Wing On Wing 02Jul14

I enjoyed the mountain winds again today. I repaired Mon Ami electrical with a new battery and some repaired connections... don't try to buy a deep charge marine battery in Summit Co as it is not straightforward; ultimately CarQuest Auto Parts had one. After righting electrical, including mast lighting and "cassette player" (need to get modern Bluetooth/USB version), I loaded both sails and headed out for the afternoon-evening. Wind was mid-strong again with stints of keeling over at 40%! That was a blast. Single-handed sailing with two sails and a rudder to control was interesting... not all maneuvers were smooth (yet) to say the least, but I made it. I even executed the clever wing on wing downwind move twice during the outing. Since I have no spinnaker on Mon Ami, the biggest sail surface to present is genoa on one side and main on the other; see the 2nd image... its a touchy move to keep up. Probably the toughest thing though is raising and lowering the all the sails with wind... I point into the wind initially but I have to move forward on the boat to yank the halyards which leaves the rudder spinning me in circles till the airfoils are abloom. Yeowza.

View From The Boat 01Jul14

The view from the boat is sublime. Sailing out of Dillon Marina, the highest deep water marina in the world, on my maiden voyage aboard Mon Ami, was awesome. The days of preparation and investigation were worth that ride. I'm looking forward to a fine first season in this remarkable location.

Westbound Downwind Toward 10 Mile Range

Northbound Crosswind Toward Gore Range

Beatin' It Back Eastbound Toward Dillon Marina

I was fortunate to find a 25 year old Beneteau sailboat named Mon Ami. Surprisingly and luckily it was close by in Ft Collins - I thought I was going to have to transport from the east coast. It's a First 235, an awesome design from Group Finot when they were great and willing to dabble in smaller boats for common folk. Only 400 were made and I was focused on getting one.

Transport was the first issue as the original trailer had no brakes - not good for crossing mountain passes to it's intended home in Lk Dillon. I found a great shop in Ft Collins, D&E Trailers, with a sharp mechanic who fixed it all up but the process required a new axle to accommodate electric brakes available today. Those mods and new tires were done June 27th... a little later than desired but I was on my way.

I leased a slip at the highest deep water marina in the world, Dillon Marina (9150 ft elevation or so). I dragged the boat to Dillon at 60mph or so on I70 - really slow for me but the single axle and 4000# boat needed appropriate driving.

I readied the standing rigging and released the mast from its transport security. Bruce Kosbab offered to help raise the mast at the stepping stations at Dillon Lake. I'd not done this before so attempts one through four failed. On the second attempt the mast crashed through the Crusher rear windshield. It's repaired now but did require a glass cleanup crew including Janice, Sarah and Kala and took a couple hours. The fourth attempt was excellent at dusk but I ignorantly neglected a piece of tackle in the backstay setup and was confused why the fit was bad. It was dusk on Saturday and we rested at Pug Ryan's. I had to park the boat at Town Hall (illegally) as the Dillon lot was full.

With the right backstay tackle installed, a little additional reading on where to locate the lifting point, and some experience under our belts, Bruce, Kala and I got the mast stepped on our first Sunday attempt.

After parking again, we loaded the motor into place. I set the rudder up, added a mainsail, ran some of the lines, loaded the battery (which was dead BTW, should've tested that before). Kala got some gas and we mixed the 2 cycle fuel and tested the Mercury 9hp outboard. All getting ready for launch. I also did another sail inventory... we have 2007 Doyle main and working jib to original spec and 2010 North Sails main and 135 genoa as well a small storm jib.

On Monday, the Dillon Marina guys helped me put our F235 in the water - it floats!  That's always a good thing for a boat, but never a foregone conclusion with a 25 year old craft that'd been out of the water for a couple years. The launch was a smidge tricky with a long tongue on the trailer which also hadn't been used in some time... but Mon Ami floated right off and Kala & I drove her to her summer home in slip B21. We debated a while on our optimal dock line setup but finally chose a solid scheme.

I spent the rest of the day setting all the lines back to the cockpit for single handed sailing and rigging all the rest of the stuff. On Tuesday I got the glass replaced in the Crusher and then tuned up the standing rigging to assure correct sailing physics. Ultimately on a gorgeous and mid-windy late afternoon on Tue 01Jul14 I motored out, pointed into the wind, raised the main, spun about and sailed across the lake. Awesome.

Now it's onto a summer of sailing and some restoration - probably need to get electrical going at some point. ;)

Do The Deck 21Jun14

Over the last two weekends I've painstakingly refinished our hardwood (ipe & camaru, Brazilian hardwoods) deck. The first weekend I pressure washed the entire deck at close range to cut off the dirty gray surface. Unfortunately I did not get the before and after pictures of that process but it was amazing improvement. Second weekend I rubbed the entire deck in acetone to assure great adhesion of new oil and then applied Messmers UV Plus for hardwood decks, an oil-based surface. Here's the final result and the before & after of the oiling process. Three hours was spent just researching the best maintenance process for ipe decks. It does turn out that while gorgeous when maintained, significant time is required because the stuff is so dense (specific gravity of steel - wood that will not float) hardly anything soaks into the wood. Starting to rain again a bit; glad I'm done and the surface has cured a day. Whew.

Summer Sombrero @ Grape Ck 13Jun14

Scored a straw  summer sombrero to replace the overheater wool for the hot months. I still need to make mods for CoWW feathers but it worked really well today at 82◦ in sun. I'm so stylin' here at Grape Ck. Caught an afternoon on Deweese effluent via Bear Gulch access running the normal hike 1 mile downstream play. Note to CoWWs: we need to alter the scheme and fish from TH all the way up sometime... tailwaters typically fish bigger and better closer to the dam; just sayin', not knowin'. Grape Ck is"ragin'" too now and the alluded unpassable canyon section was indeed unpassable! Wading was sketchy even in places and the "holding spots" were many fewer to the eye for these 12-14" fish. All the big nice holes were dirty, bank-to-bank, fast and deep. But you know me, I did find a good portion of fishy spots but went to slower slack water near the bank every 100 ft or so and caught a doz or more 12-14" browns... no 'bows. Only one third top water and two thirds various nymphs... green stimi and my chartruese PT CJ look-somewhat-similar were the main attractions. I probably should've dredged the holes  - Greg would've done so successfully no doubt - I did catch one nice one on the drowned stimi as a streamer - freakin' browns, so aggressive.

Morning Ritual 10Jun14

Kala and I have taken to getting our veggie nutrients if not fiber therefrom by juicing a gob each day. Today's compliment is shown here before and after squeezing.We've determined the lime is vital... it's really pretty good but makes a trip to Whole Foods every 3 days now.

Low Flow @ 11Mile 04Jun14

Despite the raging rivers across CO, the So Platte at 11 Mile Canyon is trickling out. The low flows made fishing a bit weak and I was constantly cleaning my bug of mank, but it's always nice to be out. I did catch plenty of fish on midge emergers in the AM and then left mid-day for work duties. Below is a decent 17" rainbow but most other fish were smaller 12-14" guys in 'bow and brown. Not much surface action yet. Crowding was an issue even on Wed due to 11 Mile being one of the only "low flow" rivers right now - didn't see a lot of catching going on but the campgrounds were quite full. I used the precise Winston 4wt B3X which was a blast to cast - unfortunately though it did break and will be in the shop for 6 weeks.

Cherrita 02Jun14

So, not to compete with the DD, but summertime and a new watercraft deserve a new cocktail. Kala & I enjoyed Cherritas tonight. Three quarters cup of pitted fresh cherries, juice of 3 limes, 3 TBsp Agave nectar, ~9 oz Hornitas Silver (you get the idea - to remember portions I'm using all 3s). Put these ingredients into blender and pulse 5 times to break up cherries into chunks but not pulverize; then put ice in a shaker and pour cherry-lime "aid" over ice. Shake till super cold and serve strained through shaker immediately to marg glasses. Wow awesome, so tasty and so red - takes ya back to a kid at the Tastee Freeze buying cherry limeades. Perhaps a dollop of cherry or lime sorbet in the center would top it off but that move is not needed.

With the rest of the cherries, and mostly the same proportions, on day 2 I prepared a variant of the initial libation. After preparing as above I topped off each glass with 3 oz of club soda to add some fizz and cut the strength a bit... worked great. I also added a scoop of lime sherbet... still working on that part; Kala and I agreed we need to find better material for that (as the creaminess changed the original awesome cocktail too much) so it's a work in progress... next stop lime and black cherry cubes.