A Little Day Sail

We didn't do any heavy lifting on the refit. Instead, we opted to head out for a day sail to A:continue to get Kitty used to the boat and B:see if the new blocks did anything to help with our main sail issues. It couldn't be helped, this slacking. We had 18 knots of wind, sunny skies and warm temperatures. What would you do in our situation? You'd stop working and start sailing, which is exactly what we did.

Maura has been good on the boat for a while now but Kitty is just starting to come into her own. She's happy as can be just watching the other boats, the birds and playing with her toys. There were a couple of instances where I thought we were going to get to do a dolly over board drill but she managed to keep all of her little friends in the cockpit.

In answer to the question 'did the new blocks help?', I can say unequivocally 'not a damn bit'. Back to the proverbial drawing board. C'est la vie. That is the goal of these little short sails, to figure out what works and what doesn't so a failure is just as useful as a success. Somehow I think we are going to have a lot more useful failures in our future.

Our new lights arrived. Well, some of them at least. The majority of them are on back order but we hope to start getting them installed this week. That will be my next refit related post- the huge ordeal that was deciding on lights. Yes, something so small and insignificant was something we agonized over for 2 weeks. Sometimes we like to run in circles for no apparent reason, just because we can.

Sailing with Salty Gene.

We affectionately refer to our main sail as Baggy MacBaggerton

One of Mark's favorite dock buddies is Salty Gene. His name is actually just Gene but we've benefited so much from his knowledge gained during his 6+ years spent cruising the Caribbean on the boat he built himself, his years sailing the US and added with the fact that he manages to wear a fisherman's hat without looking the least bit twee that I feel calling him Salty Gene just fits better. And this is my blog so there ya go...Salty Gene it is.

Anyway, we had the opportunity to take the boat out with Salty Gene aboard to get an idea of what we want to add and more importantly, where the screw ups on the deck lay out and running rigging are so we can address them while we refit. We had plenty of wind at around 20-22 knots. Enough that we were able to get moving along at a well heeled over clip even though our main sail is the more akin to a sleeping bag then a sail. We managed to lose a batten due to me not tying up the end well. Fortunately, with such a  badly blown out sail I don't think a batten or the lack there of would make any difference at all. Mark asked me if I felt humbled by the loss of our batten due to my mistake. I told him no, I did not feel humbled because in order to feel humbled I had to first be feeling a bit superior about my skills. I just assume all the time that I will bumble my way through ignorance, make lots of mistakes but get through it all somehow. Besides, all the other battens remained intact so I must have done some of them correctly.

Salty Gene at the helm

It was a very good sail. The suggestions Salty Gene made were for the most part already on our list so at least we got confirmation that we are on the right track. We also had it illustrated to us just how crappy the deck layout is. Mark has been thinking things out carefully and this should be the next big project once we tidy up the plumbing. Rigid boom vang, jammers, increasing the size of winches, new clutches, organizers, etc should keep us busy for a while as the current configuration has been declared to be "Crap. Absolute crap" by Mark and after getting the jib sheets hung up on various parts of the rigging, me cranking a winch for a heck of a lot longer than I would like to, dealing with far too much friction on the lines. etc I have to agree. Salty Gene agreed that our current set up "is too damned hard". So we are going to do what we need to make it easy because I am all about easy.( Mark, I say if you really want those 54 winches by all means go for it!)

Salty Gene declared the boat to be a good, solid and dependable sailor. We know a bit more about what we want to do to the boat especially  for when sailing with a bit of wind. The sun was shining, the girls were happy and all in all I have to say it was a very good day. After we got the boat docked and tucked away, it was time for some birthday cake (Kitty is 2!) and to make plans for some overnight sails this summer.

The Dyneema Experience!

UPDATE- The site is STILL accepting crew members. Please sign up to "Follow Me" to help us out. While you are there, you might send some love to the crews of  SV Majestic, SV Excellent Adventure and SV Conviva.

A big thank you to all who have supported us in our bid to win Dyneema rigging for the boat. The winners are announced on the 17th and its too close to say whether or not we will be hurrying up to order a new main sail to go with the new rigging. We have our fingers crossed and are spitting like mad because Dyneema really is the best line available on the market and will goa long way in keeping us safe as we plow through the waters of the Carribbean and Atlantic.

We've had a lot of fun particpating in the competition and loved the opportunity to over think this with our pals the crews of SV Conviva, SV Majestic, and last but certainly not least SV Excellent Adventure. In the immortal words of Cindy, from SV Majestic "its a bit like running for office". It IS like running for office. A ton of work but exciting as well.

Again, a big thank you to all of you for your support and thanks to Dyneema for sponsoring this competition. Now lets keep our fingers crossed because if we win, the next stage begins and will give Mark the opportunity to get all engineery on you all in articles on the structural properties of Dyneema and I know you want to see Mark break it down, Mr. Wizard style for you.

To understand the story, start at the beginning

I knew a few things about Mark by our second date. Perhaps I wasn't quite aware of all his personality quirks, his likes or dislikes but I did find out one very important bit of information- Mark wanted to sail. Not just a little day sail around the bay but a transoceanic trip from New Zealand to French Polynesia. This was his life's ambition and the driving force behind his desire to retire by age 50. I being a bit of free spirited, try anything kind of a gal, took him at his word. If this relationship was to be mutually satisfying, a bit of adventure was going to be required. I was "down with that", so we filed it back in the "someday" file.

Christmas and birthday presents were easy for him- cruising guides for French Polynesia, charts for Fiji, sailing watches that not only told the time, but functioned as a compass, barometer, thermometer and split timer. It was fun to buy him these things with an eye to "someday'. I never thought of it as a frivolous, offhand, pie in the sky dream, it was something that was important to him and it was becoming increasingly important to me as well.

Fast forward almost 4 years and we are newlyweds looking forward to our life together. Sailing was still in the far off plans but it was easy to be distracted by work, a newly blended family, home owner duties, friends, kids, inlaws and outlaws etc. While starting our married life and making plans to move back to the UK, life threw us a curve ball. I won't go into details for many reasons but suffice it to say that sometimes through no one's fault, dreams don't come true. It was while sitting around in a deep funk that I picked myself up, wiped away my tears and made a new motto for myself " If your dreams are dashed and don't come true, dream a different dream".

Right. I made the decision that there were no guarantees in life and that if we spent all of our time thinking about "someday" we would find ourselves at the end of our life having done nothing of importance. I suggested to Mark that we should delay our departure to the UK and take advantage of our current proximity to the Carribean. We should spend a year with the youngest kid on a boat, cruising the Caribbean and either South America or the East coast of the US. After realizing that I was serious, Mark signed on and we got down to the business of dreaming a new dream.

That was 4 months ago. Most people take a few years to formulate a plan, purchase and outfit a boat. We would have 9 months before our tentative departure date of November, 2009. If 9 months is enough time to grow a human, surely it will be enough time to hone our sailing skills ( Mark is a bit rusty, I aspire to being a greenhorn), learn all that we can about navigation, safety, route planning, provisioning, financial planning, etc. etc.? It IS daunting and a huge challenge but what in life that is worthwhile isn't?