She's afloat!

After much ado we finally launched Troika last week. We drove to Lake Erie Metro Park, our favorite launch site (very wide, very gradual ramps) and raised the mast in the parking lot. Then we backed in, tied off, lowered the amas, and let her go! We were watched from above by a Border Patrol helicopter--we thought we were pretty important until ground support came along and detained a guy from a different boat that had just landed.

It only took us about an hour to launch this time, much better than the first couple of times. I drove the truck and trailer home and Bill, Erika and Toby motored home (sails were still in the attic). We finished fitting her up during the week, and sailed out to Lake Erie on Sunday. It was brisk and sunny, a perfect sailing day. There were a lot of sailboats out, and the bridge operator came out on the deck with a megaphone just to say hello. I think we were probably the most interesting traffic he had all day!

Now it's really summer! We have a better plan for next year--we're going to do all the cleaning and waxing and bottom painting in the fall. That should make summer come earlier, wouldn't you think?