After two weeks of being attached to the dock at Marmaris, we finally cast off the lines and sailed out of the marina. We had a few challenges with a jammed winch, then the dinghy in tow started to flood because of the speed, then the pulley broke as we pulled the dinghy engine over the stern railing, and then the primary autopilot refused to stay in standby mode, which temporarily made us think we had no ability to steer the ship. It was a huge crowd pleaser when we got our steering back by simply turning off the autopilot. I’ll definitely read the user manual on that system tomorrow.
The boat is amazing on the water. In a good breeze we were doing over 6 knots (around 7mph) with just the mainsail. Rolling out the jib put us over 8 knots steady, and for a few moments there it sort of felt like we knew what we were doing. The boat is very fast and smooth on all points of sail, there’s no doubt this boat is perfect for a circumnavigation.
The three of us windebanks were joined by Tunger, who is a local guy that’s been helping us fix up the boat. Not sure where we’d be without him, he’s become an important part of our team.
Our next sail will probably be over the weekend… Tomorrow will be a work day on the boat, in addition to catching up on our inboxes.