It has been a busy week, but the big news is that it culminated in our first sail alone on the boat today. Just the three of us, getting a feel for her, understanding how to control her, and having a great time! We got both the main up and the genoa fully unfurled, we hit a top speed of 6.2 kts at one point, but were generally between 4-5 for most of the afternoon (though we spent the first hour closer to 1.5-2 as we got comfortable!)
It was amazing, and memorable, and a big milestone for us. It is the first time we have not had someone more experienced on a boat telling us what to do. It is the first time we took our own boat out for a sail. It is the first time all three of us have been sailing together.
We started Monday, motored up to Seabrook again to get the mast put back on. It was a beautiful day (maybe a little hot, but still fun), and we averaged about 4.5 kts this time. We also had to 'pull over' to the side of the ICW (thankfully it was slow) and Michael had to go below and clean the prop - before that we couldn't get over 2500 rpm....
Tuesday was busy, they came and put the mast step on, and then we motored over to the crane to have them put the mast on. Then back in the slip after lunch, the guys (Stix N' Rig'n - amazing, highly recommend) tuned the standing rigging and started working through what they would need for the following day.
Wednesday they did all the running rigging, so we have new lines run well, all leading back to the cockpit for nice smooth sailing. We got the genoa back on and furled, got the main back on with the battens in, we even raised the staysail and learned how to run the sheets for that.
They taught us how to reef the mainsail.
Both days we were busy until about 4:30 and then relaxed. We met some cool neighbors here in Seabrook and celebrated the re-masting with them on Wednesday night :-)
We haven't decided for sure if we will go out tomorrow yet. We will see how we sleep, and how we feel in the morning. Today was both exhilarating, and terrifying, at the same time, but we made it back safe and are just relaxing in the cockpit now.
Oh yeah - and we played with our new deck and tri-color lights tonight - had to see how they looked! :-)
This was a great step in the adventure! Thank you for posting!
You guys were great neighbors. We will miss you. You are welcome for Margaritas any time!