Maiden Voyage

Our Cal 2-27 was officially purchased earlier this week and Dennis and his son Steve had been down on Wednesday to check out the engine and electrical issues. All of it worked although the engine needs a little work to get it to run smoothly. So we planned a work day this Saturday to clean her up.

Dennis was at the Sea Scout base (its temporary berth) around 8 a.m. and Carolyn and I made it down around 9:15 after two attempts to leave. Dennis and I tackled the upper deck while Carolyn scrubbed down mildew and woodwork down below. After several hours we were definitely pleased with the result. Carolyn had the woodwork gleaming and any trace of mildew gone while Dennis and I had scrubbed the deck of all the grime it had accumulated. Gloria, a late riser, met up with Steve, their son, and came down in the late morning and Steve got right to work changing spark plugs and adjusting the electrical system. The engine is now running on two or three of four cylinders and he will be checking cylinder compression to determine why the fourth isn't firing.

Carolyn and Gloria made a run to Taco Bell to grab a late lunch for all of us and then we decided to try our new baby out! All the while, hoping we wouldn't be caught be the Harbor Patrol as we don't have the 2005 sticker on yet. Dennis let me skipper as he handled raising the mainsail and jib and tended the winches. Luckily we had a beam reach all the way down the Newport Channel past the ferry and even all the way back beyond the Balboa Bay Club. We had to tack about three times!

The day had started out a little rainy with drizzle but by the time we took the boat out the sun shone over the bay as clouds were seen both to the east and the west. Next time out I'll have to remember sun block as I came back with a sunburned face.