Well the day had finally come and we were on our way to pick up our Memory Maker. I picked up our company truck and stopped back by the house to pick up my lil lady before we headed off to Terre Haute to bring her home. It was a dreary, cool, mid November morning in Indiana. It was also the first day of deer gun season so we were on high alert for deer jumping out in front of us as they ran for their lives. We had a good ride over to Terre Haute and arrived at Dave's house to see our girl sitting in his driveway. Dave had gotten her ready to roll for us and gave us some last minute advice about how to handle the "parade" of cars that usually back up behind a boat being towed down the road. We practiced the wave he said his wife uses with cars as they race past them when they finally get a chance to pass LOL!
We hooked and headed out on our journey. We stopped a couple of miles down the road to check how she was riding and all looked good. I was concerned about the length of the trailer light pigtail as it was just barely long enough to reach the plug on the bumper. I would really like to meat the genius who came up with the idea of putting the plug 18" to the left of the hitch. They must have flunked geometry as almost any six grader could tell you what will happen to the wire in a tight right had turn. WE got lucky and the pigtail was just long enough to reach even in a right hand turn. She pulled well and seemed happy to be on the road again. I took the pic of her in the mirror as we sat at a red light on the south side of Terre Haute. We stopped a few miles down the road to adjust the strap that we had going up and over the sidewalls of the boat as it had worked loose. I did not want to loose our boat like Dave and Susan did their new one on their trip home with it. I moved the strap as far aft as I could get it and tightened it back down. It road there fine the rest of the way home. While not as light as an SJ's we had been looking at the truck did not seem to notice it was back there much at all. I knew she was back there for three reasons. One, I kept checking my mirrors every second looking for issues. Two, in trailer mode the shift points in the truck really get stretched out. And three, the instant readout on the gas mileage was really depressing me. I saw a lot of single digit numbers on the way home. We are defiantly going to be keeping her at the lake as much as possible next summer to avoid single digit gas mileage numbers!
We made it to Bloomington with no issues so we stopped at Chic Fillet as I really like their waffle fries. The place was crazy busy so we parked in the Target parking lot. It too was crazy busy but I found some open spaces and did my best to get the truck and trailer to not stick out too far in the lane behind or in front of us. I would have preferred to park lengthwise but there were not enough open spots to do that. We had open spots on each side of us when we left her but had people sitting right next to us upon our return. There was no way to pull through now so I got lucky and was able to back her out. That meant we got to parade her past the entrance of Target instead of exiting out the back of the lot. Too bad we did not see somebody in Santa outfit. That would have really screwed with the kids to see Santa go past in a sailboat LOL!
Our path home took us right across the causeway of Lake Monroe, which will be her new home this coming summer. I pulled in the Cutright boat launching ramp so we could get a pic of us with our girl by the water.
I think she was saddened that we did not back her up and get her wet but we have lots to do before we are ready for that. We got back on the road so we could finish our journey. Cindy was all excited thinking about all the fun we are going to have with her. I have never seen someone who can come up with so many different ways to have fun. Cindy just keeps coming up with new scenarios of won't this be fun and won't that be fun. I have to agree they all sound great but I keep trying to remind that we have to learn how to sail first!
Before long we were pulling into our driveway and heading up the hill to her new winter hangout. We plan on keeping her on the west side of our garage on graveled area that I normally store our utility trailer and kayak trailer. We live on top of a ridge, so level ground is a prized commodity. Being that owning a sailboat was not on my radar when I leveled the ground for the garage I did not think about leveling the parking area on the side of it. Needless to say when I backed her into her parking spot she listed pretty good to port. I originally thought I would just jack her up and level the trailer but after seeing how far out of level it was I gave up and will just level an area for her. But while I had the left trailer tire up in the air I spun the wheel to hear how the bearings sounded. Oh no, it sounded like a hand full of gravel had been thrown into the bearings! I grabbed the tire at the top and bottom and rocked the wheel. There was close to an inch of movement! Boy did we just get sooooo lucky! I would say we would have major wheel issues in another few miles. Cindy still has a lot to learn and does not fully understand my concern about wheel bearings. I think once she sees them apart and can better understand what little holds it all together she will have a better appreciation for them and my concern about them. Nothing sucks more than loosing a trailer wheel because of bearing failure. Sure you might have a jack with you and can change a tire on the road but who carries a spare set of bearing and races??? All of a sudden a quick pull home turns into the day from hell trying to find bearings and tools to put it all back together. Ask me how I know...
But we got lucky and made it home safely. We played around inside her and came up with different ideas on how and what we want to do to her this winter. Can someone tell me why the wiring on most small sailboats looks like a squirrel on crack just built a nest??? Cindy was a little less than comfortable moving around in her too much due to her listing to port so far. We went topside and tried to see if there was enough room for both of us to lay back on top of the bow so we can watch the sunsets together. I could not get Cindy to slide over far enough to port to find out as she was afraid we were going to tip her over. Needless to say I was glad the bow pulpit was there to keep me from falling off the starboard side. Nothing like one cheeking it LOL.
Breanna, my daughter, got to check her out yesterday. I do not think she had ever been on sailboat before. Her first concern was how to steer it since the rudder and tiller are tucked away in the cabin. She went down below and just kept saying how you better like whoever you are with really well as it so small. Granted it is not huge but once everything is out of the cabin and in it's place we think there will be plenty of room for overnighting. Bre did get a kick out of the toilet paper holder built into the port side of the interior wall. I though it was a nice touch myself. But then she commented that the porta pottie seemed a bit sketchy LOL.
We had strong storms pass through yesterday but we lucked out and did not get the worst of it. I was concerned that a strong gust of wind might weathervane her around which would have lined her up to go down the hill side. Gravity would have taken over and we would have had a good story to share about how our new sailboat wound up stuck between two trees in the woods. Sometimes having a wheeled tongue jack is not always a good thing. But my fears never came to life and she rode out the storms like a trooper.
We are hoping to get some practice stepping the mast this week before we remove the mast for the winter and cover her up. I have this fear of a tree limb falling down on her and ruining the mast. I can repair fiberglass but if you ruin the mast you are basically screwed. I would feel better with it tucked away in the garage. Dave's estimate of how long it should take us to step the mast and be on the water had dropped to ten minutes from fifteen when we picked her up. I will be happy if we can get it up and rigged in less than an hour the first few times. Needless to say it should be a hoot. Stay tuned for details on how it all goes!!! Only a 134 days to go till the official start of the sailing season!!!!
