Hip Hip Hooray!

Happy after getting the text that we were finally going to get MerSea measured for new rigging!

I had a bunch of stuff that I was going to write about this week but luckily that has mostly gone down the drain because our boat got measured for new rigging on Saturday! We woke up on Saturday morning, hoping to get a bunch of our listed tasks checked off for MerSea. And then it happened, I got a text from our rigging friend to see if we were going to be around the boat during the weekend? I couldn't text back fast enough that we were actually on the boat eating breakfast at that time on the boat!

So he, (let's call him MC), came over at 11 AM & we worked with him to help him measure all of our stays. Stays are what keep the mast up. -So just a tiny bit important. He answered all of our questions & said that it would take about 1.5 weeks for the parts to come in. Fingers crossed there isn't a glitch that comes up & he can order them immediately & they come as fast as possible. Thankfully Matt & I have time off from our undercover missions & can meet with MC whenever he is available. Her Majesty's Secret Service will just have to wait!

I am so grateful! I really appreciate him coming over on a Saturday morning to start getting our project done! I am hopeful once again that our Channel Islands voyage this autumn will actually happen!

Matt & MC working together to get the standing rigging measured.

Right before our friend came over, Matt decided to have a look at our Windex. The bottle was almost completely empty & one of us was going to need to get to CVS as soon as possible to replace it! -No, not that type of Windex, silly! -A wind direction indicator. MC explained to us that Windex used to be a brand name; kind of like Kleenex, & it's just stuck as a term for this part people install on their sailboats. Anyway, you might remember me mentioning last week that it got injured coming back under the bridge last week. So Matt took it down & re-created a new mount for it & put it back up later that day.

Behold! The Windex!

One thing I have gotten used to is, that whenever a project is going on, the cabin is going to look like crap. We need to dig things out of their place during these times & there is limited space to lay everything out. In fact, even when things are put away, the interior designer in me needs to let go of the idea that Architectural Digest is ever going to come into MerSea & want to do a photo shoot. Things just have to be placed wherever there is space for them. On our 30' boat we are going to have to sacrifice style on the inside of our boat for going to beautiful places that will surround it.

Things go into dissarray so fast! Where is Mary Poppins when you need her?

Matt reinstalling our Windex & putting up a wind sensor.

I will point out a few things from last weekend's local sail & anchoring. We did have to get up before the crack of dawn to make it out under the bridge. I think we anchored just before 7 AM & we all went back to the V-berth to sleep another few hours. I do realize this is the kind of things parents dread - waking up their kids early in the morning to go somewhere. Zephyr is easily adaptable, so we are lucky.

Is it night or morning?

Afternoon came around that day & I thought, it's nice & warm & we're anchored. Can't we just hang out on the boat & not sail. I knew that the winds were going to be around 20 knots around 2 PM & it was almost 2 PM. However, my husband is a task master & rightfully thought we should sail since we were already out & were going to need to practice in these types of winds.

This is where it would have been nice to have a battery-charged GoPro! -The battery was dead & I didn't have time to charge it. I wanted evidence! The winds turned out to be 25 knots! It's not horrible - especially when the swell is down, but we were definitely glad we didn't put up the genoa & that our mainsail was already reefed. We were going to practice gybing but the conditions were just too gnarly & we weren't sure how to do it safely. So we practiced tacking instead. This was a little challenging but we definitely improved our skills.

Even though the swell itself was low, the wind was so overpowering that we heaved a lot & broke a wine glass in the cabin. I haven't really thought a lot about securing things on the boat when just doing a local sail. So a lot of items were not secured properly.

Calamity in the cabin below.

Matt offers Zephyr some Rose after the harrowing sail.

We made it back to anchor. -Although, we decided to anchor on the other side of the wharf; the west side. -The more scenic side. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging about & Zephyr & I took an impromptu nap. Then we barbecued dinner & went to bed on the early side - as we knew we were going to have to wake up early again the next morning. Damn you bridge!

Another hooray is that we finished our spinnaker class! Only got 3 days of actual spinnaker sailing. This was due to winds being too strong. Although, the rest of the days we did get to sail with the jib & mainsail up.

It wasn't an easy class. There is so much to remember with a spinnaker. Plus, there is so much chaos because the only person that really knows what is going on is the instructor. I think there were a few times that he questioned why he was teaching this class. The rigging alone is immensely tricky! Shouldn't this all be automated by now? Have I mentioned earlier that I probably wouldn't have made a good sailor 40 years ago & prior? We did learn a lot in class though. And now we have an inkling of what is involved when sailing with a spinnaker.

Only took photos the first day as I didn't want to be distracted after that or lose my phone overboard.

Sailing term of the week: SV - well it's not a "term" but it stands for Sailing Vessel. It took me forever to figure this out. And now you don't have to Google it!

Thanks for reading! Go over to svMerSea.com for more info on us! Until next week..... stay out of trouble!