New Main Sail up and a lack of time.

                    There are times when I think that having 5 kids, 8 cars, 3 houses and 2 boats may be impacting my ability to succeed in my new career as a professional blogger. When does the first pay check get here anyway?

Late this spring my new main arrived right on time from Martin and Summerset Sails. http://www.somersetsails.com/ My first impressions were that it was a very nice basic sail and a great price. 

Installation went fine and even though they were a little sloppy on cleaning up the loose threads it is such a huge improvement over the old blown out main it's amazing. I haven't even played with the top removeable battan yet. There just hasn't been time. 

Pum really seemed to respond to the extra sail area, I had some room and ordered the sail roughly 10% larger than the original. Probably didn't hurt that it was actually sail shaped now!

We thought we had hit a log and were quite startled but then it kept happening as we were heavily heeled over,  with the new sail power we actually had one of the bilge keels partially out of the water and it was banging into the crests of the waves. I couldn't quite capture it with the phone and it was a miracle that the iphone didn't go kersplunk!

Sam at sail camp.

Sam, Lauren and I had a great overnight but got to take a unplanned hike to fill up a gas tank when we were surprised by the Anchor High marina being closed and no fuel available. 

Next I'm going to finally write a bit about Pum's history as a liveaboard back in the 70's

Ordering a new main sail

I spent a lovely day out on the water measuring once, twice and three times for a new main sail for the Pum.

When we picked her up I had been warned that the main sail were not original to the model of the boat being a mixed and match set from Katrina victims that showed up on Ebay as Pum's sails were destroyed in her years of neglect in Georgia.

Thankfully I had a 100 foot cloth tape so I hoisted it up the halyard and confirmed what I had always suspected. The Pum has a seriously undersized main.

My first clue to this was my noticing that the main sail foot only came within about 18 inches about of the end of the boom. The second clue was that the main stopped about 2 feet from the top with the boom adjusted up the mast as far as she would go.

I know a twin keep boat will never be fast but this misshapen ripped mess of a main sail probably was more of a hindrance than a help on most days,

Martin Somerset of Somersetsails.com spent the better part of two hours working with me as I measured my rig and figued out that I had a rather mismatched set of sails, mast and boom, at least according to the original specs. Apparently only the least likely component was original. The boom, go figure. Here's a sample of his work. Red is amazing but we went with a matching white with green logo to match the pretty ok gennie.

So wish me luck with Martin. I'm hoping he will enjoy his weekend beer he had just purchased as he worked with me after hours to order my first sail while he reminisced about his Tennessee hang gliding days in the 70's on lookout mountain.

Cheers Martin!

I just read a pretty damn ok description of what it is to be a cruiser. Not a frickin Carnival cruise lines buffet eating cruiser but a Cruiser. A person who wanders about the world on his own terms, hopefully on a sailboat.

It's from sailpanache.com

"Cruising is essentially the most inconvenient way to do things. Its slow, things break all the time and nothing is straightforward. Add a language barrier, the assumption that you are a millionaire for owning a boat (ahem, yacht), and things can really be shitty sometimes. I watch a smile creep over their face, and I start to smile too, because I really like the challenge. I like testing myself. And I like the freedom. Nothing satisfying is ever easy. "

Credit where credit is due

One of the things that drew me to the PumRunch was her lovely interior. Simon and Janet had done a lovely job of restoring her interior adding clever bits of executive jet aircraft interiors that were left over from his day job working on jets. However, all they did was restore it. Not modify it. That was by, at the time, a unknown previous owner

The table lays down to make a twin bed

one side of the v-berth is removed where a marine toilet and small shower used to be that Simon had to remove to be allowed to place the boat in a reservoir lake.

lots of lovely mahogany, not original obviously

Built ins and storage everywhere. The bottle of rum was found in the bilge. Forgotten long ago in a smuggling rum during its Caribbean years

The incredibly clever roll out kitchen replaces one of the bunks with pressure water in the sink.

On my trip to survey her and put a deposit down on her I got as they say, "the rest of the story" from Janet about the Pum's interesting history known  so far. She has many, many miles under her keels in the U.S. as a liveaboard from Galveston to Charleston including the keys and all over the Caribbean. Also I've determined that she appears to have been sailed over from the U.K. to the U.S. ending up in poor shape in Texas by her first unknown owners. the girls seen some miles for sure!