April 22, 2015

11:30AM Calm west winds. Out the Inlet we go for a trial run, following instruction given by some cruisers who had just come in. “Favor the red marks, forget about #6 – it’s out of place.” Some inlets are notorious for shoaling – shifting sand – that can cause channels to wander about. St. Augustine is one of those, however we followed local knowledge and advice and made it out just fine. We motored out to the three mile mark. Out plan was to raise our brand new, never deployed mainsail as a celebratory function, which we did. But the celebration was short lived because we found much to our chagrin and mortification that the sail had two holes in it. Turns out a rat had nested in the sail over Christmas when we went back home for three months. What a bummer.

One cannot deploy a sail with holes in it. The wind will tear that hole into a rip and, before you know it, the sail is in shreds. So back to our anchorage we went, which is where we spent the night, contemplating options. Lucky for us, Paul knew of “The Irish Sail Lady” – yes a real Irish woman who happened to be a sail maker. We were able to contact her and set up a deal. We went back to River’s Edge for the night and the next morning Linda’s husband came to pick up the sail.

April 24, 2015

So yesterday we marked time at the marina and today Linda’s husband returned the repaired sail, so we are back in business. The estimate for the repair was $150 but the bill was only $87. That’s those Irish sail making ladies for you! Later today we are going back out on anchor to prepare for an early start on our off shore run.

Keep Breathing!