shakedown cruise .........................from P

You could not have asked for better sailing conditions than last weekend. Steady north/north-westerly winds at 15 knots, plenty of sunshine, and a little chill from that north wind. Senara was close reaching under full sail up the mouth of the James River at 7 kts. That feels soooo good. We sailed hard for about 4.5 hours, tied up at the Smithfield Station Marina, had a great prime rib dinner, spent the night on board, and after walking around taking in the charm of Smithfield, VA we screamed home at nearly 8 kts on a broad reach. Man that feels incredible! This course requires sailing under the James River Bridge both ways. Senara measures 55' from waterline to the top of her mast so sailing under a bridge that has a clearance of 60' is exciting to say the least. Every time I sail under that span I say a little prayer that the chart information is correct and that we don't catch a big ground swell at the wrong time. It doesn't matter that we have been under that bridge many times - my butt still puckers every time our mast approaches that huge hunk of steel in the sky! I have learned to just not look up.

We were brave enough to take K's sister and her husband, David and Karen, out for this first "real" sail of the year. We only embarrassed ourselves a little. Each year our first sail trip is full of foibles, usually self made due to lack of practice. Last year I got my hand hung between a pile and the boat's rub-rail while docking (a mistake you only make once!) and parted a good bit of flesh away from the bone of my middle finger. Thankfully we had no injuries this year, but neither Senara nor my pride came away completely unscathed. The patrons of the marina were treated to the sight of our genoa (jib) sail completely unfurled at the dock, essentially appearing to sail the boat while lashed to the piles! Apparently while in the boat yard I had wound the roller-furling the wrong way which caused our gennie sail to roll up inside-out, with the UV protective material wound in the inside of the sail. Yikes! That's like discovering, after several important meetings with clients, that your shirt is inside-out. So David helped me unfurl the sail at the marina, lower it, and wind it up the correct way. Then on the way home we were heeled at about 15 degrees - bouncing around pretty good - I heard a huge crash down below in the cabin. I immediately knew what had happened. Our teak fold-up table is secured vertically to the forward bulkhead by a hook-and-eye. It had worked its way loose from the hook and crashed down very hard on the cabin sole. So hard that it split the drop leaf half clean off the main part of the table, and split a large teak trim piece in half. That will be difficult (or expensive) to fix properly. Now I know why they call the first trip a shake-down cruise. I hope we are done shaking stuff down! Overall it was a perfect first trip because we accomplished what all first trips should: We kept our drinks cold (yes! the fridge still works), we broke something and let fly our first curses, we embarassed ourselves a little, laughed at ourselves, loved having family aboard, and we sailed her hard and took some spray over the bow. Mostly we were reminded of how unbelievably good it feels to hear the wind, feel the boat, taste the air, and smile at God again.