BlueJacket is Underway!

Friday, June 27, 2008

038-19.860 N
076-27.420 W

Ahoy from the crew of the BlueJacket!

I'm happy to report that BlueJacket is no longer in Deltaville and that we've begun the trip to Newfoundland! It's been quite a long haul to get underway, but I've done it. I flew into Newport News, VA last Friday and since then I've managed to put in almost 70 hours of work on the boat. I was typically at the boatyard at 6 AM and I worked until 11:30 on some days. I was used to having Sue's help, but since she was at home recovering (she's doing very well), I had to do double duty. Due to the number of system changes and having the mast out of the boat, I just had a ton of work to do to get BlueJacket ready.

The good news is that virtually every system restarted with any issues. A few minor things needed replacement due to corrosion or aging, but for the most part, there were no issues at all. The most exasperating issue was getting the boatyard to do things...on my schedule. For example, I had the boat all ready to be launched first thing on Monday morning, but they didn't launch it until noon and the mast didn't go in until mid afternoon. For some reason they had cut off a (Spartite) collar, which keeps the mast centered, and getting it back on turned into a major battle which wasn't won until 4:45 PM. I had planned on having the entire day to re-rig all of the lines, so that ended up being another late day as the sail people were scheduled to show up at 8:30 the next morning.

If you've never seen how a boat gets launched, I've created a video showing the process as well as the transformation of BlueJacket back into a cruising boat. It's less than 3 minutes and is on YuoTube. You can view it at:

On Wednesday, Bill Spires, who's an old friend who's helped me move BlueJacket in the past, flew into Newport News. With the help of Tom Dunn, who lives here and who we met while cruising in the Bahamas, we managed to get from the airport to Deltaville (not an easy task.) Bill and I worked until about 10:30 that night finishing up projects and we finally deemed BlueJacket ready to leave. It wouldn't have been ready to Sue's liking, but all of the systems were ready to go and we could finish up the remained while underway.

On Thursday morning at 06:30 we threw off the docklines and headed out. I felt a ton of weight lift off my shoulders as we departed the channel. I had done it and we were underway. With Sue's cancer diagnosis, I certainly wouldn't have bet that we would have been able to go cruising, but the timing worked out OK and we would actually be able to make this trip. We're a bit behind schedule, but not too much.

We had a fantastic sail all day. We had SW winds in the 10 kt range and were able to sail at 5+ kts for entire day. As it turned out, we also had the current against us for most of the day, but the 50 mile sail to the Solomon's was wonderful. We pulled in and I got to go up the mast to restring a line (lazy jack) that had come untied, washed the boat and diagnosed a refrigeration problem...That and a few margaritas made a perfect day!

Today we're heading to the Annapolis area and we need to get underway soon. I hope that things are going as well for you as they are for us!

-- Geoff, Bill (and Sue)

Log ID: 1196