Yesterday we finally got out and got our sails out. We were pretty happy with the results. We didn't spend too much time fine tuning them because we only had a few hours to play and we had a lot to test. We pulled out the mizzen and the main. All looked good and back in they went (much easier - no more baggy sails to fight into and out of the mast). Next we pulled out the Genoa and away it went. Then came the labor intensive test of deploying our two whisker polls. We pulled the Genoa out on the port side and then ran the new ballooner up and out on the starboard side. It looked great. We got to pick new colors for the ballooner and decided to go simple light and dark blue. It is much nicer than the old red, white, and blue because the red and blue had bled onto the white making it look awful. Mark also picked out the order of the colors on the sail and he did a great job. I was pretty happy with the whole excursion. It all went pretty smoothly and I think we are both starting to remember all the little details without reviewing the process before hand (we've only deployed the ballooner a handful of times).

As you can see Mark looks pretty happy standing there... with my Dr. Pepper. I say my DP because Mark never drank DP until I got pregnant. Overseas it isn't easy to find and usually expensive so when I found it at Gilmours in NZ for less than Coke I bought a case and Mark made me go back for a few more knowing that I enjoy the treat once in a while. I'm not a big pop drinker but I bought enough to have one a week till December. I didn't buy much other pop because I know that I can always get the other stuff that Mark drinks. Since I'm pregnant and can't drink it Mark has dug into it. I now fear my DP will never be safe again!