So I was right when I wrote in my last entry "I think that's it for the year."

Building the house, moving, and the fair took a lot of time, and Odyssey didn't make it into the water last year at all. That's the bad side, the good side is that's why I have a trailerable sailboat, a whole year of sitting around didn't cost me a dime in slip fees.

This summer I not only cleaned Odyssey up but I took out for a day on the water. Unfortunately not a sail, but a day on the water.

Spring was very late in the Puget Sound region this year, it stayed wet and raining into late June. I managed to get out on a couple of the nice days to wash Odyssey down and drain the water from the bilges, but that was all for the early part of the year. Getting the green off was a big win, but this year I was determined to sail, so we started looking for a day.

Late in June (the weekend of the 21st) it looked like we'd have a chance, so I sent Dana out to get the license for the boat and trailer renewed. But because it was still the 2007 sticker year, if she bought the $25.00 license sticker it would only have been good until the 30th, and then I would need a 2008 sticker. We decided to put off the first sail into July.

The first weekend in July we were on vacation (Hawaii!), so that meant sailing was off until the second weekend. And gosh darn it I was going to go out.

Saturday I did chores around the house so that I would have Sunday to sail. Then Sunday early I started loading up the boat with all required gear: anchor, sails, lines, cushions, towels, it just goes on and on. However, the motor started, I found new flares at the local hardware store, the brake lights worked after a little fiddling, and the trailer tires weren't too flat. We were off.

The drive to the launch ramp in Everett was a bit scary, the boat and trailer seemed to be a bit squirly. Turned out I'd forgotten to strap the back of the boat down, so Odyssey was bouncing on the trailer a bit. But we got safely to the launch ramp and putting the mast up went smoothly, even though I'd also forgotten my new mast-raising stick. Faster than we thought possible we were in the water and motoring away from the dock into a fairly fresh, and welcome, sailing breeze.

It was a fairly standard run down to the mouth of the Snohomish -- lots of boats, dodging the Jetty Island ferry, etc. Joey was at the helm with Dana giving him lessons in steering. Katie and I did the foredeck work getting the genoa ready to go. So far, so good.

And then, we hit the first of our two major snags of the day.

I'd forgotten to lower the swing keel. Usually I do that first thing coming out of the launch but I'd been distracted by avoiding a wind surfer and the ferry. I remembered, though, just before we hit the washing machine at the mouth of the river, so I went below to lower the keel.

It wouldn't go down.

So I hit it with a winch handle to knock the rust loose.

The whole winch gave a good impression of disintegrating. But the keel stayed up. Which is a good thing at this point.

Sailing was out of the question, so we decided to run up the river for a while and back. We had a lovely motor (except for a couple of idjits on PWCs that were kicking up wakes in a no-wake zone) up the river to the I-5 bridge.

That's when we hit the second snag of the day.

Katie asked "Why do those PWCs have those jets of water shooting up into the air?"

"To show that cooling water is getting to the motor," I replied. "Ours has one too, it just points down. See?"

Only I didn't see. No cooling water jet. No cooling water in the motor. Trouble.

We turned and headed for home, and with the exception of one other power boat cutting our bow and tossing us around with his wake, we made it back to the dock with no problems. I spent the entire time thinking "if the motor fails here, I'll be able to get to there." I didn't need any of those plans, but I was ready. Later when I told Dana she said she was wondering what I'd do if there was a problem with the motor.

It seemed like bringing the boat out was a lot quicker than usual too. Maybe that's just 'cause it's been so long.

Anyway, now it's off to the forums to find a vendor for a keel winch for Odyssey. This may be our only trip this year. But at least we made it out onto the water once.

Tonight I stopped by Odyssey, just to say "hello."

It's been raining for days here in Pugetopolis -- we're closing in on a record for consecutive days of rain. Somehow a maple leaf managed to fall over the cockpit drain and seal it. Meanwhile, the rain kept falling.

By the time I looked the water was only an inch from overflowing the seat hatches and starting to fill the cabin. I calculated that there was about 850 pounds of water in the cockpit.

I poked a stick through the drain to get the flow going. It was quite the fountain flowing out the drain for about three minutes.

All better now.

We decided to go somewhere different for our first sail of the year, since we splurged on a new trailer over the winter expressly so we could go to different places. For this trip, we decided to sail in Lake Washington, launching at Sandpoint in Magnusen Park.

The new trailer towed like a dream, occasionally I would look into my rear-view mirror and be surprised that I had a boat tagging along behind me. Having a trailer that tows so nice turned out to be a good thing, since I got a little lost heading to the park and ended up pulling the boat through the narrow streets of a Lake City neighborhood.

Once I found park I took the time to walk from the prep area to the launch to make sure there were no low hanging wires or tree limbs that would interfere with the mast while we moved. Once I was sure there was anything between us and the water, Dana and I made pretty short work of rigging the boat for launch.

Once we got the boat in, we headed out into the lake to hunt up some wind. There wasn't much to be found, so we decided to head across the lake to Kirkland so the kids could get out of the boat and swim. The crossing was OK, but quite rough considering there was very little wind to pick up the waves.

We found an opening at the end of the Kirkland public dock and did a touch and go, stopping long enough to drop off the Dana and the kids. I took Odyssey and headed off the dock a quarter of a mile or so, then waited for Dana to call me when the kids were done swimming.

While I was heading out, I noticed that I'd lost one of my fenders over the side. I turned around and went back in, where I saw the fender floating in the lake with a couple of boats circling around. One boat, a bow rider with three kids in the front picked up the float, and then the dad threw it over to me. He threw it like a football, and made a perfect toss to Odyssey's cockpit.

I spent an uncomfortable hour bobbing about in Odyssey while the kids swam. The lake was rough, and other boaters seemed oblivious to their wakes as they sped past, sometimes only yards away. I was only too happy to head in and pick up Dana and the kids and get away from the Kirkland waterfront.

The wind finally came up after the family was back on board, and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours chasing the fluky breezes around. At one point we sat with our sails slatting while 50 yards away a Catalina 22 rolled past with her sails full. Later, we managed to find a breeze and sailed past a J-24 on the opposite tack with no wind in her sails.

A thundercloud forming in the late afternoon chased us, and apparently everybody else, off the lake. We circled for half an hour or so waiting for our chance to get to the launch and get out. Once we had our chance, the dock assistant and the other people waiting to launch hurried us to get onto the trailer and out of the way.

That's when I made my big mistake and allowed the pressure of getting out of the way to overcome my good sense. I pulled the boat out of the water with the rudder still down, and broke the rudder into three pieces when it dragged on the ground.

Dana and I quickly picked up the pieces and got out of Dodge so the people pointing and laughing weren't pointing and laughing at us anymore. We took the rig down and headed for home, where I started looking for a replacement for the rudder.

Updated July 1, 2003

I finally got to start my sailing season on Father's Day (June 15th). Well, not really the sailing season...

Remember that old saying "A bad day on the water is better than a good day in the office"? I put that to the test on the 15th. I put Odyssey in the water, went nowhere, then pulled her out again.

On the plus side, we looked good. Dana and I remembered how to work together to put the mast up and rig the sails, the kids were actually helpful, and Duncan, our dog, seemed to enjoy his first trip on the boat.

On the minus side, the motor that I had tested only three days before, the motor that had started on the second pull after being in storage for 8 months, the motor that had never failed me before -- decided not to start. Even after a couple of hours of pulling on the cord, after re-gapping the plugs, drying them, choke, no choke, throttle, no throttle. Nothing.

And the worst part? If I could have made 100 yards I could have sailed. But considering the current and the traffic at the Everett boat dock there was no way I could scull, rock, or paddle that 100 yards without bouncing off another boat, or the dock, or both.

Sheepishly, I took Odyssey back home. The next Saturday I got the motor out, changed the plugs, changed the gas and tried again. Nothing. Went in a told Dana it looked like we needed to take the motor in to have it fixed.

Then, yesterday, my father-in-law Ron came by to have a look. He got the motor out, hooked it up to the hose and the gas, pulled the starter, and ... it started right up.

He told Dana, "Sorry."

Dana: "What happened?"

Ron: "It started."

Dana: "What did you do to it?"

Ron: "Nothing."

After I go home (a whole other fiasco involving my daughter, missed e-mails, getting out late from a meeting and the fact that a payphone call now costs $1.00, at least at the Target in Woodinville) I gave the ol' outboard a try. It fired right up.

So, with motor problems seemingly vanishing behind me, maybe this week Odyssey will get to go sailing. That is if I can convince her to be a motor boat first.

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Addendum

I posted this story on the SailNet Laguna list. Here's the response I got from Randy Urich:

Hey Chuck,

Sounds like you just got the motor loaded up--the two-stroke version of getting flooded. I worked on motorcycles for 25 years, so I have a lot of experience in this area.

The piston-cylinder-port system-crankcase of a two-stroke outboard acts as a pump, sucking in the gas-air mixture with every turn of the crankshaft. It goes into the crankcase first, then the piston coming down forces the mixture up thru the ports to the combustion chamber. Every turn of the crankshaft draws in another charge, and the excess tends to accumulate in the crankcase.

When the engine doesn't start after the first half-dozen pulls, it is likely getting loaded up. This is the point at which you should hold the throttle WIDE OPEN (choke open too, of course) while pulling the starter rope. If this doesn't get it started in the next 6-12 pulls, then you need to take the plugs out and dry them, crank the engine without the plugs to clear the excess gas, and just LET IT SIT with the plugs out for 10-15 minutes for some of the accumulated gas to evaporate.

When you try it next, if it doesn't start on the first or second pull, hold the throttle wide open again and leave it there till it starts.

Sometimes this routine may need to be repeated if it's really loaded up. The plugs continue to get wet.

Old gas especially will aggravate the situation, old plugs don't help. You having spark but wet plugs is the traditional symptom for a loaded up (flooded) engine. The excess coming out the exhaust confirms the situation.

I hope this helps. This proceedure is especially useful if it fails to start out on the water. Carry spare plugs.

Good luck,
Randy
the "!Oye Maricela!" '83 Laguna 22

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Another Addendum

Patrick Wesley asked Randy if the note about loading up a two-stroke engine applied to four-stroke engines. Here's Randy's reply to that one:

Hi Patrick,

Not so much with 4-strokes, as the combustion mixture is confined to the cylinder amd combustion chamber. 4-strokes are pretty efficient at pushing the gas/air mixture out the exhaust valve, therefore not so prone to flooding.

However, the principle is the same: when the mixture in the combustion chamber doesn't ignite, the fuel tends to collect on the surfaces and the air gets expelled out the exhaust. This continues to upset the optimum 15:1 air to fuel ratio, and the richer it gets, the harder it is for the spark to ignite it. The plugs also get wet with the unburnt mixture, adding to the difficulty in igniting the charge.

The solution for both two- and four-strokes that are flooded or loaded up is to induce more air through the wide open carburator throttle bore. This also diminishes the venturi effect, thus sucking less fuel in with the air as it passes over the throttle jet.

Again, old gas is one of the worst culprits in both types of engines being difficult to start. Also, if left in the carb over the winter it can gum up the jets. Of course, this will cause the plugs to be dry when you inspect them.

Oh yeah, here's another tip: DON'T use gasolline with ethanol (alcohol) in it in 2-strokes, because it has a tendancy to cause the oil and gas to separate, AND it attracts water to the gasoline.

I hope this helps, good luck,
Randy

We went sailing on Father's day. Or at least we tried. I'm too depressed to tell you the whole story right now. See the next entry.