Finally, the sails are up!

                                             The Admiral takes the helm.

                                             Mainsail, genoa and staysail

Two days ago was a big day for the crew of Windspell with many new firsts. The main thing was that the local vultures did not get a meal of us-yet.

We waited for calmer weather and left our marina slip early in the morning (that way we also had no spectators) and Walt got his first chance to drive our 9 ton home through a maze of docks, piles and costly boats. We popped out of the marina unscathed and headed for open water and a chance to practise turns,backing up, spinning on a dime etc before entering our home slip at Spring Cove marina. By 0930 we were safely suspended between six dock piles. We celebrated with coffee and Danish  and sat down by our laptop and viewed our very first webinar - the subject was the use of radar.

After lunch we braved another docking experience and headed out for our first sail by ourselves on Windspell. The conditions were perfect and our new friend, Garmin, the GPS made the navigating in unfamiliar waters like driving in a car similarly equipped. Knowing where we were at all times allowed us to relax a bit and focus on the actually sailing.

Windspell behaved herself very well, so much so that we went for another sail the next morning in a bit more wind. We practised reefing the sails (making them smaller) and sailed with various sail combinations.

Our good friend, Dexter, who was on business in Baltimore came to visit yesterday afternoon and he is our first guest. Ironically, he was also our first guest when we went cruising 27 years ago! We will be celebrating
our new  lifestyle on Windspell and our long friendship with the Champagne that Dexter kindly brought. He will be with us for a few days of sailing and R&R between his business meetings in Baltimore.

Donna was delighted to hear from both our kids for mother's day and we had an evening meal of BBQ fillet mignon.

It is raining today so it's a good day to do laundry and various other boat chores and of course composing this blog.


Donna and Walt

On Monday, May 7th during our breakfast we were interrupted by a rap on the hull.  "Are you ready?" asked a voice from below.  The travel lift had arrived to carry Windspell from her perch in the dockyard to the chilly waters of Chesapeake Bay!

Windspell being lifted in slings. A final touch of anti-fouling paint is being added to areas where support stands had held her upright on land

Travel lift carrying Windspell to Chesapeake Bay for launching

Ugh..that water is cold!

Windspell afloat dockside

We spent our first night afloat.  It was rather restless getting used to the rocking motion and new sounds of waves lapping against the hull and rigging singing  (Donna calls it "slapping").  We are no longer manoeuvring up and down a ladder, but have to judge our leaps aboard with the changing tide.  

As we await parts for the mechanic to begin the 1000-hour engine maintenance, we are practising with all of the electronics on-board, particularly the GPS chartplotter.  

Today we broke away from chores to go for a bike ride around the quaint town of Rock Hall using  clunker bikes provided by the marina.  The flowers, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, irises, peonies, and roses are in full bloom and their fragrances wafted through the air as we cycled by.  

Today is our son's birthday.  Andy turned 22 today!  Happy birthday, Andy!  It has been one week since we arrived in Rock Hall.  We have transformed Windspell from a shrink-wrapped chrysalis into a sea-going sailing vessel.  We have completed 4 coats of varnish to the teak toe rails, painted the bottom of the boat with another coat of anti-fouling paint, then cleaned and waxed the hull.  The sails have  been installed,  and the canvas awnings over the cockpit are reinstalled and sprayed with a water-repellent coating.  It only took us 3 attempts to properly configure the main sail.  We provided lots of entertainment to the ospreys.  We drove over to the marina, Spring Cove,  and arranged for our boat slip where we will be staying after we launch. Our first docking at our slip appears somewhat daunting because we haven't performed this type of docking before.  There are 4 posts that we have to lasso as we come in and stop the boat (hopefully) before we plow into the dock.  But first, we have to learn to drive this 9 ton boat!  We have permission from the marina dockmaster to practise in an area where there are no adjacent boats!!!  We're losing a bit of sleep over this as the time gets closer.  There is a dead tree nearby our boat where a number of vultures roost.  They are waiting in anticipation  for our docking attempt!

Well it's been three days since we arrived in Rockhall and started our "relationship" with Windspell.

We started reading to each other on the way down to Maryland on the 12  hour drive and the tradition has continued each evening after a long day of nurturing Windspell. The book is called Three Shades of Grey.

We are both running in the morning before "work". It is quite scenic with Ospreys scouting for fish, Vultures circling and roosting in a dead tree near by and the songs of many birds which would be a paradise for birders.There is a water tower overlooking our place in the boat yard where we are being watched by a nesting pair of Osprey that I'm sure have seen it all when it comes to sailors.getting ready to launch. They are likely concerned about our level of competency........

We have already met another couple with the same boat doing roughly what we are and I spend way too much time in the marina bath house in the morning after a run picking the brains of Randy who has lived aboard with his wife, Kathlene, for the past 7 years.(on their old boat) They now have a place in Florida where they just built a 100 foot dock to accommodate their recently purchased Island Packett 350, one we actually looked at last November but decided on Windspell instead.  They are heading south to their home over the next month before hurricane season.

Here is a list of our boat accomplishments so far:

• Put the sails back on
• Flushed the water systems of antifreeze 
• Started varnishing areas not accessible once in the water   
• Acquired a second propane tank
• Moved our clothes, kitchen supplies and tools on board
• Cut some too long bolts on the anchor windlass  with a grinder

• Started inventorying where things are located in various lockers on the laptop.

Tomorrow we will put all the canvass back and continue with the varnishing and top up the water tank.

There is an art show is Chestertown featuring local artists one of which we watched painting a local waterscape yesterday. If it's rainy we have the art show as a back up to"work".

Bye for now,

Donna and Walter

SV Windspell

Well ,well, well, look what we have!!

Dear friends and family,

This is our first blog ever. It's amazing what spin offs (blogging) arise when you are trying to make a major lifestyle change.Notice we underlined trying....

Getting away on a year or so sailing trip has its challenges. In this case it was in the form of a 37 ton drill rig that appeared on our side lawn for five days two weeks before departure. It spewed, as it drilled down 300 feet, a grey muck that threatened to smother anything green in its wake. We now  have great water but very sore bodies as we cleaned up this environmental disaster. On the bright side, we now have abs of steel from all the raking and shoveling which should prove useful when we man the winches on "Windspell", our new home afloat.

The car is packed,our house is decommissioned and in 12 hours from Wednesday morning April 24th, 2012, we should be pulling up beside Windspell in all her shrink-wrapped glory as she sits ashore chomping at her anchors to get into the ocean.

Stay tuned for more!!

Walter ( Skipper) and Donna (Admiral)

SV Windspell last November 2011, prior to sea trials in Rock Hall, Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay.