The big moment was finally here! Tuesday was the big day we sailed Further down to Chicago, finally! We woke up bright and early and headed over to the metra northern line that would take us right to Larsen Marine, well very close to it leaving us only a 15 minute walk to get to Further. Honestly this is the best setup one could ask for. Not only is the Waukegan stop a 15 minute walk from the boat, the stop where we board the train is only a mile and a half from our house. It makes sailing the Further to and from Chicago so incredibly easy!
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| Attaching our lazy jacks |
After dropping off a little gift for the guys at Larsen, because they have been there to answer Brady's questions this spring while he worked tirelessly completing all of this season's updates. There was one last task we had to complete and needed a lift to help us do it and Mike, one of the dock guys, was more than happy to help us out! We couldn't ask for a better place to keep Further stored during the winter. Everyone at Larsen is so nice and helpful.
We were both nervous and excited for our long awaited shakedown sail back to the city. Brady turns inwards when he gets nervous and I am the opposite, I like to talk everything through and ask questions. I completely understand that this is probably very annoying as Brady is mentally preparing for 'game time'. Leaving Larsen is extremely nerve-racking for us since the marina is very small and filled to the brim with boats that cost exponentially more than Further. Mix that with our not so reliable or strong gas motor equals a questionable launch.
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| Nerves, what nerves? |
To make things just a bit more tense, the winds were coming from the west at about 10-15 knots so we knew that was also going to add to the complexity of getting out of the dock unscathed. Thankfully there wasn't a boat docked next to us so we had one less thing to worry about, a HUGE bonus.
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| Brady making it look easy. |
I walked Further back on the dock while Brady had the boat in reverse at full power. (if you remember our motor epically in reverse isn't powerful at all.) As we tried to turn the bow directly into the wind by spinning the boat against the dock, the wind had other plans for us and kept pushing the front of the boat port side so we were headed back into the slip. Not good. After a few tries, and the kind assistance of another boat owner who wasn't sure if we were going out or coming in, we finally got out of the slip and was able to motor out to the lake. Thankfully the only thing we hit was the end of the dock with our boat and not another boat. We can live with that. Hopefully everyone at Larson's were all at lunch because our rocky start was a bit embarrassing.
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| We are FLYING!!! |
As soon as we got out of the slip everything started to go much more smooth. I hopped up and started to tidy up all of our dock lines that were creating an obstacle course on the deck and Brady motored us out to the lake. Since winds were supposed to be 15-20 knots on the lake coming directly from the north we decided to sail with only the jib. Well that wasn't getting us anywhere since our speed with just the jib up was less than 4 knots so we decided to throw the main up with a reef and that was the magic trick to get us moving!
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| Yay Chicago!!! |
We were averaging 7 knots but frequently topped 8! It was a beautiful day, the wind was at our backs and we were FLYING back to Chicago! To make the trip even better, we would be docking while the sun was still out, unlike our first year when we got into the harbor at 10PM. The difference was literally night and day. Docking, while stressful, was a breeze compared to last year. We could see, we knew which dock was ours, and had lots of practice doing it last year. Thankfully it seems as though we don't have to dust off too many cobwebs. It was our quickest and smoothest trip yet from Waukegan to Montrose Harbor and a perfect way to kick off our 2012 sailing season!
