Well we completed our first destination sail. We made the run from Kenosha to Port Washington. We took along a few friends from our sailing club, the Northwest Sailing Association (NWSA). 3 boats made the trip and I think everyone had a good time. Of course, no trip is without its mishaps and issues...for instance, we lost air conditioning so we all sweated our buns off all weekend. The upside is everyone lost about 10 lbs HAHA. One of the other boats had a stuck furler mainsail. Somehow the sail managed to get itself folded near the top of the sail. 4 guys and 5 hours later we got it unstuck and back up.

As for the air conditioner, I knew it was an airlock but for the life of me I could not find the bleeder valve. At first I thought it was a bad pump but that turned out to be a dead end. I finally found it under a galley cabinet and 30 seconds later, voila! Air conditioning! My apologies to Bill, Peggy and Casey. I wish I had found it two days ago (pffft). The good thing is that I now know were the stupid thing is!

I know Candy and I learned a lot on this trip. Since there wasn't a breath of wind the whole time, we motored up and back. The breeze was quite nice while we were in port of course!

Bottom line, a really fun weekend with good folks. Good food and Port Washington is a lovely little town. The marina is very nice with plenty to do within walking distance...including the beach.

Today we had a beautiful day for sailing! Our sailing club, Northwest Sailing Association had our Kenosha II Sail. s/v Turtle Chaser hosted a couple of friends, Greg and Cindy, as well as our two crew, Larry and Linda Gulotta. What a great day for sailing. Our winds were out of the SE at about 6-10. Turtle Chaser was able to hold a pretty steady 4-6 knots all day.

Thanks again for coming aboard and sailing with us!

We got to see the Kenosha fireworks for the first time this Fourth. What a great show! Turtle Chaser sits in the perfect spot to see them as well. Between that and the carnival taking place, it was a great time.

Upgrades and tweaks continue on Turtle Chaser. We now have out new lines and fenders. We've added new steps to make it a bit easier on and off the boat. We've also received our new Dockingsticks and we'll be trying them out this weekend. Basically it's a device that holds the line in a loop and connects to your boat pole to make docking easier.

Last weekend we completed our first 'destination' sail, heading from Kenosha to Racine. It was a beautiful day and the winds allowed us to sail at 5-6 knots most of the day. Even novice sailors like us were able to complete the journey in about 3.5 hours each way.

We have spent the past couple of weekends going through everything on Turtle Chaser. Tossing old items and paperwork, moving items to new storage locations and cleaning the old girl within an inch of her life.

Next we look at other projects like trying to figure out why my True Wind indicator shows ---! That should be fun. We are also beginning to get our quotes for canvas and for our salon cushions.

We have a couple of sails coming up with our NWSA group that we're looking forward to and I'll post about those as they go by.

Well the move from Chicago to Turtle Chaser’s new home in Kenosha was a great day. No real wind so we motored all the way. We did catch a breeze that allowed us to get the sails out for a bit. Turtle Chaser made the trip in just under 8 hours averaging 7.6 knots. Everything on board performed perfectly! I want to give a special thank you to George and Larry for making the trip with me. Now the projects start, well, right after the cleaning.

Well it's official. We are now the proud owners of a Beneteau 423! I'll be moving her from Crowley's in Chicago to her new home in Kenosha, WI this weekend. Looking forward to a great summer!

I'll post about the move and let you all know how it went.