Let's Take This Baby Out For a Spin!

Lisa and I were almost at the lake. We eased the car down the gravel road, weaving our way between trees until Norma's home came into view. We were both excited and nervous because we were about to take the Helms out for a test sail.

We exited the car and moved down the hill toward Norma's home. We walked around the porch and knocked  on the door and were immediately greeted by the yapping of two dogs that were, of course, the joy of Norma's life. This was obviously going to be a big event as Norma had asked her son to be on hand just to make sure everything went smoothly. No one was really sure when the last time was that the boat had been taken out, but it was generally agreed that it had been at least a year or two. Norma had two new batteries installed and the engine had cranked smoothly, which is a good sign. 

Lisa and I boarded the boat and got halfway situated. The motor turned over right on cue and I revelled in the staccato chug of the two cylinder diesel.  We made all the lines ready (that means we untied it from the dock for all you landlubbers) pushed it into gear, gave it a little gas and we eased out into long slue where Norma's home sat. It was magnificent, guiding that boat toward the main body of the lake. The sun was bright, the air was crisp. I was captain of my ship, master of my domain... for about five minutes.

We could still see Norma's dock when suddenly the engine coughed twice and quit. I looked at Lisa and she looked at me . I tried to get the boat to crank but I could tell by the way she was sounding that it wasn't going to happen. You see, what happens with diesel fuel when it sits up for a long time, exposed to air, is that it starts to grow bacteria or fungus or some such mess. So the fuel we had in the line was good and that was just enough to get us away from the dock.  The fuel that was in the tank was bad and it was going to require some money to get it fixed.  If you follow along this blog long enough you begin to see that this is a recurring theme. 

With no motor, we were going to have to rely solely on the wind to move us out of this narrow creek.  As neighbors watched from their docks, that we were dangerouly close to drfiting into, we knew we would have to raise the sails we hadn't even considered inspecting and hope they were intact.  Did we even have enough wind to pull the boat?  Responding with sloth-like reflexes, I asked Lisa to take the helm as I began to make sure everything was ready to set sails. We were losing headway (slowing down) and we needed to make way (speed up). I fumbled around to release the headsail roller furling. I checked the wind and saw we had a slight breeze moving through the trees across the bow,  that's all we needed. After everything was set I gave a gentle tug on the jib sheet and instantly the headsail unrolled into all its 130 genoa glory.  As I jumped around trimming this and adjusting that, Lisa sat calmly taking it all in.  She just steered a steady course and let me do my thing . As soon  as the wind filled the sail the Helms responded and immediately began to gain speed. I stood there in the cockpit and surveyed the situation and realized that I had never seen a sail so wrinkled and rust stained in all my life but she carried her 30 years well and pulled the boat like a champ. 

Lisa and I began to talk about what to do next.  We both decided we had come to sail so let's sail.  We'd worry about small matters like not being able use the engine later on. So I began to make ready (gettin' ready)  to hoist the mainsail. Now this is a very complicated process so I'll go slow. 1. Connect the halyard to the head of the mainsail. (hook rope to sail) 2. Wrap the main halyard around the deck winch. (wrap rope around clicky thing) 3. Hoist the mainsail. (pull on the rope)

So I start hoisting and winching and the slides on the mast are hanging up and nothing is going right and then... this huge clump of red clay comes crashing onto the deck and on me and I'm looking around trying to figure out what in the blue blazes just happened. Sometime during the boats two year hiatus the local dirt dobber population decided the mainsail would be a great location to build their dirt-dobber hive, nest, metropolis or whatever it is they build. I'm confident that with that one sail set we rendered several generations of the insects homeless. 

Now if you're reading this and you don't know what a dirt-dobber is about the only way I can describe it is its a flying insect that looks exactly, except for their color, like a wasp. Some people call them different names like mud dauber or mud wasp. I remember when I was a child I asked my dad if it was a mud dauber or a dirt dobber and he told me we weren't rich enough to have mud daubers we could only afford the dirt variety. For the longest time I never could figure out why mud was so much more expensive than dirt.

Dirt Dobber

 In fact they are a type of wasp and if you'd like to know more about them then you can click here after you have finished reading my blog. 

So there we were,  sails were set and the wind was cooperating somewhat and after about thirty minutes we were in open water. The wind had begun to build and the Helms had responded like a champ.  She pulled strong and easy through the water, she tacked and jibed smoothly and she was sensitive to the tiller. 

As we did our sea trial assessment we noticed several things that needed to be addressed. She needed a general cleaning, new bottom paint, leaked around the mast (still does), knot meter sort of worked when it wanted to (still does), needed all new running rigging (ropes), the engine not running issue which has already been addressed, curtains were deteriorated, sails were thirty years old and in terrible condition, wind speed and direction indicator didn't work, the head (toilet) either didn't work or was too complicated for me to figure out how it was supposed to work, all the teak need to be refinished, bilge pump didn't work, but besides that she was good to go! 

I'm not exactly sure when we decided to buy the Helms, I'm not even sure we had an actual discussion about it, I think we both just sort of knew. We sailed around for about three or four hours and decided to head back in. We contacted Norm's son and he met us not far from the dock and towed us home. After we got the boat secured we went in to talk with Norma . We all knew the boat had some issues but we knew, too, the price was right. So we wrote her a check on the spot and became the owners of a Helms 27 called Doo-Da. 

We'll talk about the name in our next blog. Until then, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to post and if you enjoyed the read please share it with your friends  or if you didn't enjoy it,  share with someone you don't like. 

Fair Winds and Following Seas