Hey everyone, Steve here again.
Skye wrote this amazing post yesterday, and scheduled it to post today. It was titled “An Ode to Urbanna”, and reflected our plans to leave Urbanna this week and sail back to Norfolk over the following days.
Yesterday, Skye went to the store while I was working and bought all the food we’d need over the next week while we had limited ability to get into the store and pick up something we forgot. I had charged a lot of our battery operated tools (hotspot, extra battery pack, etc), in prep for not pulling from the onboard batteries. We were also very excited to host some of my family for a sail last night after work.
We motored out, with the wind coming behind us. We went to let out the jib, got ready to cut the engine, and that’s when the forestay snapped. Our forestay goes up through the jib, and I think something wasn’t turning well. It caused the forestay wires to twist when we attempted to put the jib out, and it shouldn’t be doing that, obviously.
This morning, we took the jib down. We had a few friends in the marina assist us with this, and I made some calls. We called the sailmaker of the jib, because we found a tear in the sail, and will be dropping it off with them tomorrow. I called our marina in Norfolk, letting them know we won’t be making it this weekend like we had planned. I called a local boat handyman, and left a message in hopes to talk to him about what he recommends and where we should go.
Basically, all our plans for the next week changed. And that’s okay.
Last night, I was not a happy camper. I was frustrated that we couldn’t sail and we were entertaining family. They were of course gracious and understanding, and we motored around enjoying the salt water breeze, drinks and each other’s company.
Later that night, Skye comforted me. She said we could stay up here the whole winter and she’d be happy. Or we could go somewhere else and just chill. We didn’t have to go to the Keys, and we can just be happy together with the boat on the hard. This morning, I comforted Skye. She was nervous about the repairs we’d need to make to the boat, and how we’re just generally unsure of what would happen.
The repairs shouldn’t take very long, we’ll get some quotes because neither Skye or I are comfortable doing the work that it requires. But my favorite part of what has come out of this, is we will support each other, and be there for each other. The boat and our adventures on her are just icing on the cake.
THIS WEEK
Hey everyone, Skye here. Clearly, this week was not all fun and games, nor was it the smooth sailing week that I wrote about just yesterday morning when writing the first attempt at this week’s blog (before our plans turned upside down and inside out). As I was writing it, I even thought, “Man, not a whole lot has happened this week, but we’ll be busy this week with the trip back to Norfolk!” Clearly, we will be busy this week, with repairs and phone calls and trying to manage the same itinerary for our road trip. That’s how life happens though, right? So I’m going to focus on the good and still tell you all the things that did happen this week that we loved and found joy in.
This week we spent a lot of time with family. We celebrated two birthdays and ate lots of good food. We went for a sweet afternoon sail and I manned the helm while Steve worked. We saw yet another rocket take off from Wallops Island. Well, we saw more of the trail it left behind than the actual rocket, but it was still pretty cool if I do say so myself. We got to take Steve’s family for a sail (well, we motored around after the forestay broke) and had a picnic with them at the marina. We also finished the propane locker (!!!) earlier this week and have begun the process of hooking it up. As most boat things go, we had the wrong part so we had to go on the hunt for one that would work.
Life is good, we’ll figure it out as we always do. Fingers crossed for smoother sailing next week!
Mentally Sailing 