attempt to sail in February with the Craigslist sailors

It's been 7 months since I've been sailing on Bagatelle. I've fixed the motor so it runs and I wanted to go sailing. I sent a note to my group of Craigslist sailors that I wanted to go sailing the second weekend of February. I had like four people that said they wanted to go. I thought great! But on the Thursday before the sailing trip a meeting was called by the American legion because David Goldstick had raised a ruckus that caused problems at the post. We had to meet to discuss.

I asked the guys to come over on Friday so we could take the boat out to Lake LBJ to Set her up so that we can go sailing on Saturday. Also on Thursday, I got a note for the city that they want my boat hidden. I asked the guys to come over and help me move Frimi back further in the yard, so I could  put Bagatelle behind the gate when I got back. Doing that took us an hour and a half to accomplish. Meaning we left the house late I wanted to leave at 1:30 we left at 3:00. By the time we got out there one of the crew Johnny had been waiting for probably 2 hours and he was pissed, although he helped us set the boat up we didn't actually finish until it was dark. which made it difficult to finish.

We all agreed to meet at my house on Saturday morning. 

I got up on Saturday morning. I went to the meeting.  It was a difficult meeting because we kicked David out.  Then they spent another 45 minutes planning the hundred years celebration and other things. While I was in the meeting a thunderstorm came through. 

 It started raining and it was raining when I left the post so I got a call from Dan who said that said he was sick and I got a couple of emails from Johnny and said he didn't want to come he thought I was disorganized. Werner said he'd come and help me take it down and he was a blessing to have a long so we drove out to the marina prepared to take her down

 I found that the winch had lost one of its nuts.

And the winch clutch would not disengage so we hooked up the winch to the truck battery so I could roll the cable out. I ran it through all the pulleys.  The winch was upside down, but I put it together and took it up on the boat and mounted it on the Tabernacle when I realized that the gin Pole rested too far back on the platform so that the rear clamp wouldn't sit properly. Werner gave me a 2x4 I had left in the truck.  With the 2x4 and trailer hitch I pounded on and pryde and pounded and pryde on the gym pole until the rear clamp sat. Properly. once I had accomplished that i hooked up the winch, tightened it up  the line Warner climbed up I had him pushing the mast so I could  remove the bottom bolt. This was difficult for some reason we couldn't I couldn't convince Werner to push the mass in a proper direction for the bolt to easily come out so I had to screw it out and tug on it and bang on it to get it out.

Once that was accomplished Warner stood in the cockpit while I lowered the mast standing behind the mast so I can guide it down. The boat was actually on a hill leaning to the starboard so I stayed on a starboard to keep the mast from swaying off to the starboard.  Lowering the mask is was easy once we had everything ready. Just as we got it down a rainstorm started and although I try to move the mast up quickly, I got drenched. once we got the mast in place we went and sat in the truck for a while until the rain stopped.

I took off my shirt cuz I was totally drenched. I turned up the heat in the truck tomorrow to warm up

Then after the rain had slowed down to trickle and maybe even stopped.

We went back on the boat tried to move the mast forward enough so that we could engage the pin in the Tabernacle but Werner wasnt  able to do that so we left the mast a little bit back from where it's supposed to sit stuck the pin back in the mast and I went back up and put the boom and the spanker mast on the cabin top and bungeed them to the mast.

We then drove to nearby TXB gas station where I checked the air in the tires and bought a shirt.

After buying the shirt we drove back to highway 281 and Werner said he was hungry so instead of heading directly home I turned left we drove into Marble Falls and we went to the Blue Cafe and I bought him dinner. It is very good I had a chicken chef salad and some sausage soup Warner had steak I think and then we drove home we didn't get home until after dark so I didn't park the boat in the backyard I'm waiting now for sunrise to do that. 

So I think this attempt at finding crew has been less than successful. well Johnny was a disappointment I think Dan is a good find and werners wonderful so I guess it's a mixed thing.

And as a consequence it's going to be another couple weeks before I get the boat on the water some of the things that happen on this attempt

We need to tie off all the stays to the mast in a way that they're properly positioned before raising and they don't get in the way or get caught under anything while raising as in this attempt I bent the starboard long stay for which I needed by another replacement

I think I want to go out with the boat and set her up by myself at the lake and go sailing by myself because I feel like having to contend with the crew causes me not to pay attention to what needs to be done. So I might do that on the trip to Summerville