August 1st, 2014

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Thursday July 31. Sailing with the Monitor.

Friday, August 1st, 2014

There was a nice breeze, about 15 knots, outside of the harbor. And the wind-vane worked superb. This boat is better balanced than the old “Fleetwood”. Partly due to better and newer sails. Again, I was able to sail much closer to the wind than the previous version. I am experimenting with a different way to adjust the vane setting for the wind direction. See picture by wrapping a shock cord around the clutch and the tripod instead of having a continuous line from the clutch to the pulpit, because this pulpit is a long distance from the clutch. I have never been very impressed by the system. In a hard wind the clutch would slip and I had to continuously make corrections. The wind last night kept lifting to which the vane immediately responded which is a big advantage over a mechanical auto pilot. There was a strong current and tidal whirlpools which the vane also managed well. So, again another success in the progress towards the conversion for a long cruise off shore.

The growing crescent and end of Ramadan "Eid Mubarak" to my Muslim brothers and sisters.

The growing crescent and end of Ramadan “Eid Mubarak” to my Muslim brothers and sisters.

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Beam reaching

well heeled

well heeled. hard on the wind

the adjustment experiment

the adjustment experiment