First sail of 2016

It was great to finally get in a sail after the chilly weekend. My girlfriend and I left at 6:30pm and had a great sail around Peddock's island and spent a good 5 hours sailing. Anchored off of Peddocks for a bit, had some pizza and drinks. 

This was Ann Marie's first time sailing. She used to own a 40' Mainship, so this was definitely a different experience for her. I was nervous she wouldn't like it, but she ended up loving it.

Perfect weather and we saw speeds of over 8 knots at some points. 

Ann Marie's first time sailing, she did great!

First time to the top of the mast

I arrived to the boatyard over the winter and found my Windex windvane sitting on the ground next to O Sea D. It must have fatigued over the years and snapped off during some high winds. Time to go to the top of the mast!

I have an ATN Mast Climber I purchased last year. I have gone almost half way up to repair a burned out steaming light (or so I thought), so I was a bit intimidated to go all the way up. All in all, it wasn't bad.

I replaced the Windex and put in 2 LED bulbs to replace the standard bulbs in the anchor light, because, hey why not?

I attached the halyards to a line attached to the toe rail with some climbing carabiners

Hello down there!

Almost there

On the way back down

2016 Launch!!

I was one of the last boats out of the water in the fall in November. The boat yard told me "you're the last one out, you'll be the first one in". Perfect, my marina allows me to come in on May 1, so I finished all my work to have it ready by that date.

But...they had put another boat in front of me. I saw someone painting the bottom and waxing the hull, so I thought he would be out soon. I asked him when his splash date was and he told me May 15th (sad face). The boat yard has a policy that everyone has to be ready to launch by May 15th or they would be responsible to have their boat moved, so I figured I was stuck in until then.

I called the boat yard for clarification adn they told me he was going in on Friday, May 6th, so I quickly made plans to launch on Saturday, May 7th. High tide was at noon, so it would work out perfectly.

In the meantime, I saw this video of a sailboat falling off a trailer after being pulled from the water. It's a crazy video.

The guys show up to put my boat in and they start moving the jack stands. My boat starts leaning alarmingly over and all I can envision is it falling over like the sailboat in the video. They grabbed 2 more jack stands and used them to brace it, eventually straightening it out again. I wish I brought a clean pair of underwear.

The rest was uneventful. I was a bit nervous sitting in the boat as they backed me down the ramp after seeing that video. Note to self - before launching, don't go down a Youtube "boat fail" rabbit hole.

The port side stand has lifted off the ground

Leaning to the left and the back stand isn't in contact with the hull

Backing down the ramp

Motoring off to my slip. It's cold and foggy.

Ahhhh, good to be back!!

Playing around with my drone at Thayer's Landing

My Windex wind indicator somehow broke over the winter. Climbing the mast is in order.