On August 18th, Ted Young and I dove underneath Nevermore and tied on a new centerboard line. We moored the boat by Rainsford Island. When we got there it was slack tide, and the current wasn't bad. But by the time we got suited up and in the water, it was flowing pretty fast with the tide coming in. So we ran lines under the boat to hang onto, and then it was okay. I jumped in without my fins on and put them on in the water, but I don't think I'd do that again with that much current.
We did it in three descents. First I tied a bowline through the padeye on the centerboard. I cable tied it down, and clipped off the ends. Then we surfaced and got the hose that protects the line from chaffing. We descended and put that on the line, and I tied it on with a reef knot. Then we attached the centerboard line to the wire that we threaded down through the mast. We signaled for them to pull the line up by hitting my dive light on the hull three times, but they didn't hear, after two tries. So we ascended, and told them to pull the line up. Then we descended once last time to check it, and everything looked great!
I attended a belated wedding reception yesterday for Miro and Elizabeth Kazakoff. (Miro is an MIT Sloan 2nd year.) Just prior to the event, the three of us took a spin around the Charles River in a luxurious Cape Cod Cat Boat. Of course, we wore life jackets for the majority of the trip, but took a couple of pictures without them for posterity.
The weather was perfect; the breeze was blowing an ideal 8 knots. One thing I learned is that boarding and unboarding (word?) a boat in high heels can be quite a challenge. Congratulations to Elizabeth, who made it look easy.
Gwen and Travis followed us in a chase boat and snapped photos the whole way. I think they came out great. The rest of the album is attached.
This is the 1st blog post of the MITSailing Blog. We're officially out there. I hope that this will blossom into a forum for user generated stories about sailing at MIT. As the birth-place of collegiate sailing, it's a wonder how we have avoided having a blog before now.
