Lori, Jane, and myself camped Friday through Sunday a couple of miles from the boat, at Frontenac State Park. Dave went to the boat on Thursday and finished up the riggings. We found that there were some parts missing for the front sail (the roller furling) and part of it was broken. So before we leave for Belize a new roller furling will have to be installed. We thought the marina was going to adjust all of the riggings for us, and after finding out that the cost of the bottom paint was more than twice what the estimate was, Dave and I opted to finish up the work ourselves. He has a tensioning guage coming next week, so we can correctly tension all of the cables. We got both of the sails put on and they are in really good shape. The main sail has two reefing points like we were hoping it did.
After spending the better part of the afternoon on Friday we fired up the boat and took it out on the lake for a little ways to see how the prop and boat ran. The engine speed that the manufacturer recommends is about 2900 rpms. At that speed we have a little bit of a vibration going on because of the way the shaft and the engine are set up. Through the weekend the engine started to run a little bit smoother, and were able to run it a couple of hours. Docking Dave's boat in this particular marina is really easy. The marina is set down inside of burms so we have no wind and no currents to deal with, unlike the docking that we did for the sailing class on Lake Minnetonka. None of the four times we docked the boat, did Dave and I consider them successful.
After a really long night on yet another leaky air mattress (this must be at least the 8th one in a few years) we opted for breakfast at the Whitle Stop Cafe in Frontenac Station, and then left for the boat. We headed up river to near Maiden Rock before returning back to the marina. It's going to be doable to sail with just the two of us and maneuver the boat as needed. As soon as we docked, Jane, Lori's 7-year-old daughter, announced "Well, nobody fell off the boat today!"
On Sunday after pancakes at the campsite, we packed up everything and Jane and Lori went for a hike and came across a caterpillar. Now Jane has a pet caterpillar in her room. Her "pet" snail Gary didn't fare too well on Friday, and there was a funeral at the campsite on Saturday afternoon. Sunday we decided to head down to the river, and I ended up being at the helm most of the day. After a few miscalculations, I brought us safely back to the dock.
All in all, it was a great weekend to be on the boat. Little rain, light winds, clouds and a sunburn here and there. We all enjoyed the weekend. Jane is ready to get back on the boat right away.
On Wednesday night, Dave and I will do the second half of the classroom part of the 103 class, and then Thursday we'll be on the boat to finish up the 103 class.
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