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.
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.
