Pure Michigan

Trip #2 of our sailing extravaganza:

       New Buffalo, MI to Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI

After resting and relaxing in New Buffalo for the day we decided to head up to Benton Harbor/St. Joseph to see what they had to offer. After checking the day's weather and lake conditions and the rest of our pre-sailing checklist, we shoved off for our easy 22 mile sail, or so we thought. Checking the weather is something we do the night before and morning of before every sail. During this trip we got in the habit of checking the weather at least once a day even when we weren't sailing. The main site we have been using to do this is NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are a federal agency that focus on the conditions of oceans and other bodies of water as well as the atmosphere. So far they have been almost spot on with all of the reports we have gotten from them. The only bummer is that you can't get any condition predictions further than 36 hours out. 

The lake after the winds and waves
calmed down.

Anyway, when looking at the morning's report we noticed that there was a small craft warning to the north of Benton Harbor/St. Joseph however to the south of Benton Harbor it stated that there were only waves 1-3 feet with 10-15 knot winds and no mention of any kind of an advisory. Not only that but winds were going to be dying down in the afternoon to the north and south of Benton Harbor. We thought we couldn't have asked for a better weather report and decided to give it a go. Worst come to worse we can always come back to this harbor, right? 

Our heading for the day's sail.

We left the dock beautifully, I think Brady is starting to get the hang of this part of the sail, however there was a strong current coming from the west of us that pushed our bow off away from the Lake and towards the bridge.   We ended up just going with it and doing  a 270 degree turn. (Brady gets eerily silent about 15 minutes before we leave and about 30 minutes before we dock.) This couldn't have happened at a more perfect time or place (we were the only boat in the harbor and we had a ton of room in case anything went wrong). We finally got to put Further's turning radius to the test and we happily found out that she is able to turn in very tight spaces with no problems. Because of this westerly current into the harbor we found that motoring out of the harbor was the most difficult part of this trip. This was NOT the way we wanted to start our day. We headed into some of the biggest waves we have seen so far and Further was getting thrown around a bit. These conditions didn't settle well with us because there were some very shallow parts of the harbor that we didn't want to be pushed into nor did we want to run aground when going down off of a big wave. Thankfully we exited the harbor with no problem but I do think we got a few pieces of gray hair that day.

It turned out to be a beautiful day
for a sail.

Once out on the lake, the wind was coming directly from the west so we were on a reach to our next destination. This is a very comfortable point of sail and Further is built to run fast on reaches. We started off by sailing with two reefs in the main and we really started to playing with our sails in order to better learn how to fine tune them. Late morning the winds calmed down, we were able to take out the reefs and it was smooth sailing.

We pulled into West Basin Marina about 1:35pm and it was a bit of a tricky harbor to get into. First the mouth of the harbor was very, very narrow with a wall of boulders on both sides of the entrance. Praying that our motor wouldn't die on us at that moment we successfully made it into the harbor. The next hurdle we had to overcome was getting into our dock. We realized that we would have to do a 180 degree turn to get into our assigned dock in a VERY tight area. Thankfully we were able to test out Further's turning radius earlier that day! After we both took a big deep breath we once again successfully turned her within her length and started to enter our slip. Then we noticed the last and final hurdle we had to 'jump' over... high wooden docks and pilings! After Nadine successfully looped (more like lassoed) the dock line over one of the super tall pilings the height of the rope caused the spring line to come off the cleat. But with quick thinking she was able to recover quickly and prevent the boat from ramming straight into the dock. Other than this one little-tiny hiccup, we had a very smooth docking experience which was amazing since we had a number of obstacles trying to prevent us from doing so.

Celebrating another great day of sailing and
our docking skills!

After relaxing on the boat and celebrating our great docking achievement we decided to grab a bite to eat in St. Joseph's (it was a nice 15-20 minute walk into town) at Silver Beach Pizza which is a huge restaurant and bar that is built in an old train depot. The best part about it is that it still is an active amtrak station! The restaurant was packed because they are very well known by locals and tourists for their excellent pizza and BIG schooners of beer!

After taking in another beautiful sunset, St. Joe's has great overlooks along the river to do this, we headed back to the marina to find out from our kind neighbors that Elaine was barking most of the time we were gone.  They were very nice and said they didn't mind though.  This wasn't that shocking to us since she would always bark when we left her alone in our new apartment until she got used to the place. We are hoping that after this week she will be used to the boat and we will be able to leave her on it for a few hours at a time. Until then, we might be giving her a little bit a benadryl to calm her down when we go explore the harbor towns.

Enjoying a couple of ice
cold schooners!

It was bed time as soon as we got back to the boat (which happened to be around 9:30pm). This was a bit funny because we were the youngest 'cruisers' in the marina. But we had to wake up early for our long sail up to Saugatuck to continue our wonderful harbor hopping vacation! (Click here to see more pictures of St. Joseph/Benton Harbor.)

Firsts we encountered on this leg of the trip:
1. Successfully turned Further within her length two different times!
2. Being able to recover after a docking malfunction.
3. 'Lassoing' the high wooden pilings! 

Our First Sail Across Lake Michigan!

We are excited to finally check another thing off the list of firsts this summer - crossing Lake Michigan! This was a HUGE step for us.

Trip #1 of our sailing extravaganza:

         Chicago, IL to New Buffalo, MI

The week before our vacation Brady headed for Atlanta on Monday for work. We were planning that he would be back Thursday evening so we would have a day to prepare and provision before shoving off Saturday the 25th for our 10 day sailing adventure. Unfortunately he had to extend his week and he wasn't able to come home until late Friday night. I was planning on completing the provisioning for our trip but ended up having a crazy week myself and was only able to create a list of food we were going to bring during our trip.

On Thursday we decided to push our launch back to Sunday so that we wouldn't be rushing to finish our to-do list. We made it to the boat in the late afternoon Saturday and spent the rest of the time enjoying the evening by having a few drinks while putting everything away.

Since we had some unexpected company show up to Further later that night, we started our journey a bit later than planned. It was a beautiful day, not a single cloud in the sky, and winds were forecast to be 10-15 knots coming from the north with 1-3 foot waves. Unlike previous sails this time we brought all of our dock lines onto the boat and started to motor out of the harbor.

Racing sail boats just outside of Montrose Harbor.

The first few miles to get out of the city were filled with boat traffic. There were races going on that we had to go round, power boats who didn't pay attention (or are aware of) the rules of the 'road' and tons of other sail boats who were all enjoying what it seemed to be the first perfect weekend of the summer. Once out of the Chicago traffic we hoisted our sails and headed straight to New Buffalo, MI (about 41 nautical miles, from Chicago).

We can tell you that sailing is an amazing way to travel. You travel with your home and the best part about it was that we were able to bring Elaine with us (a first when going on vacation)! There is NO stress of traffic, being on time or going through any sort of security, it is completely relaxing. Just you, your boat, the sound of waves and different colors of blues surrounding you. This being said you do have to get up and scan the horizon every 20 minutes so you don't run into anything (we set a timer to wake us up during our many catnaps we took during the trip). Crossing the lake isn't all fun and games. It is a bit dangerous since you have to be on the lookout for BIG freighter and cargo ships since they will not be looking for small boats like us (or random buoys - yes, we almost hit one. Click on the link to see just how close we were when we turned to avoid it at the last minute along with our other pictures from this part of the trip.) Fortunately we have AIS and can spot these large ships on our GPS long before we can actually see them with our eyes (unfortunately buoys are another story).

Bye, bye Chicago! We'll try not to miss you.
Hello new adventures!

Winds began to pick up mid afternoon so we decided to reef our main sail successfully this time and without any added stress. We were averaging about 6.1 knots almost the entire way until the winds decided to shift, coming from the northeast, and we had to do a few tacks to get us to New Buffalo. We lowered our sails a few miles off shore and motored the rest of the way in while enjoying a beautiful sunset.

It was dark when we pulled into the harbor (about 9:30pm ET) and had to use our spot light (that we luckily bought on the way to the boat the day before) to read the numbers on the slips. That was really the only stressful thing we experienced coming into the marina. As we got closer we realized that there was a band playing on the roof of the bar across the street from the marina. Being serenaded with Paul Simon and The Beatles while taking in views of this beautiful harbor town while the final traces of dusk vanished was the most idyllic way we could have pulled up to our first marina.  Just perfect! I think the sights and sounds calmed us to that we were able to dock Further perfectly in our first new slip! Fingers crossed that we can continue this run for the entire trip.

This is the way to travel!

Not that this first stop on the trip needed to be any better, but the amazing workers at the New Buffalo Municipal Marina hid the key to the showers and bathrooms for us since we came in after they left for the day. So we didn't have to wait for them to get into the office the next day to shower. It's so nice when people think of others! We forget how nice people can be when living in a big city, we have to get out more often!

After docking we decided not to tidy up our lines and put our sail cover on so that we would be able to order food before kitchen closed at the near by Stray Dog Bar and Grill. Plus we were a little stir crazy and just wanted to get off the boat! However we did pay for this when we woke up at 5 am the next morning and could see a storm coming in over the lake. It's funny how you see the consequences of all the decisions you make while sailing almost instantly. I have to say that it helps you to learn the ropes more quickly!

5:54 AM - Doing the boat chores we didn't do the night before.
At least we got to see an amazing sunrise! 

We liked New Buffalo a lot so we decided to spend the next day here. The weather also made this decision for us since winds picked up and a few storms came over the lake. It ended up being a blessing in disguise so we could really enjoy everything this small town had to offer. We had brunch at Michigan Thyme a cute little breakfast/lunch restaurant that also had a very cute trinket shop attached to it. After doing a little shopping and stocking up on more fly killing devices. We didn't have as many as we did during one of our May sails, however it was enough to get a few more things to have on hand, just in case. On our way back to the boat we stopped at Nancy's to try one of their "Famous Strawberry Milkshakes" and it did not disappoint, I think their secret was the fresh strawberries!

That afternoon we did a few boat chores, not really chores because we really enjoy working on the boat! Now I know how much fun I missed all those weekends Brady was up in Waukegan working on Further. That evening we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Bentwood Tavern. It had a wonderful view of the harbor but we opted to stay in the AC since we were outside all day (no AC on the boat).
After dinner we had to check out Oink's Ice Cream and Yogurt, it was delish and the place was amazing! There were over 3000 pieces of pig and ice cream memorabilia decorating this cute little shop and more than 30 crazy ice cream flavors to try and choose from. It was the perfect way to end our wonderful time in New Buffalo. We can't wait to see what the other towns in Michigan have in store for us!

Beautiful sunset over the harbor.

Firsts we encountered this leg of the trip:
     1. Successfully reefing our main sail BEFORE we put ourselves in any danger.
     2. Using our spot light when coming into the marina to find our dock.
    3. Successfully coming into a new harbor at night.                                                                                          
    4. Docking on a different dock than what we are used to. (The dock was taller than our boat!)

Provisioning or Lack There Of

Since this is our first multi day sailing adventure we weren't sure what we were doing. But for being the first time ever provisioning, I think we did an OK job. We had all of the essentials; booze, coffee, water, snacks, stuff for sandwiches, etc. Surprisingly, it all fit! I was shocked that we had a place for everything, our clothes, shoes, tools, everything! Now that everything is in it's place, it's finally time for us to relax and enjoy a drink before the excitement and stress of tomorrow sets in. We will keep you updated throughout our trip. Wish us luck!

Our fridge filled to the brim with all the necessities; beer, water, snacks and wine!

Snacks galore!

During all this preparing we found out that our freezer works!

"I name this ship...

Further and may she bring fair winds and good fortune to all who sail on her." Renaming Ceremony - John Vigor

We finally, and this was way overdue, performed the renaming ceremony for Further this past Saturday night. Our friend Vlad came up from Champaign to witness the historical event. (Really he just happened to be in town and we decided we should 'officially' perform the ceremony before setting sail on our first and hopefully not last sailing vacation extravaganza!) Either way, it happened before we left on our first adventure voyage to Michigan, we happened to be leaving the following day. We are SO lucky to have Further looking after us!

Will post updates soon. Don't forget to track us this week to see all the harbors we hop to during our first sailing vacation!

Practice Makes Perfect

One of the many buoys in the lake

Two Sundays ago was the first day we took the boat out since the 'accidents' with the main sail and docking occurred. We were very nervous to take Further out and unfortunately we let our nerves get the better of us. Sometimes it's hard to remember that you get a clean slate with every new day when the not-so-good days are fresh in our memories. While backing up out of our slip to head off for our first sail since our infamous incident, we once again had trouble when backing out of the slip. Unfortunately this did NOT help our confidence. Not at all.

Coming into the harbor. There are a
LOT of obstacles in here!

This brings us to yet another lesson... when Further is in reverse the bow of the boat swings to the RIGHT because of the rotation of the propeller. I swear, there's NEVER a dull moment out here! Thank goodness we both love these two things in life, learning and adventures!

Elaine is not impressed with our
newly acquired skills

Once we were out on the lake things started to look up, finally. I'm not sure if our confidences or relationship would have been able to handle any more mishaps. (I kid! ;)) Instead of going on a sail we decided to practice our docking skills. How might one go about doing this not in the dock and in the middle of the lake? Great question. It's a bit tricker practicing out in the lake and not in the dock, since you have the waves pushing you around more and more wind to deal with (you aren't in the safety of the harbor). Basically you practice docking, and tracking a passenger who has gone overboard, by throwing a life jacket in the water or finding a buoy already in the water and using either of those things as your 'dock'. We both have spent a few hours over a couple of days doing circles around one particular buoy located just northeast of Montrose Harbor (I think other boats think we are a bit crazy when they pass us) and I have to say that we think that this is helping us with our docking skills. Not only that but we are getting a better feel how Further handles under both motor and sail.

The red arrow marks where our dock is located

Relaxing after a long day of practicing

Since we have began our crash course in boat handling we have noticed we aren't half bad at this whole docking game. Not to brag but there have now been a handful of times that we have successfully docked Further perfectly! We are slowly becoming a well oiled machine. So much so that we actually impressed one of our neighbors. He ran over to help us dock when he saw us come into our slip but then backed off when he saw that we were able to handle it so gracefully by ourselves! We defiantly gave a few high fives while cleaning up the boat that day, we were really pumped. It shows that practice really does make perfect. It is a great feeling and we can't wait to show off our new skills to the neighbors who helped us guide in Further when we banged her on the corner of the dock. They are going to be impressed! Hopefully we can continue this good streak for the rest of the season!

We LOVE Visitors!

We spent our second night on the boat Friday and were lucky enough to have Nadine's brother, Brandon, and his amazing wife, Claudia join the party. YAY! As we have mentioned before, everyone is always welcome on the boat and you don't have to wait for an invitation. Feel free to invite yourself and join in on the fun like B and C did. Hope to see you all soon! CHEERS! (or as Brady and my brother say... dolphin it!)

Lesson learned today... we can get our favorite Chicago pizza delivered right to our dock - this could be dangerous!

Party on Further!

Yummy pizza! This summer just keeps getting better and better!

Main Sail Update!

As you know we ripped our sail on Memorial Day. Big boo. We dropped off the sail on Wednesday, June 1st. The wonderful and friendly people at Doyle Sail Makers in Chicago told us that it would be fixed at the latest on Tuesday the 7th. Not once while we were there did they mention that we would have to replace our sail with a new one - which is awesome news. New sails are VERY pricy and we hoped our tear could be fixed. The wonderful and friendly staff at Doyle told us to call Friday to check in and see where they were in the process because they might be able to fix it before the weekend. With fingers crossed we gave them a call Friday morning and they informed us that we would be able to pick up our sail that afternoon! What amazing and wonderful news especially since we wouldn't would miss a beautiful sailing weekend! We were greatly impressed by their speedy and friendly service as it is hard to find this kind of customer service these days. Not only did they meet but they exceeded our expectations and they now have a new life long customer and we would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone who needs their sails fixed or serviced. That being said, I really hope we don't have to visit them unexpectedly any time soon!

Our torn sail

Inside Doyle Sail Makers

Our new and improved sail. The arrow shows where the tear was.
It was huge and almost tore the sail in two. When we tested her
out last weekend she sailed beautifully! Big lesson learned.

Lord of the Flies

It's a beautiful day for a sail!

We woke up on Memorial Day after spending the first night on the boat and it was bright and sunny in Chicago! Finally!! After running a few errands, and learning a few things like: 1. run out when we first wake up to beat beach traffic, 2. use the Wilson exit on Lake Shore Drive instead of Montrose and 3. our harbor lot pass is a HUGE perk. (Parking in and around Montrose harbor after 10 am seems to be almost non existent.) We were finally ready to take full advantage of the first beautiful day of the boating season! After checking the weather and watching other boats we noticed that the winds were a bit strong and from the South for a change. We unfortunately watched a neighbor crash into another boat, he broke his front lights because he ran right into the boat next to his, while pulling out of his dock. We believe this happened because of the wind and we realized we could have easily have had the same problem. So we took note of the wind and talked though our exit strategy and when we felt confident enough we pushed off our dock.

As soon as we were off the dock the wind was coming off our starboard side pushing the bow of the boat north, this wouldn't have been a big problem if we wanted to head that direction. However we have to head south to leave our dock and then turn east to head out of the harbor. Thankfully we tweaked our reverse a few weeks ago and we were able to maneuver the boat without hitting anything or anyone without a problem. Once we were out of the harbor we headed almost due west for about a mile, to clear all of the boat traffic, before putting up the sails. It was my turn to hoist the sails on that outing and I was able to get the main sail up without help! That's a first! After unrolling the jib we were crusing at a steady pace of 6.7 knots.

This picture does not do our fly
infestation justice. Took this picture right
after Brady swatted the area

We were just about to break out lunch, some sandwiches and Coronas, when we were attacked by hundreds of stable flies, this unfortunately is NOT an exaggeration. In just a few short seconds we were being eaten alive by these flies! And it hurt. Bad. Learning more about these insects when we got back on land we found out that they fly from place to place a few miles off shore and if you sail or boat into them they land on you to rest and it seems, to eat you. Because of these pesty insects our relaxing day cruise turned into us jokingly throwing away our sailing dreams in about 2.5 seconds. A few hours into the sail, after trying to win the battle of the flies we gave up and called a truce. We let the flies win, turned on Artie, our auto pilot and sat in the windiest part of the cockpit trying to ignore the flies and enjoy our sail.

About a third of the way to Michigan (it took about 2 hours, we are sorry that we haven't been turning on our SPOT) we decided to turn around and head back to Chicago. (We are hoping to get our past routes of our sails from our GPS and post them soon. When we have another BIG adventure we will make sure to turn it on so you can track our progress. This will happen soon because we have a week vacation coming up at the end of June! Yeah!) Soon after we started to head back we noticed that the wind had increased significantly and we were speeding along for a while, it was fun! That is until the winds got too strong. Quickly the fun turned into fear and we realized we should have been sailing with a reefed main, a technique used in strong winds which requires you to lower the main sail to reduce the area of the sail so you can sail safely. Everyone tells you that when you think it's time to reef your sail, well, it should have been done a while before you thought it should. By the time we thought we should reef, it was too late.

We first lowered the jib to help gain more control of the boat and slow us down. By the time we started to lower the main to reef it, well that is when we heard an awful noise. I was too afraid to go up to the bow and lower the sail so I took the wheel. When you lower or hoist your sails, you want the bow of the boat to be pointed directly into the wind because these tasks are easier to accomplish without the wind pushing against them. Since I have not yet steered Further through 'big' (for us) waves, I didn't know how to hold her steady and had a very rough time keeping her pointed directly into the wind while the waves were pushing us every which way. While this was going on our main sail, which had been taking a beating all day, finally gave way and ripped (hence the awful noise mentioned above). Brady heroically wrestled the sail down, which was a feat in itself since after tearing it was now flapping in the wind chaotically, and secured it so we could safely motor back to the harbor.

Our ripped main sail

Now the reality of docking the boat in high winds was setting in. (To read about how we describe docking a boat see our previous post.) We have successfully docked Further in good weather but we have never docked her during high winds. Picture you're driving in your car on the highway in high winds, your car can sway a bit but you can control it so it doesn't go into the next lane. This is not the case with a boat. We need to compensate high winds by turning early or late,  or doing whatever is needed to get you where you want to go because the wind will push you off course. We were going with the wind so we figured that we would have to turn into our spot early because the wind will push us the rest of the way. Well, unfortunately all of our neighbors were already back because of the strong winds watching us dock. Fortunately they were there ready to help us as much as they could.

Even with all of our helpful neighbors there to assist us the wind was too great that day and we didn't turn in early enough.  This caused us to drift downwind as we came into our slip and ended up grazing the corner of our dock leaving a nice  little scuff mark on Further's port side. However all of our fellow neighbors were there and I believe without their help we would have done a bit more damage to the boat. Feeling like crap because we didn't dock perfectly one neighbor informed us that our damage wasn't bad at all and that other boats had a lot worse damage done to them while docking in this weather.  We took a beating that day and it is going to be hard to 'jump back on the horse' after this experience.

However after tying the boat down and cracking a few cold ones to calm our nerves we discussed what we did wrong and how we can do better next time and this is what we came up with.

Lessons learned from today's sail (continued from the above lessons listed):
4. When you THINK you need to reef, you should have reefed a long time before that - so you better do it NOW!

5. CONSTANTLY check the weather. It can change very quickly and you don't want to be caught in a bad or dangerous situation.

6. Always, always, ALWAYS dock INTO the wind (not against it as we did this day).

Because we were able to sit down and discuss each fault clearly and in a calm manner, without blaming or faulting one another, I believe this experience will not only make us better sailors but better our relationship as well. Communication and confidence are key and these are the main reasons why we had such big problems. (Big for us right now, we know there is a lot more that can and probably will go wrong as we spend more time out in the water). I froze and didn't tell Brady that I wasn't comfortable going up to the mast and reefing, this wasted valuable seconds that could have possibly saved our main sail. Also, we knew that you should always dock into the wind but we weren't confident that we could pull off a 180° turn at the end of our dock plus we were second guessing ourselves the entire way into the harbor. Things are going to happen,  some amazing, some worth not writing about and some that we wish hadn't happened at all, but it is the latter that will make us better. And this is why we are doing what we are doing, to always strive to be better. Better people, friends, partners, co-workers, family members, sailors and doing this will allow us to go further.

The Weather - To Sail or Not to Sail

Apparently it's that time of the year when the weather does not cooperate with our summer plans. Since putting Further in the water three weeks ago, we have only sailed her twice, taken her out one time during the week (winds were over 20 knots and we decided we wanted a bit more practice with calmer winds before sailing her in those conditions, see below for a video that was taken during this outing) and hung out on her, watching movies and crossing things off the to do list, at least three times during fun rain storms. We figured we wouldn't be able to sail everyday this early in the season but if you would have told me we would only have taken her out two times in three weeks because of thunderstorms and abnormally cold weather I wouldn't have believed you.

A fun video of the day we went out but didn't put up the sails - May 17 - ENJOY!

Relaxing on the boat, waiting
for the storms to pass.

Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we packed up the car with Elaine, our trusty pug, and drove to the boat. We loaded everything onboard just as a torrential downpour began and enjoyed a movie day on the boat. We were lucky enough for the weather to clear up around 5pm and we were able to finish some outside projects before heading out for a few hours and watch the sunset over the city. It was pretty windy and rolly but we were fine.

Sunset sailing

After a successful sail we headed back to the dock a bit after sunset. Let me define what a 'successful sail' means to us... 1. We are both still on the boat (all three including Elaine) and 2. We can fix anything we broke (I would like to mention that nothing we know of broke during this sail). Two for two for the day, YES! While coming back into the harbor we talked through our docking procedures (this is sometime we do every time we dock so both parties know what the other is doing) and I'm proud to mention that we ended up landing the boat perfectly! (To give you a picture of why this is so stressful, our boat is just over 10 feet wide and we have about 15 feet in between the dock and the boat next to us. This doesn't give us a lot of room for error. Imagine every time you come home the streets are ice covered and you need to slide your car to a stop between your neighbors car and your house, without going too far and smashing into your garage.) Coming in smoothly and calmly is BIG for us.

Many things can go wrong with your boat when you are out on the water but that mainly can be limited to you and your boat. Docking, on the other hand, you can cause a lot more damage, not only to yourself and your boat but to all the boats around you. This equals a lot more stress. It is a lot different than parking your car because you have to take into account many other variables that can push your boat around.  Wind is a huge variable, even with no sail up it affects your power and steering response, and moves you way more than expected.  When you apply power in reverse to slow down, the back of the boat kicks out to port due to the prop walk (water being moved by the rotation direction of the prop). On top of these you also have to keep the boat moving fast enough that the rudder is effective, and watch out for the other boats moving around the harbor.  Hopefully these concerns are something we look back on and laugh about, the sooner this part is easier, the better.

Elaine's first sail -
I think she is going to
like sailing!

Celebrating our first night on Further.
This is going to be a FUN summer!

The best part of the sail was that Elaine made it through like a champ! She was a bit freaked out, and always wanted to sit in one of our laps, but overall she toughed it out and even stuck her head into the wind a couple of times. She is a good dog and we think she is going to like being on the boat when she gets her sea legs. Click here to view the rest of our fun photos.

Anyway, we celebrated our successful docking and rang in the first night on the boat with some drinks and food. We decided to sleep on the dinette berth instead of the v-berth (the sleeping quarters that are located in the bow of the boat and shaped like a v, hence v-berth). Can you say slumber party!!!! It was very calming to be rocked to sleep by Further (I'm sure the drinks helped a bit too) and we are happy to report we both slept very well that night. Yet another fear faced, we can sleep comfortably on the boat! I think we will be able to report the boat as a second home next year, all we need to do is spend anther 13 nights on her!