Pics and Videos and a Nervous Breakdown...

Look how much fun we were having on Saturday!

We spent the night one the boat Saturday night - then headed out to an island beach!

I've even making the puppies do water workouts...

 

And then we started the sail home.  No engines, just sailing along at 5-7 knots.  It was fun!  Until it wasn't.  I was getting stressed with the heeling.  (That means the boat was leaning over - you know, like it's designed to do...)  It wasn't even heeling that much.  But it was stressing me out.  I was at the helm, smiling, having fun - but repeating in my head "this is normal, this is normal, this. is. normal"  until I couldn't repeat it anymore and passed the wheel off to Mark.  

Sail boats are designed to lean - they have that ginormous keel on the bottom that keeps the boat from rolling.  We were perfectly safe.  It was an irrational fear.  But I figure, for those of you other newbies out there, it's good to share.  Sometimes those irrational fears win.  But only the battle.  I'll be back out there, behind the wheel, heeling my little heart out in the future.  Practice makes perfect.

Docking is another story.  Holy frijoles - our Sunday docking fiasco was - well, a fiasco.  We had an incoming tide and a fairly gusty wind on our tail.  Our boat likes to pull to Port (left) in reverse.  So we figure we'll put her in neutral and ride the tide/wind into the slip, slide her into reverse, and let her drift on over into her spot.  No problemo, right?  Nah.  It took about 6 tries.  A 40ft boat does not always do what you tell it to do.  Ok, it does, it just takes it's own sweet time.  After my crazy heeling freakout, I was too stressed to dock the boat - I gave it 4 tries and then passed the wheel off to Mark.  It really felt like a cop out.  I was completely overwhelmed.  I'm so used to boats doing what I tell them to do that I was just completely thrown for a loop trying to figure this out.  Fortunately, after a try or 2 from Mark, and a hand from the guy in the boat slip right behind ours, we were able to get her docked and secured.  

The trip was great - and pointed out that we need more experience.  Not only with heeling and docking, but with general boating rules.  There were other sailors out, and we just aren't quite sure what the rules are regarding right of way.  Sailing vessels win over power boats, but which sailing vessel has the right of way when everyone's tacking back and forth...?  Clearly it's time to hit the books again!