We went sailing!!!

 Ok, technically it was just yard sailing but we had fun and learned a lot. It was our first attempt at stepping the mast and rigging the sails so we were both a little curious how it would go. I had the her hooked to Juicy the Jeep and the mast ready to step when Cindy got home from work. After a quick change of clothes Cindy scampered up the ladder into the cockpit and we got to work. Cindy stood on the cockpit seats and lifted the mast up as high off the stern crutch as she could then I pulled, really hard, and stood the mast up to the vertical position. It was actually quite a bit heavier to lift from her hands up to about the 45 degree point than I thought it would be. I am looking into someway that we can increase how high Cindy is able to lift the boom so I do not have as far to raise it up. It seems to be much easier to be under the mast pushing up that it is to be in front of it trying to pull it up. Once we got it vertical Cindy moved to the bow and secured the front stay to the bow eye. I put the bow pin in the mast base and she was stepped. Then it was onto the sails. I had only seen it done twice but it turned out to really be a lot easier than I had it made out to be in my mind. The jib snapped on easy and Cindy raised it up. We let the sheets lay loose on the deck just incase a breeze did blow up from somewhere. Next came the main and once I found the clew and slid it in the top slot on the boom all went well. Our main sail has sail slugs on it that run up a track slot in the stern of the mast. Cindy pulled the halyard while I fed the slugs in the slots. We had it up in no time. For some reason I thought I forgot something so we dropped the main back down. It was then that I realized what I forgot. Dave had told me something went in the slot the slugs go in once you get the main raised. There is a plug that goes in that slot that keeps the slugs from dropping out when you lower the main sail. Once the sail started coming down and the slugs were falling out I suddenly remembered. We just ran it back up reinserting slugs as it went up. We did not have much time before it got dark so we did not mess with trying to find the plug for the slot.
 Once we had the sails up it was time to share our first glass of wine at sunset on our Memory Maker. I had hid a bottle of Windy Knoll Red and our two collapsible wine glasses in the port side storage locker before Cindy had got home. We made a quick toast, took a quick pic

 



 as we enjoyed the sun setting through the trees,

then gulped our wine down so we could get busy taking everything back down and get her put back in her parking spot before it got totally dark. Gotta love it getting dark at 5:45 in the evening. Take down went well with no real snags. Not sure we folded the sails right but is there really a right way? I am sure there is and I am the first to say that I do not know what it is. We tried to fold them so that the part that came out of the bag first would be the first part we needed to work with. I guess the next time we go through our mast stepping drill we find out if we were close to being right. Funny thing about gravity, the mast went down a lot easier than it went up. It did not seem to take very long and we had the mast down and all lines secured to it. We backed her back in her parking spot just as the last few rays of daylight faded to darkness.
 All totaled we stepped the mast, rigged the sails, had a toast, took some pics, gulped our wine, and then put everything away in 55 mins. We did not think that was bad for a couple of total newbies. Surely the few minor delays we had figuring things out the first time should get better the next couple of times we do it and I don't see why we could not have the boat on the water in 15 mins or close to it. Granted we did no set the rudder on the pins or have to mess with the motor but both of those items should go pretty quickly. We still think being able to store her with the mast up on the trailer will still be the way to go. Then all we will have to do is hook onto the trailer, rig the sails, load the booze and food, put the motor on the mount and rudder on the pins, then launch her off the trailer.
 Juicy had no problem moving her back and forth out of her parking spot so the idea that we an use her to launch and retrieve her out of the water seems feasible. We did have one little surprise get us and it was not the boat's doing. Both our utility and kayak trailers use 1 7/8" ball couplers. The boat trailer is a two inch coupler.  In an attempt to save time, you can probably see what is about to happen before I even write it, I just used the hitch with the 1 7/8" ball to move the trailer. I have done this several times in the past with no issues, but now that I think about it, I never did it where there would be a negative amount of weight on the hitch, like there was when we were in the cockpit of the boat. So as we stood in the cockpit of the boat admiring the fact that we got the mast stepped and the sails up all of a sudden the bow shot up in the air and the stern of the trailer hit the ground. Crap, the hitch slipped over the ball! Remain calm, not a problem. I had Cindy to move aft as far as possible to hold the stern down then I hopped out and went to the hitch and then lowered it back down onto the ball. Just to make sure we did not have a repeat performance I put the wood block under the rear of the trailer before I got back in. Yes, a second hitch with a 2" ball is now on the list of items we need to get for our Memory Maker!