Our first Day Sail

We took her out for a day sail yesterday. It was our first trip out of Port Everglades (I have traversed the port a few times on other boats, including a big aircraft carrier :)

We first had to swing the boat around at the dock. She was facing west and we didn't like the idea of trying to back all the way down the canal which has boats on both sides and a tree that need trimming!

It took about an hour to get from the slip to outside the port, there are 6 bridges to negotiate, but one is tall enough that we can sail under it during all by very high tides.

The rest open on request and are really very good at opening within a couple of minutes of a request.

Once outside, we hoisted the sails and headed NNE on a beam reach to get used to handling the sails.

 Peggy at the helm did really well. Then we tacked to SSE and headed for the 3 mile limit. I must remember not to go swimming near the 3 mile limit 

The macerator worked great.

Then we eased off and headed back to the port entrance, we turned up just outside the first marker and lowered the sails. I wrapped up the mainsail while Peggy turned us back towards Port Everglades. Traffic was not too busy, but it gets choppy just near the mouth of the Port.

Once inside we turned north to head under the 17st Causeway Bridge (56' clearance at that time) then we left Party city to Stbd and took the turn west into the New River.

Now on our 3rd traverse off the river, we're getting a little more relaxed, hopefully we will learn to chill with more experience. The 7th avenue bridge responded to our call to open with a 'Sorry guys, got a mechanic working on the bridge right now, it'll be a few minutes' So we did a few dosie does for about 10 minutes, the current was quite strong inbound. Once they fixed the bridge, we had to remain on station while a mega yacht was towed out. The bridge tender kept it open for us, so on our last turn we headed up and through without incident.

The bridge tenders seem to do a really good job of minimizing the delay while the bridge is opened.

We approached the dock at very slow speed and I was able to hook the line we left trailing between the dock posts and pull us close to the dock so that I could step off. The wind was from the east and I used it to help swing the boat around with the bow now pointing east for our next trip.

The slip landlord was gracious to help tie the boat up and our first day sail was over. A great day.