Maiden Voyage

     

⛵We spent day one eagerly and enthusiastically working on Cool Heads Prevail, digging into drawers, closets, bins, & cabinets, scrubbing, polishing, rearranging & making room for our own gear. 

Feeling energized by the results, and discovering that the next's day's weather was looking rather iffy, by mid-afternoon we decided to take her out for her first sail. Or perhaps first motorized ride. We'll see.

With Kent at the helm we carefully backed out of our mooring slip and motored out the St. Joseph River, passing the sweet St. J Lighthouse on starboard, and on towards Lake Michigan. The day was sunny and pleasant and we were feeling happy, waving to people on shore and on other boats.

Once in the big lake we kept motoring on a 252 degree course to the southeast, knowing that would be our bearing on the day we eventually head towards our home harbor of Burnham in Chicago. 

The going was slow (about 1 knot per hour), and the wind was light out of the northeast (about 7-8 knots). After awhile I took the helm and headed up into the wind while we (and by we I mean Kent) scrambled to the foredeck to grab the sheet lines and unfurl the jib. That kicked our speed all the way up to about 2. 

It was supposed to be my job to unzip and unbutton the cover of the mainsail and pull it off, and I did it. And it was also supposed to be my job to stand on the foredeck and pull the halyard to raise that big important sail. But soon we realized there must be a better way! 

So we (and by now you know what that means) raised the mainsail from the cockpit, with only a brief foray onto the foredeck to unjam a snag. It was a masterful feat! With both sails gloriously flying and the motor turned off we managed 5-6 knots. 

And we sailed! 

After 2 hours we headed back to the safety of our West Basin harbor, with only just a wee little bit of  trouble getting back into the slip and tied up. Okay yes, well we're still working on this. 

Her short maiden voyage was complete. And we're ready to sail her to Chicago as soon as the weather becomes more stable. Hoping for fair winds in a few more days. Meanwhile, back home to Normal to wait.

                                      

We Bought A Sailboat!

⛵We're off on another exciting adventure - and this one doesn't involve getting on an airplane. Yet, like other grand travel excursions, it does involve lots of dreaming and learning and planning. 

The past six years of chartering sailboats in both Chicago and the British Virgin Islands have helped us decide that we need one of our own. 

Kent & I have been thinking about this for the past two years, pouring over online listings, watching YouTube videos, calling brokers. And then actually looking at real boats in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida before the world shut down last March, and then closer to home in Illinois, Wisconsin and  Michigan when it became somewhat safer again. 

We've changed our minds about key bits of information: what size and brand of boat (a 32 foot Island Packet? how about a 35' Sabre? maybe a 38' Tartan?); how much to spend (only what we've saved up or take out a loan?); and about where we would sail it (in the south where we'll have a longer sailing season or more nearby where it'd be more accessible?). And just about everything else. In fact the only thing we were very sure of was that we wanted a monohull sailboat, not a catamaran nor a power boat of any sort. 

So today we drove back to Michigan - for the fifth time in two months - and a 35' Tartan became ours! We will call her Cool Heads Prevail. Indeed.

Her mast is up, she's in the water. And tomorrow the work - and eventually the fun - begins. We have lots of cleaning and organizing to do to make our used, yet quality boat the comfortable dreamboat we're wanting. And a lot to learn.