How can the season be over?

Well, that was quick.  Pulled Pearl, varnished the cabin sole, oiled the teak, removed the battery and put her in a barn for the winter.  Final log read 81.3NM sailed.  Luckily, we were able to get some video and the plan is to get some of it edited and posted.  Maybe it will make the winter pass faster.  :) 

81.3NM

What a Pearl!

More pics of Pearl and some of the boats from Lewis and Clark.

First Week Aboard

The Com-Pac 23 is pretty roomy.  We've slept aboard for 7 of the last 8 nights and there seems to be plenty of interior space.  As far as I know, there have been no threats to life or limb.  With today's gadgets we have been able to watch a movie every night, check our email and facebook, listen to the ipod over the ship's radio and make coffee every day.   Really, is there anything else one needs?  We were able to sail with Dave, Dahv and Scout a few times (more pics to follow), early in the week and there is no doubt we would still be sitting at the ramp trying to figure out how to rig Pearl had they not been willing to help.

48.1NM logged

First Sail

On Saturday, we sailed Pearl for the first time.  Initial rigging/set-up took 4 + hours, but we should be able to trim that down significantly with a little practice.  Pearl slipped off the trailer without a hitch.  The motor seemed a little bit cold blooded, but she did eventually fire up and has been very reliable since.  Pearl points way better than expected.. She plows through waves and makes them feel like ripples, assuming her weight has something to do with the smooth ride. We overnighted on Pearl for the first time last night.  More pics to follow.  Here are some pics of the shake down cruise and the morning view.

The Rear Admiral approves.

Maybe the best part of the whole transaction, since it was done sans I, is the pictures proving that the Rear Admiral approves.  The Admiral says she also loves Pearl, but there are no pictures to prove it.

The Next Chapter

One chapter is about to close, but another is about to open.  The end of our time here in Afghanistan is drawing near and we will be making our way back home to South Dakota soon.  Much of my free time here has been devoted to searching, researching, evaluating, and reevaluating all manner of sailboat, from small to large, old to new, cheap to not so cheap.  This being done in an effort to meet the standards set forth for our new boat:

1. Trailerable
2. Seaworthy enough to do some coastal cruising
3. Enough interior space for our family for a week or so
4. Shoal draft
5. Affordable

The initial search led us toward a Seaward Fox, a 19 footer in either sloop or cat rig.  The traditional look of the Seawards is hard not to like.  The BoatHouse of Madison, Wisconsin was the first stop.  The BoatHouse had a cat rigged Fox, but she had some issues, soft spots in the cockpit and high price being near the top.  I continued to keep an eye peeled for a perfect Fox and over the next 2 years I don't think one ever came up any where near South Dakota. By the way, there are a ton of great websites out there that deal in used sailboats, trailersailor.com and sailingtexas.com are among the best.  Actually, I had my heart set pretty firmly on a boat in the Seaward line but had been unable to locate a good one even close to South Dakota. I was even willing to go so far as to eliminate some of the standards in an effort to acquire the boat. "Would we really take it anywhere, if not why the need for a trailerable?  Just get a big boat and keep it forever tied to a slip." was the thought process.  Some of my time was wasted looking at boats outside the parameters set forth.
Finally, after 11 months of looking at websites via a slow, sometimes non-existent internet connection (it is Afghanistan after all) a boat became available on sailingtexas.com, a boat that met all the initial goals and then some.  She is not a Seaward but she is every bit a seaworthy and salty craft.  A 1984 ComPac 23 with loads of interior space, plenty of wood, trailerable, a well known coastal cruiser and she has that traditional look about her.  Best of all, she was located in Minnesota, and the seller was willing to meet half way, so retrieving her wouldn't be too much of a chore.  In fact, my family was able to inspect, finalize the deal and trailer her home in just a few days.

Here she is, meet, Pearl.