Pudgie's New Home

The sailboat is now on Lake Keowee. The moving and launching on Saturday all went very well and we have no complaints. I think we made a smart move by hiring Big Water to do the move for us. It would have been a little complicated for us otherwise since we are inexperienced. After the boat was in the water, the Big Water guys took off and now the boat was in our hands. We had to tension the standing rigging (got some great advice on that from 2 guys on the boat next to us), and attach the boom, mainsail, anchor and solar panel. Sunday we went shopping for some new dock lines, fender lines and other miscellaneous stuff. Andrew spotted a nice pair of sailing shoes for me so we got them. It is very important to Andrew that I have hi-tech non marking sailing shoes. I bought another book on knots. This one had sections on whipping and splicing lines using a needle and thread. I did my first two whips last evening and they turned out pretty good. The first on a fender line and the second on a new dock line. The whip on the end of a line prevents the line from unravelling. Most people these days just use a bic lighter to heat up the ends and melt the strands together. But the traditional way uses whips and it does look much nicer and has a much nicer feel since you don't feel that hard lump of melted fiber at the end of the line. We will have to see how my whips hold up to use and the weather.