The launch was a success. We picked up a mooring in the harbor, but we were having trouble. The boat kept moving forward and sailing on the mooring. The control levers were in neutral, but still we were sailing. On shutting down the engines, we settled down and breathed. It was the first time I had driven our new stead and it was a bit nerve racking. Under low revs she does not respond well as the rudders are very small and I had to learn to drive using the engine controls.
Early the morning after launching we bent on the roller furler head sail. I also went up the rig to check the rigging. This was something saved to do in the water from a safety point of view, because if the halyard breaks, one has a better chance of recovering from a water landing than from one on concrete. On the way down this huge carbon fiber rotating wing mast, I sprayed the track to make hoisting this monstrous mainsail up easier, even though we have a power winch to do that task.
El Gecco and Darlene
The wind freshened and El Gecco was bucking to go. In early afternoon we cast off the mooring lines and headed out into the Gulf of Praia. Venezuela was 7 miles to our west. Clear of vessels, we hoisted the main and killed the engine. Like any great stead, she bolted and was off. The head sail was unfurled and in the first few minutes of driving her, we were doing 8 knots in less than 12 knots wind. Our smiles beamed. Bearing away we gave her room to stretch her legs. Clear of the land, the breeze was stronger and when I looked down at the knot meter, we were touching 10 knots and she was singing to us. It did not feel like 10 knots boat speed. It felt much slower. We tacked and brought her onto a reach and headed to the Boca Islands. Comfortable she had bursts of speed above 11 knots. She is a dream.
Daylight was getting fading and it was time to find a place to tuck in for the night. We tacked and with the dagger board down, began making our way to windward. Here we were in trouble. We could not get her to point. Her tack angles were huge. We realized that we were going to have to get to know what made her go to windward, but it would not be that night. We motored into Scotland Bay and dropped the anchor. Again, she wanted to sail ahead and when I killed the engine she behaved. The engine lever was stuck in forward even though she was out of gear in the cockpit. We found the Morse cable disconnected by a broken fitting.
Scotland Bay had interesting views and sounds. The rain forest came all the way to the water, and it was deep. Many boats were at anchor. At dawn, new sounds were heard. It sounded like a pig was being killed, then many pigs were being slaughtered. There was grunting and snorting. It was in a way a frightening and intimidating sound. I am glad we had deep water between us and the deep jungle where no human civilization could be easily created. The sounds were traveling at a fast speed, too fast to be slaughtered pigs. It lasted all through day break and then died out. It returned at dusk again. We later learned that it was the Howler monkeys in the trees.