šš» The First Crew
Now that she has been organized a few times, Tranquilo is ready to start taking guests. One of the main reasons I got the boat to begin with was simply to take people out and have a good time. Beyond my own personal enjoyment, sharing the experience of sailing with friends of mine who would otherwise never get to is extremely rewarding.
One of the places that I've spent a lot of time recently is Three Needs, a bar and pizza spot at the top of Church St. in Burlington VT. Readers of this blog may not be aware, but the captain of Tranquilo has been sober from alcohol for three going on four years now. You are certainly welcome to bring beverages aboard, but the captain enjoys never having hangovers and it's unlikely to change any time soon.
Part of hanging out at Three Needs has just been scratching the social itch one gets when they live alone. It's taken a few months but I've finally made some friends and after a few attempts I was able to gather the first crew. Isaiah and Shiloh met up with me in the later afternoon at the Burlington Community Boathouse downtown. Special shout out to the dock staff there who saw me come in and helped make docking absolutely painless.
Once snacks and supplies had been loaded on, we headed out for an evening cruise and sail out to Juniper island. The trip turned out to be an impromptu basic sailing course, we talked about the wind envelope and the basics of tacking and jibing. It was surreal to let others drive the boat but at the same time it felt great to be a qualified and informed captain.
After a little driving around we finally found enough wind to put the mainsail up. Shiloh was super excited to run the winch, which we really only needed to get the sail tight. Still fun to wrap the rope around and give it some turns. With a few extra hands I was even able to get the genoa out and we were cruising along at around 3.2mph!
We ended up stopping on the far side of Juniper to enjoy some snacks and take in the evening from the boat. It was a great shakedown cruise, everything went according to plan. I still didn't have the nav lights working by this point, so we headed back as the sun was setting. The crew hopped off at the boathouse, tossed off the docklines for me and it was just as easy departing as it was coming in.
A short steam back to her mooring and Tranquilo was very happy. It's been surreal and amazing to become tuned into how the boat operates. It took watching other people steer her to realize just how much my brain has "clicked" and steering her has become effortless at times. I knew she was happy because on the way back, she was tracking dead straight ahead... which usually doesn't happen! I can only take this as a sign that my yacht is happy and it approves of its new captain.
Mat