A very good day.

[John V. G. Mayton]

The picture was taken by Marina from the top of the mizzen mast where she was installing the topping lift.

Friday, after we had secured everything below deck, removed hatch covers, and led lines to wenches, we got underway to do a bit of educational sailing.  We have not had the sails up since the sea trials and we needed some time to let the boat teach us how to sail her.  Kittiwake, that’s the name we decided on, has some interesting aspects to her set up.  First off we discovered that we can’t use the main sail with the bimini up.  The attachment point for the main sheet is at the base of the mizzen mast and the sheet block and lines would chafe against the aft edge of the bimini.  There may be a simple fix to that by attaching a ring bail to the front of the mizzen up above the bimini frame, but I’ll have to talk to our rigging expert, Mr. James Bible, about that.  Secondly, the mizzen sail is useless for downwind work because the mizzen shrouds get in the way of easing the sail out.   At any rate, once we had motored out of the marina, under the bridges and down the seven miles of channel we unfurled the genoa and hoisted the mizzen.  The wind was light and it was blowing straight up the river so we just tacked back and forth, coming about when we got into shallow water.  The grin on Marina’s face once we turned the engine off was worth every dollar spent on the boat.  It was overcast most of the time and we did get a slight sprinkle but Marina stated, “We can sail in this, right?”    

Marina fixed us tuna salad sandwiches on croissants for lunch as we angled back and forth doing between three and four knots per the GPS.  With genoa and mizzen the boat is well balanced and the only reason I needed to touch the helm was to adjust for changes in the wind direction.  After about three hours we started back up river towards the marina which took another hour and a half before dropping the sails and motoring into the slip.  Tied up, lines and stuff secured, and gear stowed below we went to the Outback Steak House next to our marina for supper.    All in all, a very good day.