Team Wreck Yacht Club
We finally brought Grace O'Malley down the Columbia and up the Willamette.
Spence was kind enough to hook me up with two of his sailor buddies, Nate and Chris. In addition to their charming, old-timey style they have a lot of nautical experience, including stints on the Lady Washington.
I was glad they were along when, 20 minutes into the voyage, the tiller delaminated and broke off at the base. Luckily we were in the middle of the river and nothing was close by or it could have been ugly. We all stayed pretty calm and soon enough located some hose clamps and twine, lashed it together and kept going. Yikes!
Justine at the helm, approaching the Broadway Bridge.
Attempting to look intrepid.
A working river.
Chris on VHF channel 13, hoping to cause the Hawthorne bridge to raise.
Success! Under the bridge and we were quickly tied up at Grace's new home, Riverplace marina, where we'll be most afternoons, rebedding and caulking every single deck fitting in an attempt to slow down the leaks.
4 comments:
making a new tiller sounds like a fun project, let me know what you wanna do there...glad you got her home.
Yeah, I'd love to make a new tiller, especially out of local oak, though the laminated ones are said to be much stronger. Either way I'm definitely carrying a spare from now on, I've read a posthole digger handle fits perfectly.
the boat looks awesome-except the broken tiller part-i trust that will not effect our cocktail party! team wreck living the high life!!!
sailing without excitement seems close to a wii game. Happy annuals, grace!
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