Happy sailor motoring back Hansen's Harbor.

As you can see we have successfully launched our new vessel, Aurion, and even more amazing, stepped the mast! In the photo, we are making our way back to our home harbor after stepping the mast at the Lake City Marina. We went back and forth as to whether or not we should attempt this feat and with some cajoling from other folks at our marina we decided to give it a shot. What could go wrong? Not very much apparently. Having never used a mast crane, nor stepped a mast without a tabernacle, without too much confusion, were finished in about three hours. Next time will be quicker now that we know what we are doing, kinda.

The time includes some re-wiring that I thought I had done correctly beforehand, but as I prepared to make the connections, discovered I had too many male connectors. In fact, for the six ends, five were males. Never assume the wiring is uniformly done I guess is the lesson here. The only problem we may have now is our wind transducer, a SL254, is only partially working. After talking to the extremely helpful folks as Signet Marine, it appears I may have pulled the connection apart while jamming the wiring up the mast while stepping the mast. I may be able to get at it through the access port on the mast. Keep your fingers crossed.

We will be finishing up rigging this weekend and even though the weather is not supposed to be what one would call pleasant, intend to take our Islander 28 out for our inaugural sail in our first “big boat”. Yes, we are excited!