First blog post

We have come into possession of a 28 foot sailing boat! An immensely underrated gift from my father. I don’t think he wanted to give it to us because he knew  it would be a lot of work, money, and all those other things people say about sailboats. my sister and step mother helped talk him into it. And now here we are! Where to start? Well, we need to learn how to sail it. And oh, wait, we need to fix it too. After first stepping aboard the spider web infested vessel, I assumed we would be puttering about the Potomac in a matter of days. In fact, I thought we could sail her down from the Anacostia River to North Carolina in just a week or two. Just need to tend to a few MINOR repairs…

ONE YEAR LATER!!

We have: replaced the toilet, replaced the gusher foot pumps for both the sinks, replaced the batteries, re-wired the running lights, put two holes in the bottom of the boat-and sealed them up, broken and fixed the steering cable, run aground (right in front of our Marina’s restaurant), fixed the inboard diesel and all its little smelly parts including the glo plugs, the lift pump, the fuel lines, the fuel filter, the stuffing box, the transmission and the wiring harness (thank you Adam Blake)!, sealed a leak in the holding tank (gross!), replaced through hull valves, fixed the bilge pump, reinforced the cleats, replaced parts of the teak wood interior, re-sealed the hatches, replaced the mainsheet and a few pulleys… I know I am forgetting a few things…

A year has passed and we have sailed the frog about a dozen times. Luckily, in our home town of Asheville, North Carolina, there is a lovely little lake full of kind and wonderful sailors who have taught us more than we ever could have taught ourselves. We have sailed Jets, and Flying Scotts, Sunfishes and San Juans, all in preperation for our journey south. Now we are about to take The Frog down the Potomac to the mouth of the Chesapeake. IF all goes well, I will be reporting from the Yecomico River (or somewhere in the vicinity) in a few days time!