Thriller of Michael Jackson Proportions

Chuck and HoriZen’s horizon

Originally uploaded by PhotoSynergy

Last night’s Corinthian Yacht Club race on Bellingham Bay featured the most weather that we’ve had on Thursday night all season, with wind gusts clocked at 24 knots.

We also had onboard the most crew for the series, six adults. Thank goodness for Courtney, Chuck and David for grinding, giving Jennifer’s and my knees and arms a break.

It was a thrilling race of Michael Jackson (RIP) proportions, with a near collision of three sailboats — us included — at the Post Point buoy, the windward mark. And with Chuck and Peter using all their strength to steer HoriZen while the boat heeled at a 45-degree angle. We were so far over that dribbles of water drained out of the bilge onto the cabin floor. Peter, who was mostly at the helm, said he doesn’t worry about how far over we are unless and until the top of the winches are in the water.

This picture of Chuck, with HoriZen’s horizon, was NOT PhotoShopped!

We think we came over the finish line first, even without corrected time based on our rating. But we haven’t seen any race results in some weeks.

Star Charter

Life is good

Originally uploaded by PhotoSynergy

Today, Capt. Kathy celebrates her 15th wedding anniversary with First Mate/Cabin Boy Chuck Dingee.

Chuck will mark the date at the Open Mic in Ferndale where he will play one or both of the songs that he wrote for me: Star Charter and Heart-Shaped Moon.

I will be aboard Horizen at the Thursday night races … sending Chuck messages by the moon. …

The joy of sailing ….

COMMUNITY BOATING_011

Originally uploaded by Mark Malijan

 

Little Sophia’s face as she takes the helm of Horizen tells it all.

Sailing is pure joy, and we were excited to see Peter Hallett take out our boat for the Bellingham Bay Community Boating Center’s free boating day last weekend.

Sophia had never been sailing before. This is all she needed to get bitten and smitten. She’s now signed up for a summer camp at the boating center where she’ll learn how to sail the small boats they have there.

Thanks to photographer Mark Malijan who uploaded the pictures that are on the Bellingham Herald site to his Flickr account.

Novice Sailors on Horizen

Over the weekend, Horizen co-owner Peter Hallett took a bunch of sailing newbies out for a sail on our Catalina 36 as part of the Bellingham Bay Community Boating Center’s “Free Boating Day.”

Among the new sailors was a small crew from SPIE who took turns at the helm while a Bellingham Herald photographer took pictures.

It was a gorgeous day. See the Herald article and the sailing photos from aboard Horizen.

Later in the day, Chuck and I went out for a daysail on the bay with Carolyn Dale, Janis Carr, and members of the Corinthian Yacht Club. I’ve posted one of the photos on our Flickr Feed.

Horizen Upgrades

Horizen will have heat soon.

Originally uploaded by PhotoSynergy

The cleaning, repairing and upgrades to our sailboat continue as the sailing season begins in Bellingham.

Over the weekend, Dr. Wallin cut off part of the starboard side handrail so he could cut a hole in the cabin top for the new Dickinson cabin heater. Yessireee. Horizen will have heat for those chilly mornings in the San Juan Islands.

The heater will be vented near the mast, and a propane hose has been routed aft to where the propane tank will be mounted on the stern rail.

We’ve also installed a new propane stove and purchased a water heater.

Just like home!

The real pink boat

Sailors who want to see the real pink boat better take a quick look on the Yachting World Web site to see Tara.

She’s a 1984 Catalina with a “sale pending” sign on her in New Jersey.

I came across this shocking interior scene while searching online for a boat similar to ours.

I have, indeed, done some minor sewing and major cleaning of the cabin cushions on Horizen. And when I was to the point of putting the upholstery buttons back on, I was short a couple of buttons.  I figured I would eliminate a couple of buttons on the aft-cabin cushions where the missing buttons wouldn’t be noticed.

But I couldn’t remember which cushion was which. So I went looking online for pictures.

It was shocking what I found. Absolutely shocking. We thought our palm-tree cushions were bad! But Tara takes the cake! Pink icing and all!

Happy April’s Fools Day!

Sloof Lirpa Boat Cushions

I’m pleasantly surprised that my boat partners approve of the new, Sloof Lirpa boat cushions. David says he loves the color. And Peter, … well, Peter would take any color, as long as the cushions were new and mildew-free.

Pink and gray do go pretty well together.

The extra pink fabric I have remaining could be used for cockpit cushions, a sail cover, or even some sailing jackets. The fabric has the “Sloof Lirpa” label on it, but I was thinking I could stitch our boat name, “Horizen,” over it. Too bad it’s too heavy to make a spinnaker out of it.

It’s fitting that I completed the cushion job today. I got into work this morning and immediately got a pink slip. The economy is so bad, it has hit everyone!

Oh, well. Perhaps I can use the boat for a shop selling Avon or Mary Kay Cosmetics? Or maybe those pink items that raise funds for the American Cancer Society?

New Boat Cushions

I just finished taking an upholstery class at Bellingham Technical College and we are the proud new owners of all new cushions for the interior of the boat cabin.

The teacher was really great, helping all of the students — and even giving away fabric. Upholstery fabric isn’t cheap, and when I saw this expensive Sloof Lirpa fabric he was giving away, I just had to have it for our sailboat. It really brightens up the cabin where we previously had dirty tan and green cushions with a palm-tree motif.

I worked hard at cleaning the old boat cushions, but the mildew smell and some rust stains just wouldn’t come out. Thankfully, our teacher had a lot of this fabric so I was able to do the entire cabin with the new fabric.

Covering some 20 pieces of custom-cut, marine-grade foam wasn’t easy, let me tell you, but I’m really pleased with the results and hope my boat partners like it as well.

We have the main cabin, with two tables and seating for about 6 or more, the V-berth at the bow and the aft cabin, which has a single and a double bunk.

Sailors’ Profile, CYC

The March 2009 Newsletter from the Corinthian Yacht Club has a story about two relatively new club members: Chuck Dingee and yours truly, Capt. Kathy Sheehan.

Yacht Club member June Vigor, a former newspaper reporter, interviewed us a week or so ago for the “Member Profile” and did a great job. See for yourself at the link above, which will take you to the PDF version of the Yacht Club Newsletter.

I must say I’m liking being a member of the Corinthian Yacht Club. And not just because of this or because the club just helped us score a permanent slip in the marina. There are some nice, fun people. We’ve been on a group cruise with them already, and a great dance a week ago.

The article describes how Chuck and I met.

When the two met in Philadelphia, Kathy had just signed on to crew on the first leg of a circumnavigation, from Florida to Tahiti, aboard a Hinckley …. So, they figured they’d have a couple of months together, have a good time, and then wave goodbye. It didn’t work out like that, though. They quickly discovered that they didn’t want to say goodbye, ever.

There’s even a picture of us taking Notorious, soon to be renamed Horizen, up from Olympia in August.

Boat Name: Torio? Or Horizen?

One of my sailboat partners is antsy to change the name of our boat from Notorious to Horizen. Peter Hallett brought a hair dryer to the marina the other day to warm up the press-on letters on the stern for easy removal. He removed the boat’s former port of call, the first two letters and the last two letters.

Result: Torio, which was one of the suggested new names before we decided on Horizen.

It actually doesn’t look bad. But what the heck does it mean?

In Italian and Spanish, Torio translates to thorium and is defined as a “grayish-white, lustrous, somewhat ductile and malleable, radioactive metallic element present in monazite.”

Torio/thorium is used as a source of nuclear energy, as a coating on sun-lamp and vacuum-tube filament coatings, and in alloys. Its chemical symbol is Th.

Torio is also an anti-cholesterol drug from Unison Laboratories whose generic name is Simvastatin.

I always knew that sailing was good for my health.