In the Water

She is in the water (shown here at the boat yard dock).  On Monday, she was lowered and we planned to drive her to our marina, which is more sheltered than the Schooner Creek dock.  But there were storm fronts moving through with wind gusts at 30 - 40 knots, so we didn't want to risk using the braille method to get into our slip.   Although our marina is protected, and the wind effect would be minimal given our mastless state, it didn't seem wise.

But Tuesday was a calm day, so at day's end we went to the boatyard and fired her up.  I was more concerned than usual to get directions straight on how to back out from the dock, and realized that without rigging to grab ahold of, it would be a bit more challenging to climb quickly on to the boat.  But I worried for naught as Peter just backed smoothly out of the slip and I stepped aboard.  We headed up river, winding our way through the fishing boats trailing lines  on the river with the opening of the Chinook season (I think).  Without a mast to worry about, we motored carelessly under the I-5 bridge.  It was cloudy but calm.

We didn't have a depth gauge, as apparently we disrupted a link when we disconnected the mast wiring.  But the channel is clear and we knew our way into the marina.  It could not have gone more smoothly - we wound our way to G dock and Peter pivoted into our slip.  A few weeks ago we changed from using a bow line to a center line when docking, and it makes it so simple to pull the boat up to the dock and then move to the bow and stern to tie off.  I'm much more comfortable with this, although I'm still perfecting the timing on pulling her in far enough before moving off of the center.

We fussed for a while to get the lines set to minimize bumping against the dock - the paint is still in the hardening stage - connected to shore power and headed home.  Looking back as we walked down the dock, she looks like a new boat; happy in her snug slip.