We Went Sailing

Happy faces after a great sail!

Well, its official....not only does she float, but she SAILS!! (And pretty darn well, if I do say so myself!) We spent all day Friday and Saturday (and the first half of Sunday) working on project after project, and decided on Sunday afternoon that it was about time that we took our beautiful Southwind out for a spin. And boy are we glad we did! This was our first sail since we limped into the marina almost a month ago. Winds were pretty crazy, and we had a bit too much sail out, I think (we sailed on the main and the genoa).  We even heeled over a bit which was great fun!  Since we haven't installed our GPS yet, I'm not sure exactly how fast we were going, but I am fairly certain we reached hull speed!  Such a great first sail!  And everything went so smoothly, no *big* issues. :)

Floating in the dingy before our sail

Our engine is still running a bit hot, but in defense of the engine, we did forget to open up the raw water intake seacock when we first started the engine. (Oops!) We sailed through the ship channel and out into San Diego Bay.  Most of our short two hour sail was spent getting a feel for how well she maneuvers and practicing adjusting our sail trim. We probably would have stayed out even longer, but after an hour or so, the battery on our handheld VHF died (we forgot to charge it, "oops" #2). At that point we decided to head back, afraid that we were asking for trouble by being out without a working radio. Overall, it was such a fun afternoon.  It also happened to be Hannah's first ever sail, and she loved it! Big win!  (Not really sure what we would have done if she had hated it, HA!) She was definitely nervous at first, but got a feel for it after a little while. She especially loved it when Dad let her be the helmsman for a bit. It was perfect weather, a beautiful afternoon, and we couldn't have asked for a prettier day!


The only downside of the day, we were missing one of our crew members. Emily participated in the Newport to Ensenada race as part of the Newport Sea Base Youth Race Team.  Unfortunately, the weather was against them, and a huge number of boats, including Emily's, were forced to drop out of the race. But she had fun, nonetheless, learned a lot and had a ton of stories to tell about her adventure when she came back!  You can check out some pics of the race start below.

And they're off!

A gloomy day to start the race