We went sailing yesterday. Actual sailing-with sails up and engine off. For the first time in 3 months. It was pretty satisfying. Okay, it was REALLY satisfying-nothing broke. I think, finally, we’re ready for real.

Morning at anchor

We actually left dock on Friday. First we did some docking and maneuverability practice in the marina, because there was no wind. Kim docked the boat for the first time! She did great. She hated it, but she did great. Then we went out into St. Simon’s Sound. There was very little wind, but we did sail for a few minutes just to get the sails up and make sure everything was still connected. We spent the night at anchor, which, apart from wake from a few passing ships, was pretty uneventful. Then yesterday, we went out into the ocean and SAILED!

Reefed mainsail-check.

There were a few things we had never tested before that we needed to make sure are working before we actually leave, so that was the primary mission. First up: reefing. Reefing is an absolute must for safety-it’s a way to reduce the sail area of the boat in strong winds so the boat isn’t overpowered. Kim and I had rigged reefing lines for the mainsail months ago but never tried them out. Shockingly, they worked fine and the process was actually pretty easy. Of course, the wind was pretty light, but still! Mainsail reefing is the more complicated one because we have to go up to the mast to do it. Reefing the genoa is easy-we just roll it up a little from the cockpit. So, reefing: check.

Preventer at the arrow

Next up was the preventer. This is a line that runs from the end of the boom to the deck to keep the boom from swinging across the boat if the wind suddenly shifts. That’s called gybing and it can be bad-really, really bad. As in broken booms and broken heads bad. We don’t want that. Fortunately, that was pretty low on the suspense meter. It’s a line. It worked. Easy-peasy.

Windvane at the stern with control lines to the wheel

Finally, we tried out both of our autopilots. Yep, we have two. One is electronic. That’s pretty easy-push the button and the computer tells the hydraulic ram to turn the rudder. It worked fine. The downside is that it uses electricity, which we try to conserve. Our other autopilot is a windvane and it’s pretty cool. There’s a vane at the back of the boat attached to a mini-rudder on a pendulum with control lines running to the wheel at the helm. The windvane senses the wind direction and moves the wheel to always keep the boat on the same heading in relation to the wind. Upside? No electricity needed. Downside? If the wind shifts, you are suddenly going somewhere else. We got it hooked up and it actually worked! Shocking. That was all the stuff checked off the list. After that, we just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

And that means, we think, that it’s time. We’ve re-provisioned. We’ve tested all the systems. It looks like we’ve got a weather window opening on Tuesday. So that’s when we plan to leave. We will head south. We’re planning to sail from here to West Palm Beach-that will be 2-3 days. And then we’ll look for a window to cross to the Bahamas. We hope, finally, it’s time to get this adventure started.