Last week Will and I got the Blue Jay ready for the water. The last part needed was the gooseneck, which I picked up from Kevin on Friday (after picking up Izzy from camp).
Yesterday, the whole family made the drive to Pettipaug after lunch. We towed the new sailboat down.We setup the paddle boards and Will setup the boat. Will decided to start it easy on the first day out on the new boat. He only rigged the mainstail, and went out by himself for an hour or two.
While Will was out testing out the new boat, the rest of us rotated through the the two paddle boards. Will’s board is huge, and a real pain to paddle, but it is a good swimming platform for Izzy. I spent most of the afternoon just sitting on the big board in shallow water while Izzy swam around and played in the mud and Hoagie paced around on the board while Ben and Susanna took turns on the smaller board.
We started packing up late afternoon. I watched a pair of sailors pull out a MC Scow using the lift, which seemed like a much easier way than trying to get up the ramp at low tide. We don’t have a harness to lift the Blue Jay, so I asked one of the MC Scow crew if we could use their harness. He said it wouldn’t work, but helped me find a harness for the Blue Jay in one of the sheds on site and helped us lift the boat. That wound up being much much easier than loading the trailer on the ramp. Will is going to try to get a harness made this week at work.
We are planning on taking the Wildfire dinghy home and fixing the crack in the hull, but part of me wonders if the lift would handle that boat and make using it reasonable. Oh well, that will have to wait until next season. Hopefully the weather will support towing the Wildfire home this week.
I know Izzy had a great day swimming in the water (you can read her version on her blog), and the rest of us had a good time on the water. I’m not sure how Hoagie feels about the paddle boards though and he doesn’t yet enjoy swimming.
