A Grand Sail

I had not sailed since May 13th, when Pam and I had the opportunity to perform the sea trial on Aegean Odyssey, our new-to-us sailboat. She’s a 1990 Island Packet 35, and her previous owners took very good care of her.

That’s a shot of me piloting the boat out from her slip, with Pam and Leon handling the foredeck. The slip’s a little tight with two beamy boats, and there’s only about 3-4 feet between AO and Timeless’ hulls, so we positioned crew to fend off any possibility of rash. Thanks to Leticia for the photograph!

And here’s a photo of my crew during my first experience as captain of this beautiful boat.

From left, there’s Pam, Leon (Leticia’s husband), Barbara, Ruby and Randy. Not shown are the three dogs also aboard; Ziggy, Gilligan and Jingles, Randy’s Australian cattle dog.

Leon and Ruby are father and daughter, Randy and Barbara are husband and wife. Randy had acted as captain during our sea trial over two months ago, as the previous owners couldn’t be there for that brief sail. He’s a font of information on all things Island Packet, owning a 32 he keeps at the same marina where ours is berthed.

I was very glad to have him along for this maiden voyage.

Anyway, we got all the sails up and drawing in the 10-12 knot breeze we had that day.

The boat performed superbly, taking us a few miles outside of Bahia Algodones where we soon had to turn around. Randy had some appointment around 1800 hours.

On our way back in, I gave the helm to Ruby. It was her first time piloting, so I’m told.

She did great!

Approaching my slip certainly upped the pucker-factor but Pam, Randy, Barbara and Leon were at the ready, advising on distances and closing speed. A dollop of reverse thrust was all it took to settle AO back exactly where she was just a few short hours ago. Whew!

Next time, we’ll see how it all works when short-handed, and practice our anchoring technique in beautiful Bahia Algodones.

It’s certainly not a MacGregor 25, and her capabilities are far beyond what would normally put the Mac on her ear. This boat actually starts to sail well about the time it becomes too scary-windy to get the Mac out of the harbor.

There’s still so much to be learned about this boat, and I’m very grateful to have the previous owners’ experience and advice just an email away. Thank you guys!

To be continued…