Moving Aboard - Test sail

Happy birthday to me!

The final moving aboard task was to take Positive Waves for her first sail. By a wonderful coincidence, the first best day also was my birthday. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present—sailing our dream boat that we have been working toward for the past ten years. 

Jean Francois arrived right around slack tide. It’s about a 7 nautical mile trip up river to the sea so we quickly pushed off and spent the one hour trip up the river stowing the Iines and fenders, learning how to put the centerboard up and down, and checking the running rigging. The entrance to the river is a serpentine path around mud flats that are only visible at low tide. There are a lot of small fishing boats and sailboats on moorings, and there were plenty of other boats going out for an afternoon sail. When we got close the entrance, we turned the boat into the wind and raised the main. We fell off, turned the engine off and unfurled the jib. We were sailing!

We sailed out the marked channel and started to feel the swell of the ocean filling in. Mix ocean swell with tide and wind chop and it turns into a bit of a washing machine. A couple of the crew started feeling queasy and we’d been out for a few hours, so we decided to turn around and head back to port. We all took turns steering and winching on Positive Waves. Sails up, sails down, engine on, engine off. We checked the reefing lines, furled up the jib, unfurled the staysail, used the autopilot, checked the various functions on the multifunction display (GPS, depth, charts, tides, and so much more). 

Learning how to steer, it's hard when you can't see over the doghouse. Matilda tried steering from the side.

teamwork!

It was a lot of information to take in and process, but, at the same time, it’s just a sailboat. Albeit a big one with a lot of systems, but the concepts remain the same. We know how to sail, it’s just a matter of learning a new boat. 

We arrived back at the dock in the early evening and had a celebratory local beer with Jean Francois. I suppose we should have had champagne, but just sailing the boat was celebration enough.

To quickly build on what we learned on Saturday we went sailing again on Sunday, this time by ourselves. It was quite a bit windier than the day before and while it was stressful at times, everything went smoothly. The boat is built and rigged so exceptionally well that the sailing just makes intuitive sense. Since the boat is much bigger than we’re used to sailing, the most important thing is to act deliberately. Before I start pulling on a sheet or tacking or changing course, I need to think through what will happen. The boat is big and the forces, therefore, are also big. It’d be easy to lose a finger so every decision and action needs to be carefully considered. I also don’t have the upper body strength of, say, the crew members of Maiden, so I need to use the tools available on the boat. Two-way winches, using my legs to support me when winching, luffing the jib before sheeting in or furling the sail, plus surely many more strategies.

Trying to get their feet wet; they were clipped in!

This first year on the boat will have an exponential learning curve. I remember when we first started sailing on Whisper, we had no idea what we were doing. One day we decided to test ourselves and go for a sail during a small craft advisory. Small craft advisories generally indicate winds more than 15 knots and seas more than 3 feet. (I think, don’t quote me!) We stuck our noses out of the creek, tried sailing for an hour, completely panicked and scurried back to the dock, tails between our legs. One year later and we were most happy sailing with one reef in the main and a couple rolls in the jib and sailing in around 20 knots of wind. I keep that in mind right now when I have to talk through every action when we’re underway and remind myself that in six months or a year, almost all of these basic actions on the boat will be second nature. I’m enjoying the learning curve, trying not to be too hard on myself (or Hans!), and keeping a good sense of humor. Keeping rolling with the positive waves!