SAILING!!

Wow, FINALLY!
This morning we took the XCR sailing for the first time. We had a great time!

Since it was our first time out in a new boat, we left the kids with grandma and grandpa (thanks!) After getting almost to the beach, I realized I had left the akas leaning on the wall in the garage. Oops. Fortunately, it is only about a 10 minute drive back to the house. Back on the beach, we got everything set up pretty quickly.



The wind was VERY light when we got started, tacking usually took a couple paddle strokes to get things around. After a few minutes the wind picked up some and we really started moving. I saw a 5MPH on the GPS before the batteries died; a real bummer because I know we went faster than that later on, but I have no record. That will teach me to check the batteries BEFORE I'm on the water next time. Here is our GPS track before the batteries died:


We sailed up the lake (upwind) until the powerboat traffic and time forced us to turn around. Sailing downwind back to the launch beach was amazing. This is where I really wanted the GPS. I may try and figure out our speed from my SPOT track. By the time we were back to the beach, the wind had really picked up, so we decided to take a quick upwind jaunt in the stronger conditions. We reefed the sail (roller reefing is awesome!) and did a couple quick tacks. The XCR performed wonderfully with the reefed sail too. Finally, we turned the boat back downwind, rolled up the sail just off the beach and surfed right in. Overall, a GREAT trip, I can't wait to get out again!

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pics, our camera battery died too (argh!!!)