Launch Day!

After years of planning, months of boat shopping and weeks of surveying we’re now launching our new boat, a Whitby Alberg 37. She’s a beautiful boat, very well maintained by her three previous owners and is outfitted for cruising.

We're equally nervous and excited in this photo. After emailing back and forth for weeks with the owners and making the seven hour drive from Zephyrhills Florida twice to see her, we’ve now just officially taken possession of her. Within 2 hours of taking ownership of her we’ll be casting of the lines and sailing her into the Straights of Florida. The previous owners Jerimiah and Brittany from TheLazyGeckos.com kindly reviewed the systems with us, and then we were on our own...

This will be the first time I’ve handled a boat over 33ft and exactly the 3rd time I’ve handled a boat over 17ft. 

Some of our sailing hero’s arrived for the event! Annie and Phillip from havewindwilltravel.com came to offer us a launch day bottle of champagne and a copy of Annie’s book! It was extremely nice for them to come and gave us a wonderfully warm introduction into the cruising world. However, this raised the stakes on delivering a good exiting performance in front of them!  We rose to the challenge and left without any dramas. Initially we were planning on rounding the corner into our slip (a seemingly daunting task). But, Annie and Phillip strongly recommended we take her out for her first sail. Who were we to challenge this experienced yachting couple’s expert advise.

So, we motored down the channel, turned into the wind, and raised the main. Rolled out the genoa and we were underway. We started shouting in excitement!

After sailing in light winds for a couple hours we motored into our slip. We didn’t get any style points but we didn’t hit anything either. At this stage that was all we could ever ask for.