Spring Break - Part 3
By Dave and Jaja

	An earlier passage aboard DRIVER.

I cursed the button on the throttle handle. It was like a turtle with its head pulled in. No matter how much I wiggled and banged on the handle, the button would not come out. I put a mooring line back on, struggled below, grabbed a portable gas torch, lit it, and took it out into the tempest to thaw the plastic button. It melted and remained stuck. Next I had to go below and locate the bag of allen keys and find the 3 mm sized one. I lunged back into the snowy cockpit with the key and stuck it into the set screw on the handle. I praised the attributes of Tef Gel anti-seize lubricant because the little stainless screw backed out of the aluminum throttle handle with ease. When we’d commissioned DRIVER I’d spent two days putting Tef Gel on every stainless steel bolt that came into contact with aluminum. Small details are the ones that pay off in the long run.

I took the handle off, pulled the button out with pliers, but the engine still would not go into gear. Back in the cabin, I opened the engine compartment and disconnected the control cable from the gear box. I was able to put the engine into gear easily with my frozen fingers. At least the gear box was not seized. I jiggled the Teleflex control cable, heated the throttle handle some more with the torch, then slowly the handle began to move. Then engine went into gear. The keel bumped the bottom of the bay.

Before I entered the area of reefs en route to the main harbor I hoisted the mainsail. There was ice on the halyard and it got hung up in the mast head sheaves. I tried to insert the winch handle in the main halyard winch but the socket was full to the brim with ice. I had to chisel it out with a Phillips head screw driver. The main sheet was also encrusted with ice and I had to whip it against the cockpit seats to unstiffen it so that it would run through the cam cleat.

The narrow channel was very rough and DRIVER pitched uncontrollably. I had not been on a boat in six month and the motion, along with the driving snow, proved very disorienting. Spray soared over the bow and froze on deck. The snow stung my eye balls and made my cheeks ache but I managed to locate the metal poles that marked the reefs. The entire time I kept glancing at our location, wondering with each boat length what I would do if the engine quit.

"This place is too narrow to jibe...I’d never get us turned in time...If the motor quits here I can fore-reach to deeper water...Two more boat lengths and I can short tack easily with the mainsail up the harbor."

The town dock was protected and the wind was almost calm. I dropped the main, and moved cautiously on the slippery deck. The mooring lines were frozen and it was difficult to get them through the chocks and around the cleats.

Jaja and Teiga had been at the boatyard during the launch but it was too cold for Teiga so Jaja had taken her home. My call was two hours over due.

I used a pay phone near the wharf. "It’s me," I said, in a dejected sort of way.

"Did you have one big problem or a bunch of little ones?" Jaja asked, knowingly.

I laughed. "The best part about launching in a snow storm is the weather can only improve."

Then it was Jaja’s turn to laugh.