Today Is launch day - May 3, 2014

So today is Launch day. It is met with a combination of excitement and nerves. Both from the kids and us as well. As we said in the very first post, none of us know how to sail, so we are relying solely on what we have been able to gather through the winter, reading books and watching videos. Lets see how well we did. :)
There is probably going to be lots of pics in this post (just a warning, I love taking pics of my family)

We had an 8:30 am launch time, but we still hadn't had a chance (or the knowledge) to attach the sails. So Dave had wanted to go to the boatyard as soon as they open up to try to get that done as well as some odds and ends that we hadn't had a change to do. We got there and had to wait a min or 2 for them to get the guard dogs put away since we got there a couple minutes before they opened.

  

We loaded everything up but still hadn't had a chance to get the sails on. Bob at the boat yard was having a cranky day, which wasn't good since this was our first ever launch and had no clue what was going to happen, so he didn't make us feel one bit comfortable with the process. You can tell how "nervous" our great Cpt Dave looks as Bob starts backing up. I bet he was wishing right about now that he didn't recently quit smoking because he sure looks like he could use a cigarette right about now.

Bob started backing up to the Wanderlust and got her on the truck. The process only took a few minutes and he made it look really easy. 

  

While he was getting the boat situated on the truck, he told us to take our dinghy over to the boat ramp and tie up to the docks so we'd be all ready when he got there.

  

  

  

YAY - After a LONG and cold winter, the Wanderlust is finally in the water!! So far so good. The kids wanted to go with daddy to drive to the mooring, so he agreed it would be fun for them to go along with him. Mommy and Autumn stayed behind and drove to the Popes Island Marina so we'd have a ride back to the boat yard to get Dave's car. 

  

  

  

  

  

Now Mommy and Autumn have to wait for them to motor the 1.4 miles to get to the Popes Island Marina where our mooring is. Since we hadn't had a chance to put the sails on yet, they are going to pick us up at the dock and then tie up to the mooring so we can finally ATTEMPT to get the sails on.

  

  

  

Now the test to see if we can get the sails on. We were able to get the main sail and the boom attached but weren't positive on where or how the ropes got set up, plus the baby was getting cranky so we gave up (for now) because we want to make sure its all correct. Plus the kids were complaining they were hungry. 

  

  

  

Meet Cpt. Dave

I figure I will introduce Cpt Dave for those that don't know him. We will be posting about our family adventures and all will include him since he is the Cpt of the boat and the family. Or so we let him think so ;)

Anyway, this is our Cpt. - Don't forget the Kale!!

Testing the Dinghy out

I forgot to post about when Cpt Dave took the kids on the lake to test out the Dinghy. While we were waiting to hear about our launch date, Cpt Dave has been getting things in order, including making sure the dinghy is capable of floating. We have also gotten our launch date. We are due to launch this Saturday, May 3, 2014 and I will be there to take lots of pics and update here. I can't wait for the kids to get out of school for the summer to start our great adventures. In the meantime here are some pics of the dinghy at the lake.  

  

Looking for our assigned mooring

We got confirmation about our assigned mooring from the Harbor Master and we will be at Pope Island, in New Bedford MA, not far from the hurricane barrier. We were told our mooring will be a "stones throw" from the dinghy docks so after we did some cleaning on the boat, we stopped by the marina to see where exactly our mooring was located.

Kids love going to the Pope Island Marina because there is a playground they can play on. So while daddy was searching for the mooring the kids ran around and played on this nice day by the water.

Dave (my hubby) had binoculars and still couldn't find our mooring. He went into the Marina part and asked the worker there and was told to call the Harbor Master. Since its Saturday, we decided we didn't want to call and bother the Harbor Master so we never did find it. But the kids had fun playing while daddy was looking.

 

 

When we got home, we remembered the GPS co-ordinates of the mooring was on the paperwork we had gotten. So we logged into Google Earth and we put in the co-ordinates and saw exactly where we will be located. YAY!!

Almost clean

We were able to get a babysitter for our 4 kids, so now we can get some real cleaning done. And it looks so much better and smells much better as well. Weather is starting to warm up so and we're getting itchy to get her in the water. We are thinking May 1st but no set date yet. And we did get a confirmation that we will be at Popes Island. YAY, not far from the hurricane barrier.

Here are some "after" pics taken after we did some cleaning. Its still not done yet, its a work in progress, but you can already see improvement.

   


   With the table put together

 curtain to hide wires on other side

 added alcohol stove

 curtain to hide wires   With out the table

Privacy curtain added for toilet and separating berths 

Coming along

Things seem to be coming together nicely. I have joined some sailing message boards and groups. Learning what I can about sailing. My husband has been watching youtube videos learning what he can, and a friend from his work and his wife have offered to teach us how to sail and what we need to know. Incase something happens and they aren't able to teach us, we have been doing our research and will hopefully know what we are doing enough to learn as we go on launch day.

In the mean time we are learning the terminology and doing some cleaning of the Wanderlust.  As you can see from the inside pics from before we started cleaning, its pretty bad and smelled very musty. We will be taking all the cushions home to wash and clean them up and throwing away what we won't need.