Sailing + Brownies = WIN

Today we had a beautiful sail to Lahave River Yacht Club. We left Mahone Civic Marina at 9:30am, sailed past The Ovens (very cool to see it from the water) and meandered our way up the Lahave river to the yacht club.

We got the full main and jib up and played with some sail configuration. Brilliant!

I wanted to celebrate us for putting all the sails up and working together, so I broke out a brownies mix and we made yummy brownies while underway. Another win!

The only other eventful thing that happened today was suddenly Matt yells 'MAN OVERBOARD!'

He had thrown a fender into the water for us all to practice a man overboard drill.

We all stayed calm, cool and collected, and managed to save our man overboard in a safe and secure manner.

Now doing it in ideal almost- glassy conditions was one thing. I know saving someone in huge seas, at night and with limited visibility is next to impossible.

When we arrived at Lahave, we grabbed a visitors mooring buoy, then got ourselves ready to go into the marina office and register.

First we had to lower the dinghy off of the davits and then lower the outboard onto the dinghy.

While we were lowering the outboard onto the dinghy, the kids were watching and tailing the end of my rope that I was slowly releasing so that the motor would lower in a controlled manner.

Matt was in the dinghy ready to catch the outboard as I lowered it so he could maneuver it into place and lock it in.

Tai said something at that moment about how we all need to have good communication to work together.

He was totally spot on!

I never noticed how much Matt and I (and the kids to an extent) talk and plan out loud and debrief with each other. But I suppose from the kids' point of view we certainly do a lot of communicating, especially when it comes to a boat job that requires teamwork, accuracy and precision.

Tonight is our first time on a mooring ball and we are self sufficient. We have enough water, food, fuel, chocolate and board games to keep us going for a few days without needing to restock.

It certainly feels very different than being on a dock. It is empowering and humbling all at the same time.

Look at this. What do you see? Nothing on the bench or floor? EXACTLY!
I Love with a capital L being able to walk and sit without tip toeing around
tools and equipment and parts. But I know all good things come to an end
and I'm just waiting until the next major job where we will have to empty all
the cupboards and lockers again onto this floor and bench. In the meantime,
I will lie on the bench and do yoga on this floor. 

Got this journal at Chapters. We are using it doe our log book to record
every passage we make. Hard to make out but it says DON'T HURRY BE HAPPY.

Think we got enough screens? On the LHS is the autopilot.
Bottom machine is our Raymarine chartplotter.
Matt's phone has Navionics on it for route plotting.

Mixing the brownies.

All gone!

Licking the brownie batter. MMMMmm

Recording info about our sail, later to be graphed.

Those gauges and screens you see on the left, those are the wind speed,
ground and apparent wind and depth meter.

Brownies for the win!

Brownies cooked in our own oven while sailing. ✔

We had the kids log our passage every 30 minutes.
 As you can tell, brownie making was very crucial too.

A route of our passage from Mahone Bay to Lahave River Yacht Club.

The gorgeous Ovens.
So beautiful to see it from the water's point of view after seeing it from land.

Sailing in a gentle but consistent wind.

Reading on passage... something we'll be seeing a lot of!

Aila completed our registration at Lahave Yacht club today.

Horseshoes at Lahave River Yacht club.