When I told the children that they could call me Capt. Phil, many children thought I said "Bill" and they wanted to know what sleeping on my boat was like in the middle of the ocean. It took a bit to get everyone on the same wave length, but by the questions they asked I'm not quite sure that is possible with 1st graders anyway. Each of the 4 classes (about 100 kids in all) came outside and I got to talk about boat building, sailing and ALOHA. The best part for the kids was to be able to board ALOHA and check it out up close. They all went into the cabin and looked out the windows. It was surprising how many tried to use the wheel and looked aft to see "where they were going".

It's fun to share with kids because they are so excited. I had a great time, and all of Jean's class wrote me a personalized thank you note. They were fun to read and for first graders they did quite well.

Now I've got a new boat building project. Hollow spars are nice and light, but I've noticed that this boom was too light. I'm starting on a new solid VG Douglas Fir boom - stronger and heavier. If I work hard I should have it ready by next weekend. Pictures will be posted in the construction area.

The new sails work well. They appear to be better than the old ones. It's hard to judge, since it's been a while since I've been out and low wind speeds are hard to determine. That said, the boat seems to move better than it did. This could be because the sails are dacron, the main is loose footed or I am using the larger jib, but I do like the way the work. I still haven't got the main outhaul cleat installed, so I've been flying it a bit loose. I also need to figure out what to do with the jib sheets. I took the old jib sheet (which was rather long) and knotted it in half to the jib. This allowed for a sheet for port and starboard - good enough for today's test run.

The day's been really nice so far. I took a bunch of pictures, but later learned that the batteries were too low and they weren't being saved. All the rain since morning has gone around Willard Bay. The winds have been moderate - I got to use my new wind meter. They steadied out at about 8 kts westerly and I started heading south. I've been keeping my eye on the storm going over Brigham City. It was backing up on the mountains quite a bit, but was traveling east and passing north. I couldn't see anything coming in from the west. To the north the water was starting to look green and the sky was very dark. Boy was I glad that storm was going to miss me. This is the point I should have been more cautious. I had been sailing away from the marina - oh probably about 1 to 2 miles out . (This is where a GPS would be nice - distances are so hard to guess.) I did start heading back, just because it did look so bad up north. I just couldn't see anything out west and the winds had remained quite steady. Well I didn't make it very far before the wind shifted from the north and increased in velocity. Great, now I've got to tack back with a temporary rig and in a storm. It wasn't long before the wind was about 20 knots and waves were going over the bow. There were times I had a rail in the water. Then it started to rain. I'm dressed warm but I don't want to leave the helm long enough to try on my new foul weather gear. Just press on to the marina. I'm using the side jam cleats for the jib sheets which are acceptable but not for this wind. When the sheets got away from me they would tangle together. Good thing the stopper knots wouldn't go through the fair leads. This must have moved my little knot dividing the sheets in half. Now on a port tack the sheet was too short to cleat off and the wind too bad to go forward. This meant having to hold the sheet in my left hand and try to steer with my right. What do I do with the main sheet? I need another hand. Do you get the drift that this wasn't a lot of fun. The next thing was the hail. I was concerned about falling in (50° is too cold) but too busy to remember my life jacket - Oh, well I probably would have been done-in by the cold long before the waves anyway. 

This lasted a little less than an hour before I reached the marina. By then the storm was lessening and I was ready to end my TEST. A few things learned: The lapper worked well even in the stronger winds. I should fix the rig. (That is: make things more permanent, along with the jiffy reefing) Think about my life jacket earlier. BUT most of all, those storms you ignore (or other conditions for that matter) can turn around and bite you. Despite that, I feel good that I can handle some pretty bad situations.

When they got here I noticed Tammy was wearing a diamond. Well they'd finally gone and done it, and I'm the first to know - How exciting! The winds were light and and the sun shown nicely. It was quite amazing the change from this morning. The snow on the mountains even disappeared. Both Matt and Tammy sailed and goofed around with the oars. We had a great time but they had more important things to do than sit around sailing, so they left me with no crew to a little more sailing.  Today I tried the standard jib with the club foot. It also worked well.

The Venture Scouts spent the week at Rendezvous Beach. I met the scouts for some water activities and all got to "sail" around. The wind only came up a little the first day. As I arrived here I met Pat Hayes who came down from Georgetown Idaho to see ALOHA. He's currently building a weekender and hopes to be finished this year. One interesting thing was the method of launching here. The water was so low that the water was at least 1000 yards past the ramp. The beach is so shallow here that the only way to get launched was to have a tractor take us out into the lake until the proper depth to float off the trailer.