Second Voyage On The Sailboat

We took the sailboat back out with the thought of launching her at Davis Island boat ramp, but when we got there, there was this mean looking oyster 'reef' that was sticking up across the width of the ramp, as you can see in this picture. After watching the speed boats wrestle with missing the oysters in such shallow water, we decided it wasn't going to be possible to get the sailboat into the water from this ramp without possibly damaging her.

Instead, we drove back over to the Gandy Bridge ramp and launched her there. The rigging was faster this time, only taking about 30 minutes to complete.

Here's a little change we made to the boat to make it easier to handle. We replaced the factory bronze cleats with a pair of cam cleats that are mounted on swivels so the jib sheets could be changed over faster during a tack. I have to admit, this change was worth it, because we tacked for 1/2 an hour on our way back the ramp and we didn't blow one of them. We're getting a little better at this...

So, after the rigging was done, we eased her in... You can see the coupling system for the trailer extension in action in this shot.

After launching, the girls started staking out their favorite spots.

We didn't set the sails immediately because the wind was low, so we motored over to Picnic Island to play a bit on the beach. I was able to pick a spot on the chart that showed a deep pocket of water by the beach that allowed us to back the boat into the beach, yet leave the keel in deep enough water to keep from grounding her. When we left, I just pushed the boat forward into the deeper section, started the motor and we were off...

The girls took this opportunity to investigate the shallows.

When we got back to the boat, the girls decided to drape themselves across the bow again.

Due to the success of our beach landing at Picnic Island, I decided to have a go at stopping by the spoil island southwest of there. Unfortunately, the area around the spoil island was full of rocks at varying depths, and when we motored down the length of the beach, we came across several 4-5 foot sharks. Yep, no need to get on that deserted patch of sand. That palm tree can have it!

Since we brought our fishing gear, we motored closer to a channel marker and tried our luck for about 1/2 an hour. I can honestly say that the fish in the area are quite safe from us.

As we were stowing the fishing gear, a wind front started to kick up, so we hoisted the sails and ran on a stiff breeze with occasional gusts that made for some fun moments. The gusts weren't overpowering the sails, the wind just seemed to push hard on the boat causing her to list about ten degrees, then the wind would settle back. This is when we started practicing our tacking procedures.

Another thing I did was install some 'tell-tale' ribbons on the sails so I can see how the wind is flowing across the sails. In this picture, you can see the red ribbon on the lee side is pointing straight back, indicating that the sail is making the most from the available power from the wind.

Meanwhile, Katrina decided to work on her needlepoint as we were heading back to the ramp.

The return and haul-out was uneventful (thankfully) and we hope to get her back on the water real soon. This is turning out to be more fun that the law should allow.