Launch

After a few weekends of cleaning, varnishing, and other work, the time finally came last week. Here's a video of the process:

Comments about the supremely professional production values are definitely not welcome.

The weather has been lousy--cool and rainy, with some thundershowers. I have set up the sails. (Really a two-person job, since it takes so long on one's own. I have decided that next year, I need to find a way to pull a Tom Sawyer to get people to help with the sanidng, painting, and launching chores. Ideas about how to do that are welcome.) I need to search for information on the Web about tuning the rigging, since at launch hey just tightened things up more or less at random. I'm also, as always, nervous about the motor. The guys at the marina may have added too much oil to the gas, which could gum things up.

So, I might be able to get out into the lake this weekend. When I moved from the launch dock to my temporary slip, I got away from the dock very well. But I hit the dock at the slip fairly hard. It's still tough for me to maneuver in close quarters. Practice helps, but that's what makes me most nervous! It would help a lot to have another person there sometimes. Oh well.