Shake Down

So my buddy Matt and I left the dock at 10:00 am on the first shake down since the rigging was tuned and the hull cleaned. It was a beautiful day getting into the mid 70s. We had some wind issues though as we started out with about 3-4 knots, but the river tends to have weird weather patterns further out and it died. Completely...GPS read 0.0. We sat for a while, but around 2:00, it picked up nicely to around 8-10 knots and we took off. With a 10 foot beam, Skylark is a narrow boat for her length compared to newer models and really moves quite well in light air. We were averaging 5.5 knots with 8 knots apparent. All in all, we had a great sail. Ran wing on wing for about 4 miles coming back, what a beautiful sight that was. Of course it's a lot of work keeping her balanced and avoiding that unexpected gybe, but I only almost killed Matt once. Now I really can't wait to start the trip to Florida. More to come...

Here are a few more pics...

Me at the tiller...








Heading down the Pamlico River...