Our First Sail!
Yesterday (June 14th) after many months of hard work, we finally got our boat on the water with the mainsail up!
It was another day dedicated to the boat. We had lots to do, and planned to go out, but with the knowledge that 'plans change', and new things kept getting added to the to do list. So we just kept working, and hoped for the best.
It was another day dedicated to the boat. We had lots to do, and planned to go out, but with the knowledge that 'plans change', and new things kept getting added to the to do list. So we just kept working, and hoped for the best.
Around 3pm, we decided we had done enough and it was ready to take the boat for a long and overdue sail. The plan was to just get out there and practice motoring a bit. Since we are dry sailing, we had to figure out the crane (which took a bit of time)- but with the help of some helpful sailing club members, we finally got the boat safely in the water. After all the work we have been doing, this felt like a huge accomplishment in itself!
But then, a small snag. We found out at that moment (since the boat had not been in the water for several months) that the thru-hull had a very small leak. We thought we might have to end there and get the boat back out of the water, but after Jeff worked on it a bit more (tightened it and inspected the leak) and talked with some other sailors about it, we decided we should still get out on the water for a brief time. It was important for the psyche at this point! The good thing is, Jeff tightened it as much as humanly possible, and it barely leaked during our time out there.
So, we headed out. Motoring out of the little cove was a little tricky at first, but Jeff got the hang of it shortly after that. We headed past the breakwall and out into Lake Ontario. Hooray!
All that motoring got us antsy... and it was a perfect, very light wind... so we thought, lets just put up the sail and see how it goes. So we did!
We checked the leak and saw that only a few drops had made their way in in the first few minutes. That was a relief! So, we were good to relax and enjoy ourselves for a bit.
We named our first adventure... make it to Buoy D!
The adventures to Buoy D...
But in all seriousness... it was good to see we could make it the direction we actually wanted to go :)
We sailed for about an hour or so, practiced tacking a few times, and headed in (we had some friends to meet, which was probably a good thing!) Overall, it was a great first sail. The views were excellent, and we felt really comfortable in our boat. Jeff is the boss in the boat (he likes to say that it's the only place he can boss me around without any repercussions) and I have to say, he does a great job out there!
Great views of the city...
And me... well I am just ask excited to finally get a posting under the 'adventure' side of the page :)
All went well... by the time we were back on land, we had about a cup of water in the bottom of the boat. Jeff will be working on re-sealing the thru-hull this week. Other than that, we are so excited to be at this stage finally... and for a fun summer to come!