Time sure flies by when you are busy! We have been doing lots since the last post. We have been for one or two more 2 day sails. The best one was the last one. We went from our mooring south to "Cowpens" anchorage in Islamorada. The place got its name from history of the Keys when they used to herd the manatee cows into this area. We were just outside Snake Creek for the first night then we went under the drawbridge at 10 AM the next morning and headed north in Hawk's Channel - average speed about 6+ Knots. We anchored at Pumpkin Key (just inside of Ocean Reef club) that evening (over 40 miles that day even with the late start). On the way back to Key Largo the next morning, the winds were very light so we got up the courage to try out our Gennaker. For those of you who may not understand this term - it is a light, downwind designed sail that neither of us have ANY experience using. We have been wanting to get it out to try it but the winds were usually too strong or we could find many other excuses not to get out of our comfort zones. Anyway, that morning, we got a dose of courage. Darrell was at the helm and we rolled in the genoa in preparation so our speed dropped to 1.5 knots while I was forward on the deck readying the gennaker. While I was up there, I thought the winds picked up a little but I was busy getting all the lines and "tackle" sorted out. Anyway, I was finally ready to hoist the beast. The sail has something to help contain it until you are ready to let the wind fill it (called a sock) so you send them up together then raise the sock to open up the sail. When we took the sock off, we went from 1.5 to 6.5 knots in the blink of an eye and the boat heeled over about 15-20 degrees! It was exciting!!!! The whole flight of "Wild Thang" probably only lasted 10 -15 minutes before I went back up and doused it with the sock. Getting that sock back down over a big parachute full of wind was not easy - in fact at one point, I didn't have the lines secured to anything on the sailboat and I thought I was going parasailing! It was a great workout for me but since I am usually the photographer, we only have one picture of it in use. I was headed forward to take a picture of it on the foredeck when all H___ broke loose and I had to throw my phone back into the cockpit so I could wrestle the beast. There definitely is a learning curve there for both of us on using a cruising gennaker. Perhaps next time we'll get more pictures. On that trip, we also got Alibi out into deep blue water for the first time.

Our latest undertaking is to refinish all the Teak trim on the boat. Darrell and I had some time on our hands while awaiting our trip to Texas to visit family - bad thing, too much time! Anyway, we began scraping, sanding and prep work to varnish the teak and had the whole thing planned out to do in stages since there is a lot of wood on this old boat. Three days of scraping and sanding and we finally put the first two coats on the back half and some of the pieces that could be taken off the boat to work on. She is looking good but there are several more coats of varnish to go. We will post before and after pictures later.

We have a new mainsail on order and will be making a new cover for that when we get it. Even though we have a sewing machine fully capable of doing the work, we opted not to try and make our own sails. We did some repair work on a friend's sail and that was a chore. The other canvas work is done and we are truly enjoying the protection from weather.

All projects are at a standstill for now - we are flying to Texas today for a long overdue visit with family. When we return, we will get back to putting more coats of varnish on the wood and getting her ready for some cruising. We are glad to report our friends on board S/V Selkie have made landfall in the US Virgin Islands and report that within 1.5 miles of the coast of St. Thomas the water is that beautiful sapphire blue that we occasionally see here in the Keys. Someday we will go see them!