I finally got to go sailing today. The first time since back in November.

Yes that really is a picture of me, the good looking guy in the yellow jacket.

I don't think I look a lot like a traffic cone no matter what my wife says. Besides she gave that fouly jacket (and bibs) for Christmas. They are lovely and warm and keep the wind out quite nicely.

Since the last installment I have put in the new hatch, rigged a whisker pole track and bought a new whisker pole and done about 93 piddly little jobs that I can't even remember. They must have been important at some point but I just can't remember why.

The wind was a bit thin but as it was only about 45* that was ok.

I took a guy I met from the TrailerSailor web site, Mike Hancock, with me and we had a good time. I think when the weather warms up a bit he will enjoy it more. By the time we headed back in I think we were both a bit closer to frozen than we would have liked.

I got to try out the tiller pilot and it seemed to work just fine. The diesel still has a small leak at the same place as before so I may have to replace the high pressure fuel line. I bought one when I did the original repair but didn't think I would need to put it on yet. Mr Murphy is lurking out "there" somewhere so I think I better do it soon.

The boat sailed very nicely considering the wind was a bit thin. With all the genoa out and the full main we only managed to hit 5kts once and then only for a second. Mostly we were bobbing around at about 3.5kts, sometime less.

The weather guessers got it wrong again. They were calling for partly cloudy and 10-15kts 60s for the temp. We got overcast and 5-10kts and 45* tops.

All in all a good start to the year. I am going to try to sail at least a couple of times a month for now and a whole bunch more often once it warms up.

I am going to have to pull her out and do a bottom job on her SOON so as I don't have to do it when I should be sailing. It's a big nasty job but it will have to be done soon. The boat is showing signs of weed growth already and my knotmeter hasn't worked since the second week she was in the water.

Ok, so thats the news from here. Boring this time I know but Hey we can't always be doing something exciting just to keep you lot happy.............m