Home

17/3/2020

Going up to Long Island and back to bring Tea home was anti-climatic. Nothing seriously wrong happened, nothing broke, I didn't get lost, and nothing fell off. I did get kicked off of the Southern Shore Parkway, but that was the extent of my trials.

The hardest part was the 335 miles it took to go up there and back. Even the tow back was not that arduous and if she sails half as well as she tows, she will be a dream to pilot around the back bays and ocean.

Of course if you look at the date I am publishing this: We are day two into a two week non-essential shut down of all state offices to help combat the dreaded Covid 19 virus. This means I cannot register Tea or her trailer into my name till March 30. I am currently on furlough due to the virus too, so this would a perfect time to take my new boat out for a sail.

Oh well, gives me a couple of weeks to sort out some details and fix a few things. The cockpit drainage hoses are not looking too hot at the moment, so I do not trust them to keep the water out of the boat. The rest is just cosmetics, as you will see later

0 Comments

Leave a Reply.

It was a rainy winter day that was not at all that wintery. Yes, it was gray and rainy, but it was uncharacteristically warm for the middle of February. I had spent all morning driving up to Long Island to the town of Babylon NY on the shallow waters of The Great Bay to look at a small 17 foot sailboat designed by the legendary Lyle Hess. I found her in a small boatyard, looking quite tiny compared to the sleeping behemoths that towered over her shapely form.

I had come all this way to buy a boat, and I did. Unfortunately I did so to replace my beloved SeaSprite 23, a boat that was both lovely to look at and riddled with serious structural problems. I never got to sail her, but I certainly did a lot of working on her over the years. Flirt had taught me a lot, but I could not resurrect her. It was a both a very sad and a freeing day when I took a sawzall to her shapely hull. She had hung around my neck like an albatross for far too long.

Tea, came with a trailer that had never been dunked, two year old sails, and a well maintained outboard, she still has enough small blemishes and questionable modifications and repairs to keep me happily busy working on her for a long time. I could also drop her in the water tomorrow and go Sailing. All her blemishes are cosmetic, nothing I can't address next winter or even while she is in the water this summer.

Now I just need to go back up there with my Rover and drag her home...