Our boat wasn’t ready for full-time cruising when we bought her. This was perfectly fine; we’d rather add necessary items ourselves and learn them inside and out through the process, than pay for systems already in place that may not be exactly what we want, or are old and need to replacing anyway.
Sailmaking isn’t exactly voodoo magic, but because it’s pretty tough to find much information on sailmaking & sail cloth, we wanted to share everything we’ve learned in our quest to make the right decisions about our new headsail.
Even though the mast is back up and we’re officially a sailboat again(!), we’ve got a scary long list of boat projects to complete before we can leave the dock in Mobile, Alabama.
We put the mast back up and we’re pretty dang stoked about it. The electrical is reconnected, the boom goes back on, and Kirk takes a stab at tensioning our standing rigging himself. Soulianis is finally feeling more like a sailboat again.
Ooo this has been a long time coming… We make it to SALTWATER! After leaving the freshwater of Lake Michigan and traveling 1300 miles down the rivers (Mississippi and all the rest!), we’ve made it to the Gulf of Mexico!
We’ve become pretty comfortable with our life on the river. Each morning, once we’re underway, Kirk takes the helm and I make breakfast in the galley.
At this point, we’re about halfway into our river journey from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.
After flying down the Mississippi River at 10 knots, turning upriver onto the Ohio is a shock. It’s frothy with breaking waves, it’s running fast, and we struggle against its current.
We were apprehensive of the Mighty Mississippi. How would our boat handle in the swift 4-5 knot current? What would navigating around the commercial traffic be like?
As far as we know, we’re the last sailboat on the river. The only other watercraft are tows with barges, a couple motorboats being delivered for winter storage, and bunch of duck hunters. It’s a bit desolate, but beautiful. It feels like we have the river all to ourselves.
