Survey time!

Last Friday we went to New Bern for the survey, sea trial, and haulout of Logos. What an interesting new experience it was! We had a few mishaps on the sea trial, including the mounting bracket for the autopilot breaking off, and the headsail roller furler jamming when we tried to furl the sail after the sea trial. The furler was old and pretty close to end of life anyway, so after a rigger checked it out, we decided to split the cost of a nice new Harken furler with the seller, who is also repairing the autopilot and several other small items found on the survey. There were no deal breakers, fortunately. It was such fun to take a short sail on our soon-to-be first boat! Here are a few photos from the haulout in Sailcraft Boatyard in Oriental:

Our surveyor inspecting the rigging at the top of the mast Logos awaiting haulout Logos hauled out

We spent the late afternoon playing tourists on a very hot, humid, breezy day in New Bern, along the waterfront and in the historic downtown.

Female mallard

We discovered that New Bern has the moniker of "Bear City", which pleased Barry ("Bear") and provided a few additional photo ops.

On Saturday we visited with a friend from my work, John, and his wife at Blackbeard Sailing Club. We got to meet his wife Connie and boat-owner partner Doug, as well as a few other friendly folks at the club. They ended up taking us out for a sail on their own Catalina 30, which was great fun on a beautiful day, cooler and with less humidity. Barry and I both took the helm for quite awhile. It was fun to get a feel for what sailing Logos will be like. And soon!

Meet Logos

We have a contract on a boat! She's a Catalina 30 named Logos. We took a trip to Oriental and New Bern last weekend and looked at a variety of boats. Logos was the one we had been interested in from checking out listings on Yachtworld even before seeing her, and she didn't disappoint. Now we have a whirlwind month ahead of having a haulout, survey, and sea trial, closing, and then actually sailing her to her new home marina. We're excited but anxious too....hopefully it will all go as smoothly as possible, no hurricanes will come up the east coast this fall, and we'll have a successful delivery -- our first ever. After all our sailing classes, a new chapter in our life is beginning! Here are a couple of photos of the intrepid sailors in Oriental:

A new backyard visitor

Much to our surprise, we had two visits from a gorgeous hawk in our backyard bird-feeding area this week. We've identified him as a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk, and being a youngster, he doesn't seem to have figured out how to catch our songbirds. He watched them for a long while, but didn't make a move. Later, Barry saw him at the birdbath.

What a handsome bird, and a very unusual sighting for our yard, normally inhabited only by mulitudinous hummingbirds and goldfinches this time of year!