And finally... we're sailing!

 


Well,.we have worked very hard and learned a lot over the last two days under the expert instruction of Captain Sarah.  She's patiently walked us through everything from rigging sails, setting up reefing lines to controlling the boat using its two engines, and has run us through our paces practicing basic sailing maneuvers. Sarah is originally from near Stuttgart, Germany and lives here in Grenada now.  She has over ten thousand nautical miles under her belt and bought and refurbished her own wooden sailboat where she and her dog, Maya, live.  She is clearly an expert in sailing and everything that goes with it, including troubleshooting and issue resolution. 


Grenada has proved to be a challenging learning environment since the winds are quite variable and gusty and quite dependent upon the boat's position relative to the geographic features of the island.


A couple of key take-aways for us based on the last couple of days:
  • This is a BIG boat and it has very big sails!  Raising them is not a trivial task.
  • Having two motors spaced 20 ft apart means you can rotate this big boat on a dime.  Motoring through the mooring field - although still stressful for me - was much easier than I expected.  
  • Sailing requires a high level of multi-tasking.  
  • We're not done getting Starry Night in ship-shape condition:  we continue to find issues which are most likely a result of sitting unused for the past couple of years. 
Tomorrow will be dedicated to getting the most pressing of those issues resolved and then we hope to be back on the open water on Thursday to continue to hone our skills!






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