Anchors away!

Not too much to update, but we did have a great weekend on Windsong. We decided to head out to a cove and drop anchor, both to practice and to relax. The deployment went off without a hitch lol, and we spent all day enjoying the warm almost 90 degree weather as well as the cool water. We all swam to the island and I threw my phone in a ziploc (double bagged) to get some pictures of the boat at anchor. 

In about a month we make the jump from our 3 br house to either a 1br apartment or maybe even the boat for a couple months, then an apartment, I guess we will see ;-) Things are going great and moving fast.. The next major project will be to replace all the ports on the boat, a costly and labor intensive chore that will hopefully stop the leaks!

Wet rails, wet interior

So Windsong has been sailing quite a bit lately and we have been enjoying every minute of it. Ty and I took her out on a fairly windy day and she stretched out in the water and cruised along around 6 kts with winds 10 to 15 gusting to 20/25. This boat sails so comfortable and smooth, it takes no effort at the helm to cruise along. 

Yesterday Jessica got off work early and we had a rare opportunity to sail together without kids! I got to the boat in the morning and prepared her for sailing as well as picked up a bottle of red wine. (forgot the opener though) Then at noon I picked Jess up, we grabbed some lunch and were at the boat by 12:30. We went out for a few hours and while it was windy at around 15 kts with a lot of inconsistant gusts it was great.  We anchored out in a cove and I went for a swim, it was a perfect afternoon and a date on the boat both Jess and I needed. Docking in the wind was fun as anyone with an Endeavour can tell you backing up is not a sailboats strong point, especially this one!

Now for every ying, there is a yang and last night was the YANG.. About 3:30am I felt something wet on my feet at the end of the bed only to discover pretty much the entire length of the boat on the starboard side was dripping. So at 4am I began to tear down all the panels and coring to the underside of the deck only to discover it wasn't something I was going to be able to fix. It turns out to be a continuation of the leaky port problem these boats are known for. We will be replacing the ports in the near future but it's a  $2,000 project I was hoping to hold off until the end of Spring with caulk, duct tape and plastic.. It looks as though I'll either need to just do it, or take up stock in 3M!

Time to dive right in!

So as Jess and I spend more time preparing the boat while learning the systems and maintenance as well as adjusting to the upcoming drastic life change, it seems as though "the moment" will never get here. We both know it will arrive much sooner than we think, yet it seems like it's still far away. So to help we have begun the timeline phase of our preparation. 

Tentatively we are planning on Sept 28th 2014 as our latest departure date, now this date is subject to change and become sooner depending on $$ etc. We would like to shoot for Sept 28th 2013 but it might be cutting it too close and to be honest I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day to get the boat AND US ready in that amount of time. I've begun forming checkpoints and goals in timeline format to help keep track of our progress and to keep us motivated. 

Things are moving along though and we are spending every waking moment on the boat, lake and water in general. With the acquisition of T/T Windsong (Colby and Peyton's little sailboat) it plunges the kids right into the mechanics of sailing and being on the water. Colby spent the entire afternoon yesterday sanding down and then varnishing the first coat of 4 on his centerboard and rudder while Peyton helped me oil the teak on the handrails and hatches.  

We will be putting in our applications at the Percy Priest Yacht Club so the kids can participate in the races as well as the camps and education opportunities. There is an all women racing team that is being formed and I think Jessica will be crewing with them for the Wednesday night races! I can't wait to cheer her and the kids on!   

Over the next month we will be selling, giving or throwing away about 95% of our things (junk) to help condense down. When I look at things it's amazing to me the amount of "crap" we accumulate as humans. Finding things you haven't touched in years in a box and remembering the decision to keep it with the thought "one day I might need this screw" now seems so ludicrous to me.

Colby, Peyton and I went out on Ty's boat Izzy on Monday with Ty, Sarah and her friend Ben. We spent the day with light winds, kinda tooling along when we decided to stop and swim. The water is now up around 70 degrees and with the weather 85 degrees + it felt great to hop in. We spent the next couple hours jumping off the boat, treading water and laughing. It was a great day on the water and we introduced Sarah's friend Ben to a little sailing. 

Till next time..... 

Colby's first boat.. T/T Windsong

Yesterday we got the kids their own little boat, which also serves as a sailing dinghy for our boat. The boat is a 1988 Precision 14. Now technically this would make the boat T/T Windsong but I'm sure the kids will give it another name. In our boats name the S/V stands for Sailing Vessel and for a dinghy the T/T stands for Tender To. Just a little bit of useless knowledge, but if you ever see it now you'll know what it means ;-)

We bought the boat from Hamilton Creek and then decided it's first sail would be back to our marina. Well the conditions were not ideal, with unfavorable winds and impending bad weather, however Colby and I set out to get it there one way or another. 

The trip started off quite comical as we tried to sail out of a little cove against the wind and with not much room. The little boat just kept slipping back further into the cove. This is when I realized it would help out if I put in the daggerboard. (I"ve never owned a boat with a dagger or centerboard) Once we figured that out progress was made, well progress like a slug makes progress across the sidewalk.  

We waved goodbye to Jessica and Peyton as they both had a few good laughs on shore and that's when the famous last words were uttered "We'll see you in about an 1 1/2 hours" If only we would have known all the "fun" we had in store for us. 

During the course of our upwind adventure we delt with frequently shifting winds, no wind, high long lasting gusts and damn power boaters in Donzi's that seemed as though they were almost trying to see how big they could make the waves for the husky guy and kid in the little dinghy sailboat. 

About 2 hours (yep already past schedule) and halfway neither of us was paying attention when we felt the centerboard pop up, rudder kick up and the boat grind to a halt... Yep we had forgotten and not been paying attention to one of the shoals that extends from shore. We hopped out to assess the damage and pull the boat up onto the beach. Lucky for us it was mostly fine gravel and sand so no harm no foul. Well except for the broken pin that sheered off the rudder! At which time Colby announced "Hey dad would this be a good time to go pee in the woods since we're gonna be here a while?" 

Broken rudder = No steering lol

After taking a trip into the woods myself *whistle* and then some creative thinking I removed the bow line and used it to make a Macgyver like attempt to fix the problem. Within minutes we were back on the water sailing with nothing really damaged but our pride. Oh yeah and the rudder. 

The rest of the trip went well except for the 3 o'clock blow that created some pretty high winds, and far more than the dinghy was meant to handle. A little skillful (yep I'm tooting my own horn) sailing and we finally made it to our marina. Tired, frustrated and just plain DONE..

It turned out to be a fun little adventure I'm sure neither Colby or I will ever forget and I"m sure he is going to learn a lot from this boat that will help him on our bigger boat and down the road. 

Some Photos Of The Day