WEEK FIVE OF THE COMMISSIONING OF EARLY OUT:  3/4/01 thru 3/10/01
Fred had to travel back to Cincinnati and Detroit for business.  Thanks Max & Roberta for putting him up for a couple nights...really appreciate it.  Dad and Marlene arrived Monday evening and stayed thru Friday.  It was so nice to see them.   Between trips to the boat, sea shell hunting and visits, time went by quickly -- way too quickly if you ask me. &nbbsp; I can't wait til they come back.  :-)

Meanwhile Dick continued working on wiring while Russ started working on the wind generator.  Big day of the week was Friday -- when the boat came alive!  As of Friday afternoon, we had POWER!   YEA!  Finally the stereo works!!

Saturday Fred and I loaded our 300 ft. of chain on the boat.  Using the electric windlass made this a very easy job.  Sunday we met Frank and Beverly for lunch at the Sanitary in Morehead.  We met them at the Beaufort docks - they had just finished many years of cruising in the Caribbean on their Cabo Rico 38 - " Big Sky". We learned a lot on a broad list of topics.
 

WEEK SIX OF THE COMMISSIONING OF EARLY OUT:  3/11/01 thru 3/17/01
Launch day arrived - Monday, 3/12/01 around 10:00am we put Early Out in the water.   As the straps tightened on the lift, I was just hoping that they were strong enough to handle our 22,000 lb. boat.  It was hanging in the air as they slowly drove it towards the water.  Just before it hit the water, we popped a bottle of champagne and sprayed the boat to christen it.  Fred and I were both so excited I can't even put it into words.  Once in the water we quickly checked for leaks - none were found...yea!   Tuesday was spent rigging the mast.  Helped Russ pull lines and figure out what halyard went where.  Wednesday at 11:00am the mast went on.  Whole process took about 45 minutes.  Pretty fast considering what they had to do.  Now its starting to look like a real sailboat!
Here's some pictures from launch day and when the mast went on.  We started moving our things from the trailer to the boat on Friday and spent our first night on the boat Saturday.  It was terrific!!
 

WEEK SEVEN OF THE COMMISSIONING OF EARLY OUT:  3/18/01 thru 3/24/01
Sunday Frank and Beverly who own Big Sky invited us and several others over to the beach house their staying at while doing some maintenance on their boat.  Beautiful house in Morehead right on the waterway.  Dinner was great and really enjoyed sharing stories with everyone.  The other two couples there were Ali and Jim aboard Kindred Spirit and Ken and Helen aboard Tatiana.

The wind generator went on this week.  Haven't tested it yet - still connecting all the wires.   But its sitting on its post - doesn't look too bad all things considered.  And when one of us needs a hair cut, we'll just have to stand up.  :-)   Its currently Tuesday night and I'm writing this as I'm bouncing around at the dock.  Fred's out of town and I'm on the boat all by myself.  Wouldn't you know, 30 with gusts to 45 knot winds out of the east are occurring right now.  I've been listing to the weather reports and it doesn't appear that it will be calming down any time soon.  I think I'm in for a long night.    Its not so much the wind that bothers me, its all the strange noises, halyards clanking and visions of not being tied up properly and ending up smashing into the dock.  Currently the waves are around a foot, but seem like two feet as they are constantly hitting the boat directly in the stern -- what a noise!!   I'm glad thee wind generator isn't hooked up yet.  It would be turning like gang busters.  Can't wait for Fred to return.   Hoping for better weather tomorrow!

Wednesday was rainy most of the day - although in between rain showers, they put the genoa on.  Mark from Taylor Creek Marina finished up checking out the diesel...she's ready to go now!   Dick continued his magic with the electronics.  Tomorrow the main sail is going on and we're hoping our test sail will be Friday, weather permitting.  Fred due back tomorrow...yea!

Thursday we turned on the wind generator.  We were happy to see that it was actually pretty quiet.  Although you could hear it when the winds gust to 20-25 knots.  At that speed it was putting out around 8+ amps...yea!

Its Friday - time for our test sail!   Its a beautiful sunny day - winds are alittle strong at 20-25 knots, but that's not going to stop us.  We motored away from the dock and put up the main.  Sailed downwind for a while, then hardened up to go upwind.  At this point, we had the 135 genoa up along with the main.  Sailed great!  Then we had to come back.  Docking was challenging as the winds were very strong and so was the current.  But luckily we had Dick & Russ aboard as the extra hands were needed.

The weekend was spent getting everything out of storage and trying to find a place for it on the boat.   There were many, many times I asked myself...now why did I pack that?  Apparently while at home packing, my thoughts on the storage available on our boat were slightly bigger than the reality of it.  But with a lot of perseverance, we were able to find a spot for almost everything.  Although we do have a big box of things that we'll be sending home.  And as expected, we brought entirely too many clothes!
 

WEEK EIGHT OF THE COMMISSIONING OF EARLY OUT:  3/25/01 thru 3/31/01
This should be our last week of commissioning...with exception of the canvas work that needs to be done...YEA!  Dick just needs to finish up the electronics and ensuring all the instruments are talking with each other, etc.  That along with a few other small details that need to be taken care of and we'll be done.  We're hoping for good weather this weekend so we can go exploring -- maybe to Cape Lookout.

The weekend came and the weather looked pretty good for Saturday and Sunday morning.  So we decided to head out - first real voyage just the two of us - to Cape Lookout.  Around noon, we took off.  But unfortunately it wasn't without its moments.  The slip we're staying in is really hard to get in and out of due to the angle of it, combined with the tide and current.  We had some help, but unfortunately tested the strength of our boat against the dock a couple times.  Fortunately Caliber builds a very strong boat - so no injuries occured.  Just some deflated egos and nerves!  We then took off for the fuel dock.  Yes, another docking maneuver.  This time the wind and current quickly pushed us right into the dock - bow first.  Again, no serious injuries.  So we go to start fueling...but come to find out the dockmaster isn't there and no one knows when he'll be returning.  Oh No!  We hung around and had lunch hoping he would return - but no luck.  Then decided to leave and risk having enough fuel.  We didn't have the nerves to face anymore docks!  So off we went.  Motored out into the basin and put up the sails - main first - then motor sailed out of the channel before putting out the genoa.  Now this is what its all about.  It was 15-20 knots and the boat loved it.  We were on a reach to Cape Lookout!  And the dolphins were out to greet us.    As I said, the boat did great....I on the other hand needed to get my sea legs...atleast that was what my stomach told me.  So I did alot of steering while Fred worked the lines.   We arrived safely at Cape Lookout around 4:30pm and dropped our bruce anchor.  We were the only ones anchored out that night.  That should of told us something.  Later that evening the winds picked up to a good 25+ knots.  So we let out more scope on the anchor, held on, enjoyed our dinner and a bottle of wine.  We didn't get much sleep that night between all the noises of the boat, the howling wind, and checking on the anchor.  But the anchor held firm.  We even fired up our Nobeltec software and plotted where we were so we can see right away if the anchor was dragging or not - that was pretty cool.  We had been listening to the weather and it sounded like a storm was on the way, so we got up early Sunday and headed back.  The winds were only around 8 knots when we started out, but the boat was doing 5 knots.  It was a wonderful, peaceful sail back.  Arrived at the dock around 10:30am - fortunately Dick was at the yard and helped us get docked.  Several hours later the storm hit - brought winds of around 45 knots.  We were sure glad to be in the slip and not on the anchor or sailing.
 

PASSAGEMAKER SEMINAR, HAMPTON, VIRGINIA:  4/1/01 thru 4/7/01
Fred finished installing the cockpit speakers.  And they sound great.  He was sure glad to have that project done.  Thursday we took off for Hampton Virginia to attend an Offshore Passagemaker Seminar.  Its sponsored by West Marine, hosted by Steve Black and Hal Suton.  We arrived a little early, so we stopped in Virginia beach.  I've never been there before and I can't say that I'm anxious to go back.  The beach was nice, but I wasn't too impressed with the streets.  The buildings were kinda of run down looking and there was nothing special in the way of stops....unless you wanted a tee shirt.   Hardly any restraunts were open - guess it was just a little too early in the season.  But down the road we did manage to find a great Mexican place.  Great food and margaritas!

The seminar started Friday morning in Hampton - the same location where the Bermuda and Carribean 1500 rallys leave from.  The room for the seminar was right on the water so we could see everyone's boats.  It was a great class.  Over the three full days we covered areas such as provisioning, dealing with medical emergencies, the gulf stream, weather, safety at sea, communications, email, diesel engines, picking your crew, heavy weather sailing, sail trim and inventory needed and lots more.  I even had a chance to deploy a life raft.  Pretty neat.   We met lots of great people there and exchanged numbers and emails.  Hopefully we'll run into them again in our travels up the coast and beyond.  One of the folks there, Harry, also owns a Caliber, so we shared a lot of ideas with him and his friend John over a delicious dinner at Good Fellas.
 

MOREHEAD CITY, NORTH CAROLINA:  4/8/01 thru 4/14/01
Arrived back in Morehead City.  The bimini and dodger finally went on this week.  YEA!