translucent beauty...

Last night my friend Kirk and I shared a Single Malt (which we hijacked from Chinooks)aboard Epilogue in the cool dark night of Fisherman's Terminal. We lay in the center cockpit with life jackets for pillows staring up at the mast and rig 70 feet straight up...dizzying even lying down. We reminisced of conversations we'd had about this dream 4 years ago and talked about what it would be like to lead trips together next summer. Filled with possibility and excitement, I decided to unfurl the new Genoa and set sail at the dock. A strange phenomenon indeed to unfurl a big sail, watch it fill, trim the sheets and feel the boat tug at the dock lines, then casually step off the boat onto the dock and have a look at the boat, sails pulling full, nobody at the helm. Kirk stole a couple pictures with his iPhone of the sail with back lighting from the dock light casting a beautiful translucent vision of sailcloth and seams. It was mesmerizing and we wanted to stay and sail late into the night...then of course, a large puff arrived and we had to furl the sail in haste for fear of actually breaking the dock lines.

She's like a horse at the Kentucky Derby. She simply can't stand being pent up at a dock, a dock to which she's been tethered for almost two years with only an occasional trot around the lake with no mast, no sails, no nuthin', just a dream. Now when I unfurl the sails to see how they look, to measure sheets or to simply get a taste of what she'll feel like under sail, it's like she wants to bust the lines, smash right through the dock and keep going...She doesn't have to wait long to feel the wind and ply the water, but so much has to happen between now and then to get her ready. Well, no, actually, she could sail tomorrow, but it'll be more fun if we can tell how fast she's going or how deep the water is beneath her keel. I have a feeling she'll get restless all cooped up in the Puget Sound.

lines stretched to the limit as we hoisted Epi's sails for the first time today at the dock. We had to fit, fine tune, raise, lower and furl both the main sail and the genoa today as a normal part of installation. It went beautifully! We moved her around the dock so she was head to wind and installed both sails in less than an hour.

Today was kind of a big deal...