May 29th 2025

Today was the day. After all the work, sweat, and sawdust, we were finally ready to go sailing. But first… we had to deal with the aftermath of the past few days. The boat was a mess. Tools, trash, rogue screws - everywhere. So, before we could even think about setting sail, we had to clean up. That alone took way longer than expected. On top of that, we needed to grab fuel for the outboard and haul the dinghy back onto the deck. Finally, just before noon, we were ready. We got the motor started… and realized something pretty important: We didn’t know which way was forward, reverse, neutral, or how to control speed.

Naturally, we did what anyone would do: we tried it and hoped for the best. We untied two of our three mooring lines, leaving the last one just in case. Alex shifted into what we thought was forward and we suddenly launched. Total panic. He couldn’t get it into neutral or reverse, and I couldn’t figure out how to slow it down, so we did the only thing we could: we shut the whole engine off. Thankfully, we were still tied to the buoy. Deep breath. Turns out: pulling the throttle toward you is faster, and pushing it away is slower. Makes no sense to me, but okay.

Attempt number two: We started the motor in neutral, untied the last line, and eased forward, smooth and calm. Success! Since it’s hard to see over the bow from the cockpit, Alex was at the helm while I guided him from up front. We had the navigation software running on the tablet just in case. We slipped past our tiny reef, wove between the other boats, and followed the buoys out of the marina. Right before reaching the reef pass, where you can cross through to open ocean, we had to carefully navigate through a bunch of wakeboarders. Once we made it through the channel, the ocean opened up around us. We could see surfers catching waves just off the reef, gliding past as we passed by. Time to sail.

We raised the sails for the first time, and even though there was barely any wind, maybe four knots, it felt magical. The waves were long and rolling, and the light breeze meant it was a perfect, gentle start. We turned on some music, Alex cast out a fishing line, and we snacked on fresh lychees. Could life be better? Even with the light wind, I tried to explain the basics of setting sails, trimming, sailing close to the wind, and tacking. Alex was soaking it in, and we were just out there, learning and floating.

Eventually, though, the wind completely disappeared. We were just bobbing, swaying with the waves. So, we dropped the sails and fired up the motor to head back. Unfortunately, that’s when I started to feel a little seasick. But as soon as we got back into calmer water, I felt fine again. We returned to our mooring buoy and nailed it on the second try, not bad for a first-timer crew!

Once tied up, we sorted the sails and got the cover back on. Alex went down to cook up a delicious meal while I sat in the cockpit, writing in the sailing diary and watching the stars come out. And just like that, our first sailing day came to an end.

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