I took advantage of better weather and a long awaited day off to make it a long weekend, to launch on Friday. What I wasn't counting on was the card of firewood delivered to the cottage earlier in the week. I had to move and restack a couple of rows of dry wood and stack the new wood, I finished late Thursday night to make sure I was ready for the Friday launch.
The launch went smoothly and after a mild panic over a fussy engine that didn't want to turn over (compression switch), Exploits was back in her dock by early afternoon. Jude arrived home on Friday night after a week in Guelph for work, just in time to lend a hand on Saturday morning to get the sails on including our new mainsail!
A small work crew assembled in the gazebo to prep it for next weekend's BHYC summer meeting and Blackfly BBQ on Saturday morning. The rest of the day was cold and very windy. Fly-Bye-Wire was the only boat to venture out. Unfortunately they had a rough experience and a worse return to BHYC, hitting the dock and putting a nasty scratch in the hull.
Sunday was a better day, altho sadly none of the kids were able to come out with us on our shakedown cruise for 2013. Fly-Wire-Wire and Gaila joined us as we made our way down the Bay towards the Tim Horton's Camp, where they were having an open house. After a sail past we headed back to BHYC.
It was a spectacular day on the water and the new main worked beautifully. We noticed the upper batten was working its way out so we furled the jib,dropped the main and fixed it before we lost it or worse, it damaged our new sail. We got a chuckle when Skipper Watt sailed past and asked if we planned to drop our sails in every race, so other boats could catch up! That's is as close to a compliment that anyone can expect from Gaila.
A successful and very busy weekend, capped off by a great sail.
Fiona and the Final Chapter
1 year ago
