Sansei is a Tartan 4100. For the past 18 months, she has been at the Tartan spa for a little warranty work. After a final push, she went back in the water at Mentor Harbor Yachting Club. Our friends Jacqui and Eriks kindly drove us to Mentor on the Lake, Ohio on May 31, 2012, stayed for a couple days helping us provision and fit out the boat. We quickly discovered that the house batteries were no longer charging and needed to be replaced. Within a day we had new batteries. After cleaning the boat, I found a crack in the cockpit locker cover. The Tartan guys came by had a quick look and took the cover back to the factory for repairs and repaint. After checking the navigation lights, the stern light was not functioning as it had not been reconnected. After a couple of trips to the local chandlery to get the correct couplers, the stern light is now working. The wind instrument was not working after testing them on our Tartan Cruise. (Tartans have relatively small holding tanks so Tartan owners must motor to the pump out station frequently) A quick check revealed that the wiring connections were not correct. Yellow to yellow, blue to blue, green to green and ground to ground; how hard could that be. Apparently pretty difficult. A quick fix and the wind instruments are working. The final job was getting brown caulking around the drink holders. That was done yesterday and our complete lists of things that Tartan was to do was finally complete. Thanks Art Averell for your assistance.
While waiting for things to get done, we were able to get those jobs done that have been waiting for a rainy day to do. Things like: organizing the cockpit lockers, sorting spare parts and loose nuts, bolts and screws. Sansei has never been so organized.
After 18 months, we were finally ready to begin our cruise. We left Mentor Harbor at 1230h, bound for Cleveland, Ohio. Winds were about 10kts which would make for a great sail except for the fact that is was coming from the direction that we need to go; so we motored most of the way to Cleveland, about 18 miles. As we changed direction, we were able to raise the mainsail and motor sail for a while. We had installed a Tides Marine sail track system which allows the mainsail to go up and down with incredible ease. On the conventional system, the sail slugs would jam slightly forcing someone to go up to the mast and pull the sail down. But no more. In combination with the Dutchman sail handling system, the mainsail drops quickly and fully flaked. Very cool.
Over the winter, I bought a big seat from West Marine. It allows the helms person to have seat back when keeping watch. It works great on the starboard side but the available room on the port side makes it a little tippy. I will move the Lifesling to get more room and be able to tie off the seat to make it more stable.
We arrived yesterday at the Lakeside Yacht Club in Cleveland. Our plan was to stay 2 nights but the club is right beside the I90, directly under the flight path for the regional airport and there is a Poker Run tonight. So we had paid for only 1 night. The noise was not so bad. We have a sound deadening, inflatable on the forepeak of the boat. So the plan will be to stay a second night and get our bikes out and ride into downtown Cleveland.
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