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November 2nd, Wednesday - Hampton, Virginia
Today was a relatively mellow day on board Zia. We
have the nice folks from the Quantum Sails loft here in
Hampton working on our staysail turnbuckle (that is the
smallest of our headsails) so we can tighten it up.
All of the headsails (we have three on Zia) play a part
in holding up the mast. I think I
forgot to mention that we ordered a new main sail
while we were up in Annapolis. Joe is buddies with
a bunch of the guys who work at Quantum. We
invited David Flynn to come out for a ride on a
beautiful weekday afternoon to check out our sails and
give us some tips for trimming them. At the end of
the day, we were signing a check for a new main.
The old one was the original sail, and it had about
20,000 miles on it. That is about as long as is
reasonable to expect a sail to last. Of course, it
wasn't absolutely necessary, but in the long run we both
decided we would not regret spending the money.
After all, we plan on doing this for some time to come,
and a new sail would serve us well. So, they
delivered and installed the new sail yesterday.
Part of the procedure when you mess with anything on the
mast is to make sure the rig is tuned properly. In
the course of tightening up the shrouds, the fore stay
that the staysail is attached to became too loose.
You don't want this when you are heading out to sea.
As I write this, I hear a cry of triumph from the bow of
the boat. They managed to loosen the troublesome
bolts so they can adjust the rig as needed. Yeah!
Yesterday was quite a day, with our new satellite phone
being delivered, our new main sail installed, Cassie's
8th birthday, and the first official event of the
Caribbean 1500 rally. The satellite phone will be
good for making outgoing calls and certainly essential
in any emergency, but it won't be the same as a cell
phone. We opted for the handheld unit so we have
to be outside and pointing the antenna at the sky in
order for it to work. We will just turn it on when
we are ready to use it. We do have a voice mail
feature and we can download emails with it, but it is
very slow. It will be crucial that no one send us
any large attachments via email so it doesn't goober up
our inbox. We haven't had much chance to play with
it yet, but I'm happy to have it onboard.
The new main took a little longer. We added an
extra baton to the top of it, and we needed to add
another car on the track that the sail attaches to and
slides up the mast. It was trickier than it sounds
but a few hours later we had the new sail on and we
untied our lines for a test sail. We are very
happy to report that the sail fits perfectly and looks
great. We had them put a Zia emblem on the top
third of the sail. You should be able to tell us
from a mile away while we are under sail! We also
had them sew our name and an emblem on the sail cover so
this boat is really beginning to look as well as feel
like ours.
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Cassie and Juliana went over and played with our friends
on Rio Luna while we went out sailing. We had met
Mike, Tracy, Josephine and Justin in New York City at
the 79th Street Boat Basin. We didn't spend much
time with them there, but crossed paths at the dinghy
dock and introduced ourselves. On our first night
here in Hampton, we went over to the Yacht Club for a
little cocktail hour. I looked over at the table
next to us and immediately recognized the family.
I went over and re-introduced ourselves and spent a
little more time chatting with them. They are
based in Charleston, SC and plan to cruise to Florida
for part of the winter, before returning home to get
their affairs in order so they can take off for a longer
period of time. Josephine and Justin are 10,
twins, and got along great with the girls. Turns
out, it was Tracy's birthday yesterday too, so they had
a joint celebration while we were out making sure
everything was okay with the new sail.
We
got back in time for the Taste of Hampton social at the
"event tent" here at the marina. The girls and I
had walked down to Food Lion and picked up a birthday
cake which we brought with us. We made the whole
group sing happy birthday to Cassie. It was great.
Everyone is really friendly. It was an early night
for the Zia crew, however, and we were back on the boat
for the last of the presents and putting the girls to
bed by 8pm.
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With all of the activity over the last days and weeks,
we have been somewhat lax in our school schedule.
We know we will have plenty of time to catch up either
on passage or down in the islands. We did get a
lesson in today, and should be able to fit more in
before we leave. I know at one point we will have
to make it a priority, but I'm not worrying about it too
much right now. We have a lot on our plate.
We are looking forward to taking off after all the time
spent preparing. The official start time is
Monday, November 7th at noon. Hopefully the
weather will cooperate. The forecast looks okay as
of today, but that can always change.
I
added some links (finally) to the link page on the
website. One of them is for the Caribbean 1500 so
you can read more about it if you want. I also
added a link for buying red and green chili for those of
you who are interested. I have already gone
through three of my packets of green chili and am
beginning to get worried about my supply! At this
rate, it won't last long.
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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