Maiden Voyage

We took out the Bluenose for a test run under motor. We didn't know what to expect, since the previous owner had never taken it out in the year that he owned it. It has a 4hp outboard motor, which took awhile to get started, only due to a lever that was switched off. It runs well, although it idled a bit high, making things a bit frantic when we were backing out of the slip. There is a very circuitous and narrow set of buoys to the main harbor, which we managed to traverse. Morro Bay is a tricky area for sailing and we will definitely need a chart before we go back out. After awhile, we were comfortable with the boat's operation and decided to turn back around and sail it home. The mainsail is not really ready for operation, needing a cunningham and a few pulleys rigged onto it, but we put up the jib and jib-sailed it back. It sailed pretty well in the light winds with just a jib. We tried to take a bit of a short cut and got caught up in some grass, but motored the boat out of it and sailed it all the way back the rest of the way on the jib. We've been used to chartered cruisers, so it was nice to be able to manhandle this boat a bit and just pull it into our slip. We noticed on a neighboring slip, a beautiful old boat from '62 getting pulled in by the Harbor Master after it's diesel engine died (and the couple who own it apparently don't know how to sail yet), so we felt pretty good about sailing ours in. The boat could use a little scrape and paint, but I think it is in good enough shape that we can sail it through the summer. This is actually looking like a pretty good purchase. Sorry for the lack of a picture, but my camera battery was dead, so probably next time.