Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Nina two years old!

Another year has passed and our Nina has become quite a little lady of two! A birthday cake with real candles, a tricycle, life-size Elmo, games, books and lots of other presents. What more could a girl ask for?! She had a great day.




Monday, September 21, 2009

Mast Maintenance

Some of the lines that came with "B" were not of use for us anymore and were only causing trouble. We decided to take them out. Unfortunately they were connected to the mast at approx. 40ft (12m) high. A bosun's chair was purchased and as Anita has the brain (and the lowest body weight) and Staszek the muscles, a decision was quickly made: Staszek winched Anita up the mast. Good that she brought her camera....

Sailing again

A quick impression on how we spent our last weekends....









Celebration

The first evening after "B" was launched we called the babysitter and celebrated our boat's arrival with champagne on deck.





Friday, September 04, 2009

B's Maiden Voyage in Lake Michigan

After stepping the mast in the morning and tuning the rigging in the early afternoon, we were ready at 3pm. The engine started without any problem and was running smoothly. We made a short stop at the yacht club were we picked up Anita and the kids and of we were. Stasiu found his place in the cabin and Nina preferred Daddy's shoulder.

Light winds, in fact almost no wind at all (3-5kts), but this was good to get acquainted with the boat. We sailed for a good two hours and after that it was time to find our new slip in the harbor. Slowly we turned in our slip and docked without problems. The boat seems very controllable at low speeds and is stable and without surprises in reverse. All in all a successful first trip.







Thursday, September 03, 2009

Arrival in Lake Michigan

Today was D-day. After some unexpected delays 'B' was to arrive in Waukegan today. At 11AM we received the telephone call from the trucker that he was 20 minutes from Waukegan and at 11:30 we saw our boat coming around the corner. She's in the water now and tomorrow we will step the mast and finalize the rigging. After that it's time for our first sail... We will have an additional hand on deck from a more experienced sailor neighbor so stress levels are expected to stay low.