First Day Sail and First Night Sail

Well the first day sail was uneventful - I handled the tiller, loosened & tightened the Genoa sail to tack(not with expertise, but that will come with time!!!) Don was not happy with how the motor sat in the water when pulled up. He said it was dragging all the time! Don heeled the boat a little farther than I preferred. (Heel - To lean over or list!) But we can tack (turn the sailboat through the eye of the wind, i.e. to go from port tack to starboard tack and vice versa) right along with the best! We were gaining on a Catalina 27 and going at little over 2 knots. Please note, I still have to use a glossary for terms - but writing about it helps me remember the terms. Not sure how I will ever get Port (Left) and Starboard (Right) correct, since I get left and right wrong all the time! Well - I had to go back and edit this one because I got it backwards and Don had to tell me which was which! There is surely no hope for me!!!

Last week we celebrated our birthday's and anniversary with #2 son - Jake and his sweet wife Kelly and her mom Ruth. We had a wonderful dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. After dinner we all went to the marina to see the boat. Liv and Luke loved it - Luke doesn't like spiders, but Liv has no fear, she was all over the boat from bow to stern! She loved the V-berth and wanted to play sleep - take off shoes! I can't wait till we can take them out for a sail!

First night sail was a little more eventful! We motored out just fine - Don is always worried about this - navigating in the marina is tricky and it was a little windy! He figured out about the motor problem - there was a cable to lock the motor that was restricting the lift mechanism of the motor - problem solved! The wind was a little tricky! We had a little trouble with both the Genoa and mail sail, but finally got them up. Again Don heeled the boat a little farther than I prefer. I hope I get used to that! The wind was a little high and coming in we had to drop the Genoa sail. The starboard rope ended up out of the pulley and on the port side and stalled the motor just as we were coming in. If that was not bad enough - the gas line got disconnected and the motor would not restart! So we are washing into BIG Rocks and then into mud - deep mud!!
We were stuck for about 45 minutes - not fun, but a learning experience! Once the gas line was reconnected the motor started right up. We did not get out of the mud for a while, motor ran good, just not quite as strong as Don would like. I suspect we will be replacing the old motor in the near future!!! We finally got headed in with a pretty good wind and just as we are headed to our slip the motor failed - we bumped the empty slip up from us before Don got the motor re cranked, but didn't do any damage to pier or boat! Lots of good learning experiences!

Next adventure - we are headed to Fredericksburg for the weekend with Don's sister and her husband - they have an annual Car Swap Meet. We are also meeting family there as well. This is one of our favorites - we should have lots of fun. I should have new posts next week!