I'm starting to get some pictures of Strider's first real cruise.

See

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Sailing0608.htm

for a map and picture of my lovely crew.

One of the crew plans a more extensive gallery and web site that this
will link to so check back sometime for lots of pictures and stories
of this part of the coast.

The cruise was remarkable for having few learning experiences.
Despite some strong winds and long legs, there was almost no
excitement due to equipment failures or mistakes. The following
segment from another post bears repeating though. This method of
getting untangled from a lobster pot works very well. I'll try to
provide a picture later.

We did snag two lobster pots which made me a bit less sanguine about
that aspect of the boat. In both cases, however, it appeared to be
two pots that had tangled their lines so that they were stretched at
an unnatural direction.

My system for getting free worked so well that the snags were not much
more of an event than needing to reef.
I have a hookknife on board but chose not to used it and be left
wondering what might still be attached out of sight below. I'll use
it if I snag near a lee shore and need to restore control quickly but
the following method works very smoothly and quickly.

I have a large bronze snap hook tied to a line a few feet longer than
the boat. I fasten this to the end of a long extending boathook with
duct tape. If the tape is applied to the rope and hook properly, the
pole will guide the pot warp right into the hook. Once the line is
hooked, which was very quick and easy in both cases, the pole is
yanked free. Rolling up the jib and letting the main pull the warp
tight brings it up where it can be seen or felt with the pole.

Once the warp is clipped, the main is lowered and the line taken
through a bow chock and back to a halyard winch on the mast. This
pulls a bight of the warp forward and, in both cases, the buoy came
with it. It was then just a matter of winching the buoy aboard,
unclipping it, and getting underway again.

--

Roger Long