Maiden Voyage-Mothers Day

Sunday, May 14, 2006. Kathy, Rachel, and I traveled to St. Pete with Jim (JZ) and Amy Zeiset to see the boat. I have the gate combo, and let us into the deserted boat yard. Low and behold, the radome was on the mast, the chartplotter was installed at the helm, and all the wiring was back in place. Sunny and breezy, the boat looks ready (even though we hadn’t heard from the boatyard despite many phone messages to them the previous 2 days), and it’s Mothers’ Day, so what should we do? Go on the maiden voyage, of course!
With expert crew on the dock lines, we backed smoothly out of the slip in a crosswind, and headed for Tampa Bay. JZ performed most of the helm duties while I cranked on the winches and ran all over the boat checking everything. The girls soaked up some sun and Rachel kept an eye out for shipwrecks on the chartplotter down in the nav station. There are quite a few but we didn’t see them. The chartplotter worked great, especially since we didn’t have an operable depth sounder.
After docking, Terry and Chris Reynolds dropped by to share the moment and some beer with us. High spirits all around!