Introducing the newest member of the family

Well, it is all done and dusted. She came home on Monday, kindly dropped off by her former guardians. We hadn't had long to get acquainted - we had only met her for the first time the day before, on Sunday. She seemed too good to be true: I had been looking off and on for her - or at least, someone like her, but as they say, good ones are few and far between.

Actually, there are plenty of good ones. The problem is that they're too expensive. And that just goes to show you that you can put a price on just about anything. It also goes to show that no matter what, I am unabashedly frugal. (Simone might call it 'tight-assed', but I prefer to think that that is an Australian colloquialism for 'frugal).

Back to the story. She was dropped off on Monday morning - Simone popped home from work and locked her in the garage. When I got home I opened up the garage to see how she was doing - she seemed to be alright, so I checked her out a bit, and then relocked the garage, went up and had dinner.

This morning, we let her out. We hooked the trailer to our shiny new trailer ball, and trundled off to the park. Simone, noticing that I was still a little awkward, left us alone for a bit to get to know each other.

So, I started putting her together: mast into the sail sleeve, attached the outhaul, re-attached another way, and then did it one more time to get it right. Next it was the vang, which only took two tries. The downhaul was easy - one attempt. Now, with the sail all put together, everything else was as I'd practiced on the club boats. No problems.

In my excitement to get out on the water, I rather forgot my life jacket. Whoops.

Wow. I have my own boat, and she sails a treat. Finished third last on scratch, second last on handicap. Not bad at all for a new boat.

Her name is Jatani. To the best of my knowledge, that's a city in India (in the state of Orissa, no less). She's green, she's old, and she's awesome.

Soon, I shall post photos (that Simone took) on Zooomr. They're just on the other computer at the moment.