Photo courtesy of our good friend Skip
Yes, you read that right! We finally went sailing on our beloved Chance. It was an awesome, exciting, weird, mildly anticlimactic (for me) and completely windless day. It just didn’t feel real to me yet. I’m still waiting for it to kick in. It is only fitting that for Chance‘s first sail after 15 years on the hard and a complete rebuild we’d make her work for it by sailing through non existent winds. We seriously had trouble keeping her sails full! Nothing is easy in this journey. It was gorgeous out though. Not too hot, tons of dolphin out playing and it felt great to be out sailing on our own boat this time. It was kind of strange to take your whole house with you as you go out for the day. None of the, “Man, I wish I would of brought that with me,” kind of thoughts. Everything is there!
We haven’t installed our fancy Pro-Furl roller furler that we picked up at last year’s Annapolis Boat Show so we were stuck using an old hank on sail we had. And, it was TINY. I’m talking smaller than our storm jib. But, it got us out and moving along. That is a project for this week.
We went out again on Sunday to much better winds. This girl can book it! This time our friend Skip of SV Manada II was out with us. He was under full canvas (full size sails all up and full of wind) and we were keeping up for the most part. I can’t wait to see how she sails with the proper size sails on. The boat isn’t nearly as tender as our first Seafarer, a 31 ft Bill Tripp Jr design. She cuts through the waves and wakes pretty well and doesn’t bounce around nearly as much as we expected. She’s really responsive to the helm and so far has been a pleasure to sail! Jason and I are starting to get our groove in raising the sails and getting her going.
While Dewey is an old pro and has been sailing with us many times before, this was Riley’s first time out. Boy was he a nervous wreck. The poor guy was shaking nearly the whole time. He was much better when we were just sailing but he didn’t like when the motor was on one bit! He was a lot better the second day out so we’re hopeful he’ll get used to everything and calm down a little bit more each time we go out. He loves being on the water, watching the dolphins and barking at any boat with a dog on board, he just has to get used to our home moving. Dewey and Riley both sport life vests when we are out and moving about. We bought one for Riley when we thought he was full grown but he has sadly gotten a little too beefy for it. The next strap doesn’t stay closed anymore so we have to order a size up for the big guy.
It’s exciting to finally get out isn’t it? We finally went out into the Gulf yesterday (our first time since mid May) and even though Wilbur has lived aboard nearly all his life he was shaking too. I was so surprised but by the next day he was fine. And he needs a new life jacket too, he’s out grown the pink polka dot one we got him when we first moved aboard.
Wind or no wind, it’s always exciting to be out sailing! Love the pink lines…very “pinktober” if you will. 🙂