Throwing Up Canvas

  We finally got out for the shake down cruise. That means you go out and throw up the canvas, and see what all falls around down below. It wasn’t too bad. We did a pretty good stash it job. Nothing broke, and very little hit the floor, but when the Cap’n opened the fridge he got attacked by a bunch of beer and cheese.

  The new roll cage got alot of use, with us moving around tacking and working the rigging, it was pretty nice to have the extra handles. I need to make a couple of panels for the top side of the frame, I feel that a couple of the screen panels will cut some of the blinding glare when looking up at the pilot bird to tell the wind direction.

  It was pretty calm for the most part, there wasn’t too many white caps, and you can read the wind on the water for gusts and stuff. That is one of my favorite things to do when the water is calm, watch the wind dance on the water.

  The trial run was pretty fun, we  brought up the Main Sail, and we had it reefed on the 2nd line to start out with, till we got up the jib sail and staysail. Reefing is an amount of the sail still not put up, where only most of the sail is up for when it is super windy. We took it to the 1st reef after a while of dialing in the sails, running lines, and getting the feel of her in the water sailing. The kiddz had a blast too, for the most part they just really hung out in the cockpit, Sailor likes to put his head out and just smell.They did alot of wandering around looking overboard too. I wonder what they will do the first time they see a dolphin. We went by a big green buoy that had a biggo seal on it and they just barked back and forth with each other.

  Our marina, Benicia Marina, is in Carquinez Straight, between Suisun Bay, with San Pablo Bay, on the other side of the bridge. Our first anchor out. Listening to the water splash against the hull, the tug on the anchor when you come to the end of the rode. *your rode is the line that tethers you and your anchor chain together*, along with the night watch. Our Cap’n has an app to watch our gps, to see if we are slipping anchor, from bed. 

 We anchored off of Dillon Pt. just shy of the bridge at the entrance of San Pablo Bay. Where there is a huge shallow area that has a drop off from 3 feet to 90+. And it is a pretty steep drop too. Alot of people fishing from the bank. We stayed the night there and sailed home Sunday. Our Cap’n is our hero when it comes to rowing to shore for potty breaks. plus he got the first picture ever, of SVCerridwen at anchor. With the potty boat in the foreground.

bunkmate