Sailboat Tranquilizer: Sailing

The night was quiet. The wind blew with 10 to 16 knots from the SE. But there were almost no waves building up at the anchorage. The anchor held just perfect, almost to good. It took us three approaches to break it free.

At around 9.00 am, we were back on the ICW again, heading for the Lake Worth Inlet. We finally wanted to set sails on that day and getting used to the boat. After 45 minutes, we reached the inlet. Again the tide did not work for us. The outgoing tide and the SE wind caused steep and short waves for about 500 yards from the end of the jetty in to the ocean. The waves got up to 5-6 feet. It was a rough ride and even some of the locked drawers down below opened up and started to spread their contend.

We never felt really uncomfortable. The boat is handling well and manages the waves with no problem. We only had to get a firm grip on the boat. Once we were out on the ocean, the conditions did improve a bit. But there were still short waves of about 4 to 5 feet. We started to set sails and once all sails were set, we felt like the ride got noticeable smoother. This is generally the case, when sailing. The boat is much more stable under sails rather than under power. The wind remained breezy. We never saw less than 15 knots and got up to 19 knots. I had the engine on in neutral all the time. This was just a precautionary measurement. If there would be still something wrong with the fuel, I would notice it well before I would rely on the engine power. All went well. The engine ran just fine.

It was nice to see that everything worked fine. The new electronics worked fine and the new autopilot did a fantastic job!

After almost 3 hours of sailing, we decided to return to the anchorage, heigh we knew from last night.
When I tried to steer in to the wind to lower the mainsail, I noticed a strong vibration, when accelerating the RPM on the engine. And even with 2600 RPM, we only got 1.8 knots speed out of it. What the heck was wrong? We managed to push against the wind and waves and lower the main sail. With an ingoing tide, the push from the was helped us to pass the entrance of the inlet. But we still did not manage to go faster than 2.5 knots, even when accepting the frightening rattle from the engine when revolving between 2500 and 3000 RPMs. I tried to decouple the gear. All of a sudden, the vibrations were gone and the engine ran smooth like ever before, even at 3500 RPMs! What the heck again? Is there something wrong with the propeller? Did a half of the zinc got of and causing the vibrations?

Once we passed the inlet and reached the turning basin, I stopped and tied to figure out, what could cause the vibrations. Just out of curiosity, I got in reverse and gave it a push. Not as strong vibrations in reverse - and getting less! Back in forward, the vibrations were gone! Then I looked back and saw seagrass floating in the back of Tranquilizer.

Obviously, we caught seagrass when sailing. With the engine on and in neutral, the propeller did not move. That might have caused the seagrass to be caught.

Glad the problem was resolved, we got back to our anchorage and sat anchor again. Shortly after, a powerboat approached us. The captain had a camera and took pictures from the boat. Finally I recognized him - He was the previous owner of Tranquilizer. He turned 82 and lives near by the anchorage in a condo in North Palm Beach. So we invited him to come aboard. He was so happy to see the boat again and he was impressed by the improvements we made.

Later we enjoyed the beautiful evening with some good food, swimming and chatting with our friends back in Europe. It was a fantastic day sailing on the ocean and we learned a lot about the boat and about dealing with problems at sea. We gained a lot of confidence in the boat and our capabilities to sail her.