First Sail of 2013

 

We finally got Wrinkles on the water this weekend. We loaded (by "we" I mean Brenda) all the stuff back on our 23 and headed to our local lake with a forecast that showed nothing but sunshine and fair winds. We got to the ramp Saturday morning in beautiful sunshine and 55 degree temps. Things were really looking up.

We knew it would take us a little extra time to rig Wrinkles up since it was the first time out and we also had a new headsail to install. Everything went along smoothly except for the missing mast bolt. Fortunately we had spare in the parts box. The mast raising system worked great - all three times we raised it! Yes, we raised and lowered that mast three times. First time we had a line shackle attached to the bridle which of course shouldn't have been. Raised it up perfectly the second time and prepared to install the new headsail in the CDI FF2 furler. Hmmmm, that halyard is about 20 feet up in the air. No problem. Lower the mast again and tie on a couple extenders to the halyard. Raise her up for the third time. Did we mention we really appreciate the mast raising system?

The rest of the assembly went smoothly and we attached the new tongue extender to the trailer to see how it worked. Other than messing around with the headsail and talking to several onlookers about our Com-Pac the whole process was quickly done. One car stopped by just long enough to say they read our blog each week and recognized our boat. They actually enjoy reading our little blog. Sweet! Thanks for letting us know you like it. We backed Wrinkles in and with the extra 5 feet of tongue extender she came off nicely.

The sun suddenly disappeared, but the wind was perfect. We got to that wonderful moment when you raise the sails and turn off the kicker. Ahhhhhh. That's the sound and feeling we have missed so much. As we sailed we kept adding clothes to match the thickness of the cloud cover and the falling temps.

We enjoyed a few hours of great sailing until we started to think about supper. We decided to park Wrinkles against the empty staging pier at Marshall Park and walk the 1/4 mile to a great Chinese restaurant. Good food and a bottle of wine were enough to thaw us out. We wandered back to Wrinkles and since the winds had died we decided to motor over to Picnic Point to spend the night

Brenda backed us out and and motored us across the lake. She ran the outboard during anchoring for the first time and did a perfect job. We lit the oil lantern and piled the blankets deep in the v-berth in anticipation of a cool night. We slept like rocks as the water was completely calm.

We awoke to the prospect of sunshine as the clouds were definitely thinning out. We cooked up some oatmeal and coffee/tea to start the day out right. The sun did arrive, but it didn't bring any wind with it at all. So we occupied ourselves (Brenda reading a book and Mike pretending to fish.) for a couple hours.

The wind just wouldn't come out to play, so we motored for a bit to enjoy the scenery. After a simple lunch we felt a hint of wind in the air and quickly raised the sails. A gentle breeze was just enough to push us along at 2 to 3 knots. Quiet music playing on the radio, sunshine, the sound of water slowly gurgling along our hull and a lake all to ourselves made for a memorable couple of hours.

As the wind died and the sun was approaching the tree line it was time to motor home. We docked smoothly and the boat loaded very nicely. A quick tear down and the first wonderful sail of the season is in the books.

Happy sailing season everyone.

Mike and Brenda

 

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