Yesterday, I had the marina launch the Pretty Gee. I have some work to do on the trailer, and putting the boat in the water was the simplest way to get it out of the way so I can try and get the trailer balanced. I did have another motive for putting her in the water. Mike and his daughter, Mylien, were coming out to see the boat, and I wanted to be able to take them out for a day sail.
They got to the marina about 9:30. Mike and I got the sails rigged. We discussed dropping the mast, since I had forgotten to put on the wind instrument sensors when I had raised the mast the previous day. We decided it wasn’t necessary, and that with the dodger down, sailing by the seat of our pants would be fine.
Around 10:45 we left the marina and headed out to the swing bridge. The bridge was scheduled to open at 11:15, so we were in no real hurry. We got the port-side ama extended as we motored towards the bridge. I had extended the starboard ama previously, to demonstrate it to one of the other guys down at the marina earlier that morning.
We hailed the swing bridge crew and then proceeded through western channel and out the hurricane barrier. As we got out towards the Butler Flats light, we unfurled the genoa and killed the outboard. I always hate motoring if I can avoid it. Then we raised the mainsail, and headed out into Buzzards Bay.
The seas were almost flat, and the winds were pretty light—5-10 knots as a rough guess. In the morning, the wind was out of NW, so it was a near run out to the main part of Buzzards Bay. We just spent the morning and early afternoon sailing around the Bay, enjoying the weather and light winds.
As the day progressed, the wind shifted around clockwise to the S. By the time we decided to head back to New Bedford, it was out of the south and we had an amazing run back through the hurricane barrier.
We got back into New Bedford harbor just after 3:15 and had to wait for the 4:15 bridge opening. We dropped the main while waiting, having furled the Genoa on the run in through the Hurricane Barrier. The swing bridge doesn’t allow boats under sail to pass through it as I understand it.
We motored back to the marina and I put the Pretty Gee back in her normal slip. It was good to see her rigged properly again. I will be doing the trailer modifications tomorrow or Thursday and will be pulling the Pretty Gee out on Friday, to put her on blocks for soda blasting next week.
After we closed up the boat, the three of us headed over to Elizabeth’s for dinner and then to the Brady Ice Shop for ice cream. Mylien and her father are headed off to Poughkeepsie, where Mylien just took a new job.
In many ways, it was a perfect first sail of the season.
[...] and with the amas extended made the taping job much simpler. It looks very good. I know from the daysail with Mike and MyLien last week, that the new water line is perfect. My friend Rick has suggested [...]