The plan was to have our boat lifted into the water after work, load the family aboard, then motor back to our dock. Gary at Northern Harbour suggested we tie up the boat there overnight and make the trip the next day, just in case anything were to go wrong. This made sense so we agreed to make the trip Saturday. The boat was placed carefully in the water and I quickly checked inside for any sign of leaks. All was good so next I went to work on the motor. And... it did not start. Guess I should have had the motor checked when it was actually easier to work on instead of bobbing up and down in the lake. I know what I will be doing tomorrow.

Late to bed and early to rise... makes for a sleepy sailor, thanks to spring allergies. Anyway, I spent the morning tracking down new plugs for the motor. Not being mechanically inclined, the best I could do was make sure we had new gas, oil and spark plugs. After many failed attempts with the pull cord I gave up and went looking for help. The final solution was to pull the motor off to have it looked at (professionally) and use a borrowed motor to get home. By 3pm we were boarding (minus one son due to a birthday party) and with a last look at the harbour we set off. The girls enjoyed the trip and had fun coloring below as well as checking out the view from above. We arrived at our dock 2 hours later and as future reference, our 25' is about 3000lbs. heavier than our 21'. This translates to "a lot more momentum"... when coming into dock, slow the boat down a lot sooner!

Finally brought our motor down to the boat and hooked it up. Turns out the carb was flooded with oil due to being tipped the wrong way from the "highway/trailer incident". Our neighbour who happens to be a marine mechanic, fixed it all up and it now purrs like a kitten.

Hmm, 27km winds gusting to 45km... sounds like a great day to sail! Unfortunately the winds were from the north so it was very cold. The kids hid down below playing games and watching movies while my wife braved the cold with me. With just the main sail up, we averaged 6 knots as we headed down the lake to visit a family friend who is rebuilding our boat trailer. We anchored a short distance off shore and I paddled in by dingy while the rest of the family ate supper below. The high winds and large waves blew me into shore in about 10 seconds. I took a quick look at the trailer and was amazed at how great it looked so far. Then I spend the next few minutes fighting my way back to the boat. Upon returning I found everyone was quite cold and ready for home... guess there isn't a better time to give the outboard a good workout than now.

Today is my birthday and I wanted nothing more than to have a nice long birthday cruise. I spent the morning doing a bunch of rewiring to the boat and by early afternoon I was ready to sail. The winds had picked up and we all climbed aboard. We sailed for about 2 hours and returned to Coney Island for supper on the beach. As the day came to a close, I was quite pleased at how I was able to celebrate being another year older.

Today we were blessed with a warm day and winds gusting to 25 knots. I volunteered the "3 Monkeys" to provide a nice background for a TV shoot... and off we went. The water was choppy but soon there were whitecaps everywhere. With mainsail and genoa up we heeled over quickly and I was forced to reduce headsail area. I discovered that heeling 30+ degrees caused the rudder to no longer be in the water. It was a good sail and quite exilarating! Next time I think I will be reefing the main.

Now that sailing season is here, we have had quie a number of inquiries for our other sailboat "Cordon Bleu". This morning we finally said goodbye as it's new owners headed out on a long 2 day trip back home. I was sad to see it go but at least the day was hot and windy, allowing us to enjoy our new sailboat. My wife spent the day laying on the foredeck tanning (burning) while the girls helped me navigate from the cockpit. They are quite use to the heeling over and didn't seem to mind one bit!

With the idea of becoming more experienced with our O'Day25, I once again volunteered the "3 Monkeys" as a means of transportation and scenic backdrop. Our camera crew and host decided to do a small piece on the local yacht club. The only problem would be fighting a fierce head wind, which in turn would affect how long we could actually shoot video at the club... since our host had to be back by a specific time. Although it was quite rushed (which seems to contradict the whole sailing experience), all our goals were accomplished.

My shipment of assorted sailboat parts finally arrived so the first order of business was to attach the lifeline netting. It took a while to install but in the end I think it turned out quite nice. You can read about it in the tech section.