a quick update

All kinds of fun stuff has happened. My parents brought their motorhome out from Michigan for about 10 days. We camped at Wompatuck Park (the same place Jenny and I stayed over 4 years ago when we came to look at Boston as a possible place to live) for a few days, then took Madrigal out for an overnighter at the harbor islands. The first day was mostly a no-wind motor, but the second day we had a great southwesterly all morning which we used to spinnaker our way out to sea and up the coast.

My mom is, well, not really scared of sailing, but more... petrified might be the right word. So a nice gentle spinnaker run was doing her some good and she was fairly relaxed. Well we didn't go very far because I knew we had to turn around and beat back into the wind to get home, so after a short while we struck the spin and tacked around to come home. Just then the wind picked up about another 10 knots and blew a consistent 20 dead on our nose. We didn't quite have the rails in the water, but I think my poor mother may never sail again. She was pale and tired by the time we skipped back into the harbor at a nice 7 knots. We struck the sails and motored our way through the myriad 100's (literally) of boats that were out enjoying what everyone around here considers perfect sailing weather. I must admit that Jenny and I were put a bit on edge by all the wind with so much boat traffic around, but mostly it was just fun. We so rarely get out in blustery weather like that. We are still getting accustomed to it ourselves.

After the sailing adventures were over we all piled into the RV for a trip up to New Hampshire's White Mountains and then over to Portland Maine for a stop and go trip down the coast back to Boston.

We ate lots of seafood and stopped at nice beaches. It was a ton of fun, but I'm out of time here and the internet is not being good about uploading pictures. Perhaps I'll get some more up later.

In the meantime we've scheduled our haulout. In 2 days time Madrigal will be sitting high and dry in Quincy Mass for a few days as we paint the bottom, change zincs, add lightning grounding plate and a transducer for a depth sounder. Should be fun despite the hard work. It will be the first time we've ever actually seen Madrigal out of the water!

-Justin