I finally got Sally Ann in the water and she didn't sink, the bilge stayed nice and dry. David and Karen from the RV park helped step the mast and get her off the trailer. We hanked on both sails but ended up only raising the jib. We motored up the ICW straight into a cool northeast wind and out into Matagorda Bay for a little ways then turned around and raised the jib. The wind was too light so we motor sailed back to the marina and docked.

The next day, Thursday, I went back to the boat and fixed a few things that we found wrong on the shakedown. I worked on the outboard until I though I had it idling smooth enough that it wouldn't quit every time I closed the throttle. I checked out my laptop/gps/chart plotter and the depth finder, both working good. I found after dark that the anchor light was not working, have to take the mast back down anyway so I'll fix it then. I used a cheap 25 ft dock line from walmart to make a jib fence so I can drop the jib single-handed without having to go forward to keep it aboard.

Friday morning the neighbor across the road from me went with me to help load her back on the trailer. We started from the marina just as the morning fog was lifting and had a nice casual ride as we motored the two miles down the ICW to the boat ramp. When we turned into the boat ramp area the motor quit again (still don’t have it right) and we had all kinds of fun getting docked. After having to load the boat twice to get it straight on the trailer, we unstepped the mast and I brought her on home to the park.

A cold front roared through here this morning with 35K gusts, I'm glad I had her home on solid ground.

lps