Month: June 2021

Sail & Steam

On By David BranbyIn SplendidoLeave a comment
Not a lot of wind, but lovely to be out on Lake Tahoe (June 26, 2021).

Last Saturday (June 26) dawned bright and clear, with high temps forecast (as all of our West Coast neighbors can attest), so I knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of wind. Debbie and I threw back some coffee and motored the mighty Prius up to Tahoe, where we loaded two full sailbags and two storage bins of cargo into our floating summer home. While Debbie put things away below decks, I replaced the turnbuckle on one of the shrouds (thank you, Pete Lewis of Tahoe Sailboat Service) and got out the Loos Gauge to tension the shrouds and stays, attached the reefing lines, then fixed a broken latch on the galley under-sink door. As my good friend Ancil Sigman says, it’s always something on a sailboat.

We motored out a 1/4 mile or so and set sail, but the winds were light and variable at about 2-3 knots, so we drifted hither and yon for about an hour and decided to get out out the sun and back on the hook. I fired up the Perkins Perama M20 and headed back to the mooring buoy.

When we arrived, Debbie said, “Hey, what’s that burning smell?”—five words you never want to hear on a boat. I jumped below and realized the engine had overheated. All the water in the reservoir had evaporated, and the smell was from the very warm rubber tubing. I vented everything as best I could, and after a while, gently opened up the radiator cap with a thick towel, as we’d only had the engine running about 10 minutes. A blast of steam came out, followed by a small eruption of rusty goo splattering all over the fiberglass above the engine.

Still cozy after all these years.

What I suspect happened was that the thermostat got stuck closed, maybe rusted from the long layup. After she cooled down, I topped off the reservoir with water once again and she fired right up, and I could feel from the sea water pump and the tubing that cold water was running through her once again. I ran it for about 10 minutes, and everything seemed to be OK. Nevertheless, I ordered a new thermostat from Trans-Atlantic Diesel and intend to put that in this coming Saturday morning—after first removing the old one and flushing out the water channels which likely got rusty/gunky during the long layup.

Still working on that sunscreen thing.

I always try to seize a victory out of the jaws of defeat, so one thing I am proud of was rigging a shade sail to keep us out of the sun when the boat was on the hook. I had a triangular woven “shade sail” from Costco ($29) and used eight WalMart carabiners ($12) to attach it to the boom, lifelines, and backstay for an excellent, airy boom tent that was just delightful to hang out under after the work was done. We lolled about for a couple of hours in the 85º F. heat, and I even pulled on my shorty wetsuit to take a dive, on the hunt for that dang impeller I dropped overboard (No luck as yet!). I’ll keep you posted.

Fair winds and following seas. DB

Back On Lake Tahoe After 634 Days

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Splendido1 Comment


It feels awesome to have Splendido back out on Tahoe. Tracy and I launched her last Wednesday, June 16, and had a relatively smooth time of it. Launching every year is an exercise in project management—I had a three page pre-launch checklist, and still, we somehow lost a shroud turnbuckle on the drive up. Tracy, who started his working life as an iron worker before earning his degree in civil engineering, pulled out some high-tension wire and rigged a temporary latticework wiring to hold the shroud in place while we put in an order for a replacement turnbuckle. It was a work of art.

There’s a new rigger at Obexer’s named Pete Lewis, a mechanical engineer by training and a helpful guy. He put the order in for the new turnbuckle, and he and I got to talking about rigging in general—which made me think about the last time Splendido’s standing rigging was replaced. Short answer: I don’t know. So, that is also on the list for fall 2021.

I actually had a lot of fun getting her ready to sail last week, but I had to laugh—after more than a year and a half on the hard, a robin had made a beautiful, elaborate nest in the anchor locker! I just discovered it when Debbie and I went up yesterday to install the 150 genoa and attach the lines to the newly-tailored lazy bag. I gently picked up the tangle of hay, feathers and broken egg shells and set it out on the water—an avian Kon Tiki that gently floated away.

As soon as we get the new turnbuckle delivered and installed, it’s sail time. Grateful to our new buoy owner, Chris Champas, and hoping that the summer fire season is mild. Fingers crossed—South Lake Tahoe hit 91 degrees last week … six degrees warmer than the last same-day record of 85 degrees, set in 1985.

And, as happens when launching, I dropped a brand-new $38 impeller over the side at our buoy. It will be the first thing I dive for when I get my PADI scuba certification in mid-July.

Fair winds and following seas! DB

Getting the old girl ready to splash

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Splendido1 Comment

Life is what happens while you’re making other plans. 😀 I had all but despaired of not being able to sail this summer because the influx of folks at Tahoe during the pandemic meant that buoys were scarce, and competition for them was fierce. After putting out feelers for buoys since February with zero results, Debbie and I had begun making plans to do other things—road trips to rural Nevada, hiking, biking, etc.—in lieu of sailing. Last Saturday, out of the blue, our old buoy owner reached out to say his neighbor had a buoy for rent, just 40 yards from where we’ve been moored for the past few years.

Now, the push is on to get the boat ready for launching next week. Fingers crossed—she is dusty and dirty and I have a list of 36 pre-sailing checks to do. I’ll shoot a little video to try to capture the fun.

I cannot express how excited I am to get out on the water again.

Fair winds and following seas! DB