This was my first venture ever into tidal waters. All of my other sailing has been lakes.

First of all, the tide was out and the river is REALLY shallow. I spent half my time sailing with the centerboard half raised. THAT really affected how the Reenie K handles.

The wind was different too. No abrupt changes of direction! I tacked a lot, but to change my direction, not to accommodate a change in the winds.

More adjustments to the stays and shrouds too. I had a lot (A LOT) of windward helm when I was sailing down the wind. I'll keep playing with it, but next time, I strap my wrench down! I lost a wrench overboard!

I'm going back tomorrow with a friend and the crew. I'll take more pictures of some of the houses along the shore (My GOD!) One of the nearby towns is Rumson - where Jon Bon Jovi lives! Their utility sheds are bigger than my house!

Nice people and I'm going to check out joining the yacht club down there. I can see myself in the white slacks, blue suit coat and captain's cap standing around the clubhouse, discussing the latest sail to the Keys (yeah in my dreams).

All in all, it was a great day on the water, and I can't wait to go back.

We took the Reenie K back to Shrewsbury River today. We had a great sail! No pictures today, cause we were way too busy gliding through the water and soaking up some sun.

We had our first passenger ever today also. My friend Dani came up form Maryland to visit. We sailed around the bay for about 4 hours and had a great time.

The rudder is still giving me a bit of trouble, with lots of pull when I sail on one point of sail. I need to fix that somehow.

We also had one incident of the boat turning unexpectedly. I don't know what happened, but she turned and then stopped responding to the rudder. We bonked a wooden retaining wall before I could get her back under control. No damage to the boat or wall, but there was some bruising of the Captain's ego.

A good day, one of many I hope

God, I'm beat... I was out on the Raritan Bay all day today, from 10:30 to 4:30. My first venture on real blue water, not brackish river water.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive and remembered an old sailor's prayer; "Lord watch over me for your ocean is so large and my boat is so small." He did - winds were light, seas were calm and I had a ball.

The Reenie K and I are getting used to each other, learning our quirks. She has a few, which I will pass along to the next owner, but won't bore readers with. Suffice to say she sails a true course, stays steady and is quite forgiving of an out of practice old man.

I will upload pictures tomorrow if they came out. The digital display is hard to see in bright light, so I kind of guessed. Tonight is the night to relax and have coffee and bask in the glow of a day unproductively spent. There are some gorgeous boats at Keyport, several beautiful ketch rigged sloops I'd love to own, but if i did, I'd spend more time owning them than sailing them.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise!

And here they are.. Not terribly interesting- they show a LOT of water. IN the second picture, you can see the Verrizano Narrows bridge if you enlarge the pic.

We got a later start yesterday than I wanted, but put in at Keyport Ramp at about noon. Lots of traffic, so it took a while to launch.

When we got out, the Bay was a little choppier than the last time, but not too bad.

We set a course North for Staten Island with the idea of picnicking at Prince's Bay. We missed our point and ended up beaching on the next bay over, between Prince's Bay and Great Kills Harbor. It took us about two and a half hours to sail that distance.

We beached and ate a picnic lunch, having borrowed some shade from one of the landowners on the shore. There's a house I have to go back to look at - looks like a castle!

Unfortunately, we had a couple of cases of seasickness on board during the sail and I didn't even think of the first aid kit! The anti-nausea pills that are included in the West Marine kit reportedly work very well.

Coming back, we got caught in some current, which took us east quite rapidly, so we would would have made landfall nearer Keansburg than Keyport. With the chop increasing, a weather report that included possible thunderstorms and the day ending, we broke down and came back under motor. It still took 45 minutes to make the run from Keansburg back to Keyport! God, I'm glad I bought the outboard, though. We'd have never made it with the electric trolling motor.

The only downside was that I had two flat tires when we pulled the boat out of the water, one on the car and one on the trailer (both on the same side). Driving home on the space saver towing a boat was a bit nerve wracking, but we made it.

It was a GREAT day and a thoroughly enjoyable sail. Can't wait to do it again!

As always, pictures will follow after I clean out the boat. Some dumb cluck forgot to put the plugs in when we launched, so the boat had some water in it. That's what I get for not using the checklist, huh?

Here's the Reenie K on the beach for lunch. We had a GREAT day! In the background, you cna just see Keyport, where we sailed from.

Bet no more than 5 people who read this even remember Ray Milland. God, I'm old.

No, my lost weekend didn't involve hiding a bottle of booze in the chandelier. I put the Reenie K in the water late Saturday afternoon at Atlantic Highlands. Would have gotten in earlier, but I got a little lost - the map was at home and the GPS laptop had a dead battery.

Anyway the Bay was pretty choppy in the afternoon. Instead of sailing to the the point of Sandy Hook, I decided to sail to a cove I found on the charts - Spermaceti Cove. Looked very sheltered, and the waves were enough that I didn't even try to raise the sails. I cheated and used the motor - and had my life jacket and life line on, thank you very much.

I got to the cove at high tide (a fact that figures in later), dropped the anchor and set the anchor drag alarm. Then I set up my Coleman stove and cooked a VERY simple dinner and made a pot of coffee (this is a surprise?)

By 9:00, I was ready to crawl into the sleeping bag, so I set up the tent and fell asleep. I woke up a bunch of times throughout the night, about every 90 minutes. Twice I got anchor dragging alarms and the rest of the time was just the odd surroundings and sounds.

Abut 8:00 I woke up for the last time and got my lazy butt in gear.While I was making coffee, I noticed the channel I had used was not a channel any more because it was low tide. Significant fact number two.

I stowed the stove and took down the tent, which worked perfectly! Kudos to the designer and fabricator. About that time, the Sandy Hook Park Ranger who was walking by informed me I was in a closed area - a wildlife refuge area! He asked me if I had seen the Closed area buoys. When I explained how I got into the cove, he was very understanding, but told me to get my boat out right away.

I motored tot he other inlet showing on my chart and sure enough, there were a line of buoys. But before I got to them on the way out, there was this sandbar. I ran hard aground! Only thing to do was get out and do the Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn scene. I decided I didn't have the legs to recreate the Hepburn part, so I dragged then Reenie K over the sandbar.

All thats left is a simple sail past the buoys on the way out, right? Uhh not so much. There was a line of rip rap marking the mouth of the cove. No way I was going to sail over them! So, Humphrey Bogart Scene ! take 2 - this time dragging the Reenie K over slippery moss covered rocks! Free at last Free at last!

My thanks to the unnamed Ranger who was understanding about how I came to be where I wasn't supposed to be.

I spent the better part of Sunday sailing along Sandy Hook on the bay side, then turned to port. Atlantic Highlands is a very busy harbor and it took an hour for me to get to the point where i could grab a line and drag the boat to the trailer. My little 5 hp motor will not run the boat up onto the trailer, like the motor sailors can do.

A good weekend, with a successful test of the tent and stove (Brian and I need to cook a meal on the trailer once, so we both know how to move about), a lesson learned with minimal pain and suffering a nice easy day on the water and a new acquaintance. How can it get better?

Pictures soon ( yeah I know - but this time I mean it!)

Well, the day LOOKED great so off to Keyport went the Reenie K and I.
Tide was out, so launching was a bit of a challenge (thank you to the guy who helped push the boat off the trailer.

I launched at 12:00. At 3:00, I had not cleared Keyport Harbor! There was no wind at all for most of the time. I got as far as I did by motoring out and trying to catch a breeze. It looked like there might have been some wind near Staten Island, but I really didn't want to motor that far.

I did test a makeshift set of lazy jacks and they're going to work I think. Sunday and Monday, I'll install the real versions. Lazy jacks are lines that hold the sail when you raise or lower the main sail. Right now, I'm rolling the sail around the boom to get it out of the way. It's a real challenge when the wind finally does blow.

Of course, I'll take some pictures

What a day! Good day, but with issues.....

I launched at Keyport Ramp at about noon, and motored out to the middle of the harbor, well away from moored boats (and a good thing, too). When I raised the sail, the head of the sail got hung up in the lazy jacks cause I wasn't bow to the wind. There were lines all OVER the cockpit. I know better, but let myself get distracted. The main sail sheet got tangled around itself and a lazy jack line, so wen the wind caught almost raised sail, off we went. I had the rudder down and the centerboard down, so we started to move a little prematurely. Good thing I learned early to keep my head down - we had an unexpected jibe! I got the boat into the wind and cleared the lines and finished raising the sail and passed my cardiac stress test all at the same time!

The lesson is to keep the lines cleared and free until I'm ready to go. It was well and truly learned today (again).

The sail over to Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island was pretty uneventful. Some chop and gusting winds, but nothing to get worked up about. The sail back to Keyport was SLOW as January molasses!.. I had to sail dead into the wind, which is impossible, so I had to tack a bunch of times. I think the tide was going out, cause I could not make headway. I sailed past the Keansburg amusement park three times before I gave up and dropped the sails and motored back! I'm glad I wired the lights - I needed them by the time I got to the ramp. It was dark!

Reenie K does not tack well in light airs. She's too light to have enough momentum to complete the tack, so she gets about half way and then drops back onto the original tack. That was a little scary when I was close to a very large boat dredging a channel! Quite accidentally, I found the solution. The Trick is to leave the jib locks on the original tack. The boat turns, and the wind fills the jib, but it's on the wrong side of the boat. That forces the bow around onto the new tack. That's when you set the main and the jib on the correct tack. It's called backing the jib. My last sailboat was a lateen rig, with one triangular sail, so I never really had to do that. Glad I spent some time reading!

On the ride home, the boat slipped forward and sideways on the trailer because I hadn't centered it correctly. There was no way I could do anything on the road, so I took a slow ride home. Note that if you grip the steering wheel REALLY tight, the boat stays on the trailer. I don't know why that is, but I found it impossible to relax my grip!

I got home all in one piece and with the boat on the trailer. From now on, I carry chains and a come-along in case it happens again.

So a few valuable lessons learned without a lot of pain or suffering. I'll add the few pics I took later.

Next entry will be a while. I go on-call next week (darn!)

My niece Vickie, who gave me the boat, her daughter and my son took the Reenie-K out on Lake Hopatcong for a few hours.
The winds were variable again (typical lake sailing), so we tacked about a gazillion times to get anywhere. The lake is very pretty, but very built up.

The kids wanted to swim, but we couldn't find a sheltered cove that didn't have a house or boat traffic around. We couldn't even find a place to drop the anchor for lunch.

On the sail back, we had one unexpected jibe, which made all of us nervous for a few seconds! But no one got wet.

I really do prefer the more open waters and consistent winds of a large bay, I'm afraid. Lake sailing makes me a little nervous because of the winds and the traffic - a few motorboats came closer to us than I really wanted to see.

I go back on call next week, and the week after, I'm on vacation. I'm looking forward to a few days on the Chesapeake Bay!

Wednesday and Thursday of last week, Brian and I put the boat in the water at Keyport with the idea of sailing over to Sandy Hook - a duplicate of the July 4th trip I did alone. I also wanted to test the jib furler in the water, cause almost anything works in the yard.
We got there, set up and launched, then motored out of the harbor. Two hours later, we got almost a mile and a half.

We turned on the motor again and went over to Sandy Hookand camped. Good trip, nice beach but the next morningm there were flying pirhanas around. Little white bugs with an attitude and an appetite.

THe next day, we motored out of the bay we anchored in, motored the length of Sandy Hook and out into the North Atlantic (not very far, I have to admit, but I have put my boat in the ocean).

Then we motored home. It was a long and noisy ride, I'm afraid. And I still need to test the jib furler!

The week of August 6th, I hope to be out on the Cheasepeake Bay! Maybe even under sail!

I was down in Maryland for another reason and took the Reenie K with me. My older son and I put in at th Bear Creek Ramp near Dundalk on August 10. Weather was a little unsettled and after a week in the area, I saw how fast storms can come up in the area. It was overcast and threatening rain, so we used the motor to run over to Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

The bay is really busy! We got caught up in some traffic and had to dodge a couple of tugs that were running about. It got interesting, to say the least.

Cool place to visit! We saw the Constellation - old square rigged ship, a Coast Guard cutter that is the last surviving ship form Pearl Harbor and a really cool wooden square rigged boat sailing out of Philadelphia.

On the way back, we ran up the sails, which also was interesting. Most of the sail back was uneventful, running a combination of broad reach and wing and wing. The fore stay is a bit loose, I think and needs to be tightened, but the jib furler stood up well. The wind picked up about 2/3 of the way back and we ended up turning into the wind to get things back under control. With a slightly loose fore stay and the wind at our stern, I was really worried about a gibe that could have been a serious problem. We furled the jib and sailed most of the way back under only the main, with our single casualty being Rob's hat went overboard.

We are gonna be in a few scrapbooks. I did see a couple of tourists take our picture! We also saw a huge cruise ship on her way to berth, from about 100 yards away. That was plenty close enough thank you very much!

We tried going under a bridge (major highway - Route 695) under sail but the wind was not from the right quarter, so we dropped the sails and motored the last 1/4 mile.

Good time, but the bay can get pretty busy and pretty choppy. Next time I go out, I am going to avoid "tugboat alley" however.

At least the last hurrah of the vacation.

I put in at Keyport again today. Weather was PERFECT. Bright sun, not too hot and a nice light breeze. I had no particular destination in mind. I sailed out into the bay and just putzed around for a few hours.

Very light winds made it a relaxing day on the water. I made 2.5 knots max speed, tested the jib furler again (it's working great, but in heavy winds, we might want to hank the the jib to the forestay to takes some of the strain off the sail wire.

Good time, and probably the last solo sail of the season.

I'm on call next weekend, so Brian and I went out this weekend.
We got a WAY late start, so we didn't get into the water at Keyport until about 8:30 at night - another milestone - a night launch!
The evening started very calm as we anchored near Keyport Yacht Club basin (thanks to them for letting me drop the hook there). About 3:30 am, the wind changed and picked up - a lot. It was an interesting ride for about an hour.
At 5:30, when I woke up again, the sea was dead calm. The bay looked like a mirror! At this point, it's to early to take the tent down and make coffee, so I go back to sleep. At 8:00, when I got up for the last time, there was a bit too much chop to cook on board. I had to take the tent down, raise the anchor and beach to get my coffee and make breakfast.
After breakfast (eggs and sand, sausage and sand, English muffins and sand), we launched and saild out into the bay. The wind lasted just long enough to get us out there. Then it QUIT!

We launched about 9:00 and putzed around for a while, but gve up about 1:00 and motored back to the docks. It was a long day - I think I was awake every hour form 1:00 am to 6:00 am! (and no way to make coffee on the boat!)

I'll post an assortment of pictures soon.

My crew deserted, the scurvy knave! (He went to the beach with a friend).

I launched at about noon and got under way under sail, then spotted a Hobie cat in trouble. Mast down, crew on deck - so at least no one was overboard The Reenie K was not handling as well as she has in the past, so I furled sails and offered assistance, as per the ancient and honorable laws of the sea.

A few minutes of getting ready, and the Reenie K towed Ralph and crew member Zack to the beach at Keyport. It took a while but was no problem. Only crossing the channel made me a bit nervous.

Once we were beached, I took the opportunity to adjust the stay and shrouds. Something is out of balance (maybe the captain is unbalanced?) because I have excessive windward helm on one tack and lee helm on the other. I think I need to balance the shrouds equally, then adjust the rake of the mast again. Fun Fun Fun!

That might have to wait til next year. I don't know how many more days I'll have on the water. Maybe tomorrow though?

In any case, it was nice to be able to help someone else after al the help I've gotten.

Ralph and Zack, fair winds and calm seas!

Well, like most adventures, this started out with the best of intentions and a plan. The intent was to adjust the mast rake to balance the helm again.

Here's what happened:
First, two lines were hanging off the side of the boat when I launched. Both wrapped around the trailer axle in a knot that made the Gordian Knot look like a granny knot! I had to re-rig the jib furler line but thankfully not the jib sheet.

OK. There's always one adventure each trip, right? Umm Not this time.

I motored out to into Keyport Bay, pointed the bow into the wind and raised the sails. I had adjusted the shrouds and forestay in shore a week ago, so I rather expected some lee helm. Bingo! As I was testing, I noticed the forestay was loose. This is a problem in stiff winds, as the mast tends to fall into the water. I lowered the sails and motored back to the dock as the wind was picking up. The wind was blowing into the bay, driving waves and me towards shore.

Once tied to the dock, I adjusted the stay and shroud and went back out. The Reenie K got caught in the wind, and developed a major side slip. I think the centerboard is not lowering all the way. It made her virtually uncontrollable! She has a tendency to aim for very large, very expensive boats when she gets crosswise, too!

I motored away from the anchorage and into the wind. This made the jib and main luff (flap to you landlubbers) really badly. As a result, I lost a pin on my jib furler (the device that lets me wind the sail up). So now I have a boat side slipping and a sail in the deep blue briny sea!

As I went forward to retrieve my jib, the main sheet got all tangles in the engine, the boom crutch, the transom fittings AND the rudder, so now I have main sheet in the water near the prop, a main sail that I can't let free, a jib in the water and a boat that side slips, chop developing and a wind that wants to either flip me over or drive me into a fleet of really expensive boats!

At that point, I doused the main sail (lowered it really fast), pointed into the wind, freed the jib and hauled it on board, turned my stern to the wind and went back to the dock!

I can't wait to go out again!

I fear this is the last sail of the season - I'm on call next week and then it's really gonna start to get cool.

I launched today without mishap - no lines tangled in the trailer or anything!

A guest and I sailed out into Keyport harbor area and tested the balance of the boat. The sailboat pixies had not "magicked" the mast rake over the last week, so we went back to the dock.

(Note to self - do NOT try to dock under sails in a crosswind. It gets a little exciting!)

I adjusted the shrouds a bit and took her back out again. This time the balance felt much better - still not right but better.

We sailed towards Keansburg and anchored for lunch and a little break from all the strenuous work of sitting in a dry spot in the ocean and letting the wind push us around.

I adjusted the shrouds again and, since it was after 3:30, we started back to the dock. Everything seemed tp be fine until we got close to the moored boats in the Yacht Club basin. The Reenie K developed a LOT of lee helm, wouldn't turn into the wind and was heading for a really nice and really expensive sailboat.

On came the engine and we motored out of harms way. In retrospect, given my tendency to tack too soon and my desire to not put large gouges in a boat that cost more than my home, I think I was pinching the wind - trying to sail too close into the wind. I should have made one last tack. Unfortunately, in order to start making headway, I have had to steer closer to the boat.

Next time, I'll hold my course longer before I make the final tack.

I should have done a lot of things today, like clean my room and office, clean the kitchen, do laundry and blah blah blah..

Instead I took out the Reenie K again. What a day! Because i had started putting her away for the winter, it took a while to get squared away this time.

I saw Ralph and Zack as they were coming back in form a day of sailing as I was putting in.

I sailed out from Keyport harbor and checked the handling of the boat. All seemed well, except the forestay developed some slack at times. First chance I had, I tightened it up and all was well there.

No adventures, not exciting moments of Man's skill, grit and determination against the pitiless harsh seas. More like laying back in the sun and watching a LOT of boats out, For once, there were more boats gone from the moorings at Keyport than there were there!

As I was tacking about the bay, I was overtaken by a very nicely kept boat called the Shanghai (I found that out later - the name was in Chinese!). The captain hailed me and asked if the Reenie K was an American Fiberglass 16! First time anyone recognized her by name! Turns out he has one on a trailer! He thinks sail number 101, so about the same vintage as mine.

He tool some pictures of the boat under sail and promised to send the me. That would be great, cause I want to make crew sweatshirts for the Captain and Crew and put a picture of the Reenie K on them!