Launch 2011

An interesting launch this year. We were scheduled to launch on Saturday, May 14th at 8:30am with mast step to follow on Sunday at 8am. I took Friday off to build the mast and get some final things organized. The weather on Friday was fabulous; sunny and well into the high 20c range. Harbour crew had the mast out for me to work on by 10am and the mast was built in an hour or so. Had to clean the contacts in the steaming and deck light but everyting on the mast was fine. The weather forecast for the day had a chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon but by midday it was beautiful. Hot and sunny. The forecast for Saturday however was steady rain from about 11am on and Sunday more rain but with high winds. Harbour staff were in a good mood on Friday and things were ahead of schedule. So I was able to get Victura launched and the mast stepped right away on Friday avoiding the bad weather and hassle on the weekend. Everything went without a hitch and we were tied up in our slip with the mast stepped 230pm. We tuned the mast and put the boom on just as the wind started to pick up and clouds started to appear in the sky. By 6pm or so, the rain was starting. We returned early Saturday morning to find the harbour completely shrouded in mist. No rain and no wind but socked in with fog. We put the main sail and genoa on and were off for lunch in the Chartroom by 1pm or so. Still lots to do to get the boat ready, but all in all a very successful weekend and launch.

Spring has sprung - a bit slow this year!!!

Well it's been an interesting spring this year. Things have moved a bit more slowly than usual with cool and wet weather throughout most of April and early May. We removed the cover on April 3rd which is about normal. It was a nice clear day with some sun warming things up. From there, things were very dodgy weather wise in April with some snow and several weekends rained out. I managed to get the bottom painted on one of the nice weekends and waxed before my scheduled launchh on May 14th. More on that in my next post.