Kanga took us to sea

John has wanted to go to sea since we bought Kanga. I've been...er...slightly more reluctant.

The North Sea. Big, bad, scary, and to be ventured to in a ferry, as far as I was concerned.

Well. We planned and plotted, and picked our day. Reasonable breezes, good tides, and no weather to speak of.

Here we are, going past Felixstowe port - you can see the sea out ahead of us.

We managed to get all the way out of the mouth of the river, and were looking back at Felixstowe. It was odd to be on the other side of it!

Our expert helmsman (with lens flare):

It was startling how all you can see is horizon. I thought the container ships made me feel small...this was MUCH more impressive.

And a shot up at the sail, in the clear blue skies. Was this summer? Is it late? Will there be more next weekend?

Special thanks to Husband (who instigated the trip) and Father-In-Law, who said we should be back by 5 (the winds have REALLY picked up).

Gone sailin'

Every spare minute of every weekend has been spent in the company of our favorite squib (sorry, EAST squibs, we love Kanga more).

We took her sailing with John's brother, who brought his camera (brave chap). And, yes, I know that my overalls are extremely flattering, thank you for mentioning it!

Happy crew (and it's not raining)!

On the way back in (after taking the main sail down):

The view up the river towards Ipswich:

I LOVE that she's on the water (finally) and is such an excellent boat to sail. Wilful? Yes. Stubborn? Definitely. Runs in the family!

The family who sails together...

...drys their sailing gloves together. Also, check out that BLUE SKY! And it was WARM today! SUMMER!

We "pushed the boat out" yesterday with EAST for the RYA's Sail For Gold day, and sailed with the EAST fleet all the way (almost) to the Orwell Bridge. Apart from the wind dying in the middle of the day for about 45 minutes, it was an excellent sail.

Then, today, we raced Kanga with the EAST-ies on the (very busy) Orwell. It was our first time sailing her with 3, and James' first time afloat on Kanga. She behaved very well, and only resisted a little bit when it came to bringing her back to the dock. We need to work on that part. Wet sailing gloves all round.

We took a short walk to Stowmarket, and I brought my camera (much to the teenager's embarrassment) and proceded to take golden-hour pictures of weeds. SO embarrassing (but worth it for the light flare).

Chickens and ducks

We thought Kanga might be chicken. All this reluctance to sail. And messing up the weather (sorry, England...it's our boat's fault).

And then, today, she took to it like a duck to water. Even in the rain.

Floating Kanga

After 18 months, enormous quantities of sweat equity, quite a few tears, more money than I care to think about, several months in a barn, a new trailer, a failed (leaking!) launch, and 3 trips across the Orwell bridge, Kanga is officially in the water! She's tucked in at the end of a long line of other Squibs, feeling very pleased with her looks-like-new deck (thank you, father-in-law and husband). Remember when we met her, back in 2010?

We are waiting on two small boat-bits, both on order and due in this week, and then...weather permitting (hah)...we can SAIL!

Applications for crew gladly taken.

And this is her view, of an evening. Not bad, really.