10-16-04: Trailered Slowdance once again to the Los Alamitos launch ramp, arriving around 1130. The summer crowds have gone away and the normally crowded lot was only half full. We rigged and launched Slowdance in about 45 minutes.

This ramp doesn't have finger piers next to each slot, so as soon as a boat is launched it has to be brought over to a long warf which runs prallel to the shore. I had been attaching the rudder to the boat prior to launch but it actually is not needed while manuvering under power. In fact, there are two liabilities connected with having the rudder attached to be boat during launch: First, the rudder has to be in the raised position during the launch and secondly, while it is in this position the rudder blade can come in contact with the spinning prop on the outboard. Naturally, this causes a bit of wood to be taken off of the rudder blade when the outboard is running. This time, I did not mount the rudder until the boat was along side the warf. Maneuvering with the outboard was easy and actually worked better without the rudder in place. Once at the warf, the rudder could be mounted in the down position which also eliminated the need to push the rudder blade part way down with a paddle or boathook before it can be pulled into the full down position with a piece of line attached for that purpose.

This was also the second day out with the new Honda 5 horse 4 stroke. I love this outboard. It's relatively quiet, strong and very economical. We currently have about 3 hours of run time on this motor and have only gone through about half of the 3 gallon tank. I would expect that in relatively calm seas, we would have a range of nearly 30 miles on the 3 gallons of gas.

And how did we manage to get 3 hours of run time on the outboard in two days of sailing you wonder? Well this day was not much of a sailing day. The weather forecast was for 10 kt winds in the afternoon hours, but this failed to materialize. There were brief periods of light breeze followed by longer periods of "painted ship on a painted ocean". It was pleasant, though. After drifting around for an hour or so, we cranked up the OB and motored around for a while. There were perhaps twenty ships anchored outside the breakwater and we putted by a couple of them for a closer look. Later we returned to the harbour and motored around Belmont Shores, admiring many of the nice boats there.

On the way out we spotted this mysterious object floating about on the oily looking sea. For lack of anything better to do, we sailed over to it, guessing what it might be along the way. Donna was the first to get it right - a small tire. The Seal Beach pier is in the background.

There was one bit of excitement during the day, though. After pulling the boat out and heading back home, we blew a tire out on the trailer on the 22 Freeway. Fortunately, it was the right side tire so that it could be changed without having to be on the traffic side of the trailer (changing the inside tire on an OC or LA freeway = short life). It was also fortunate that we had the trailer spare with us as well as the Quick Air compressor that we normally carry while four-wheeling in the jeeps, since the trailer spare did not have enough air in it. It was also fortunate that I had the wheels off not too long ago for bearing maintenance so the lug nuts were still easy to break free.

Now I wonder if the tire we saw floating in the sea would have fit the trailer? Perhaps this was some kind of omen? One never knows about these things, but I can see how the sailors of old became such a superstitious bunch.

Two lovely ladies, Slowdance and Donna wait at the Los Alamitos dock for the skipper to get the truck and trailer to the ramp. Note the complete lack of wind and mirror-like sea conditions. It was great to putt around the harbor with the little Honda purring quietly and easily pushing Slowdance along. Such is the nature of sailing and, perhaps, life: The sailor doesn't make the wind, he just makes the best of what there is.

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