Our journey has begun...

While Rebecca, Jeannette and Reece enjoyed a last day on-shore with our friends, Ed, Ben and I got the journey started.  No real wind, so we exercised the engine by traveling 52 miles from Bristol, RI to Stonington, CT.  Not many waves at all and the boat ran fast and well.  Here is our route:

We are currently anchored just inside the break water in Stonington Harbor, riding out a nasty thunderstorm.  Fortunately, things are better now - we just had a wonderful pizza from Mystic Pizza, probably the last one for a very long time!  We had an unexpected treat - Pastor Ray parked at the point and flashed the lights of his truck at us.  We could see him and turned our anchor light on and off so he could find us in the anchorage.  A last goodbye from a very dear friend!  Take care, brother, we'll see you again soon!

Our destination for tomorrow is Block Island!!!

We are in the water!!!

It looked sketchy for a bit, but Bristol Marine came through and got us in the water!  Here are some pictures from the process.  If you have any questions, please post a comment:

Second Wind Adventures - The Crew

Since we weighed the options of trucking the boat by land, selling the boat and buying another one, or sailing the boat ourselves, we decided to sail Second Wind to Florida ourselves.  The big problem was how to remain employed at my job.  Since there was no way I had that much vacation, we had to come up with another solution.  Rebecca had the idea of calling her brother-in-law, with whom she had discussed this idea before.  Ed enthusiastically agreed to join us and volunteered Rebecca's aunt and uncle to accompany us.  We figured we might ought speak with them before making plans, and Ed was right - they too were excited to join us.  Our crew was set:

• Rebecca, Reece and Dean - Admiral, Crew and Captain
• Rebecca's brother, Ed - has owned several boats in the past and is currently rebuilding a beautiful Alden 47.  He is a wiz with all sorts of boat systems, plus he has made this trip before.
• Rebecca's aunt and uncle, Ben and Jeannette - have been traveling up and down the East Coast in a 30ft S2, so they are quite familiar with the journey

The plan is for everybody else to sail the boat while I work on my laptop.  We have a Verizon EVDO modem for close-to-broadband speeds (while close to shore), which lets me stay connected (and employed).  I have quite a few projects that do not require continuous connectivity, so as long as I can check in periodically, I should be okay.  We'll see how it works.

Tomorrow!!!!

The yard boss told my brother-in-law that we go in tomorrow!  Woohoo!  We are going to try to be there for the launch, so we'll post some interesting pictures tomorrow evening (crosses fingers).

Getting ready - the hull

One job that we have to do each season is paint the bottom.  It is a pain, but if we didn't do it, the bottom of the boat would look like a forest of barnacles and seaweed.  For the last three years, my dear friend Mike King has helped me (or actually, I help him, since he seems to do most of the work!).  Here are some pictures of the final product -

 

Something we've always wanted to do is compound and wax the sides of the boat.  We've tried this before and never were satisfied with the result.  This time, we hired a guy off of Craigslist and he did an amazing job!  The boat shines like brand new!  You can literally hold a book up to the side and read the words in the reflection.  Just fantastic!

 Got a lot done today, but I'll post about that tomorrow.

Launch Day!!! Errr, not so much...

Well, Bristol Marine is supposed to put our boat in the water today, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen.  I guess we'll just keep doin' stuff, though we are past the "must do's" and now into the "if I've got nothing else to do's".

Later tonight, I'll post some in-progress pictures from the beautiful new wax job and the fresh bottom paint!

Still on Land

Well, we are still in New England. The boatyard is a bit behind schedule so Second Wind has not been launched yet. They've said we will be in the water tomorrow but it doesn't look promising. We will keep you posted.
We are busily getting everything stocked and ready. Our crew is here and waiting to go! Ed is staying on the boat and making great progress on the list of things to do. Uncle Benny and Aunt Jeanette are staying with us at a friends house and traveling to the boat every afternoon to do our part.
The weather up here is cooler with highs in the low 70's and lows in the 50's. Brrrrr!
We'll keep you updated as things change.
Thanks for checking on us!