I HATE SHOES

All the prep work is complete. Winchelsea , Jon and I, with Carla, are ready to go. The checklist I made nearly a month ago has exactly zero items left without a strike through, and all that remains is a little bit of organizing, weighing anchor, raising sail and following a compass heading. I've decided to move our departure up a bit, from early Monday morning to Sunday afternoon. This will put us well within a good weather window for the nearly 40 hour sail to New Jersey, and allow us passage through the heaviest shipping lanes out of New York during daylight hours; a win-win. It's still a few days off though, which means it can change drastically, so I'm keeping a close eye on it. I'm really going to miss Newport overall. It has been my introduction to the sailing community, and I've felt welcome from the get go. Green and Isaac have taught me so much, and Green has been more than helpful on numerous occasions. From my carburetor, to the wind turbine, to my wat...

October 4th will be our planned departure date. We being Jon, a guy who works on the schooner next door; myself; Carla and of course Winchelsea. About three weeks ago I had an absolutely massive checklist, which I have whittled down to only getting the proper paper charts, which will be taken care of tomorrow morning. I've purchased an EPIRB, a harness to clip anyone working on the bow into the boat, a spotlight, patched a hole in the exhaust, installed the depth sounder, fixed the chart plotter/autohelm, as well as taken her on a couple of shakedown sails, among a galaxy of other tasks that don't come to mind right now. During our sails we discovered she really loves an early reef, and in 15 to 20 knots of breeze there is only a small trace of weather helm. I would have liked to get a new mainsail, the current one is sufficient but a little stretched out and baggy, but her sail plan calls for a 13' foot, when most modern rigged boats have a shorter one in the 10' range...

Well it has been quite the week for Winchelsea  and I. Just over a week ago, hurricane Earl threatened to bring 100+ mph winds across Newport. I had a few options: stay in Newport harbor at anchor, follow Green up the bay to a protected cove, or get her hauled out of the water. A mooring was not one of them because Oldport Marine, who owns most of them here, kicks people off when there is a hurricane watch or warning; go figure. I decided to get her hauled out because my insurance will pay for 50% of the cost, plus she reallllly needed to get her bottom painted before we head south where all sorts of sea creatures like to grow in the warm water. To make a long story short, the "hurricane" ended up being a mild gale by the time it got here, but better safe than sorry, thinking back to my previous post. I took her up Thursday morning, 8 days ago, and got her back last night. I did the trip up single handed, from raising the anchor to docking, and the engine worked like a dream ...