On Friday 30th May, Jane and I set off for Bayfield to meet the sellers, Del and Susie, who were to explain the workings of our new boat, help us to rig it and, weather permitting, go out for a shakedown sail.  They had kindly booked us all in at a cottage at Brickyard Creek.

We arrived mid-afternoon and went straight to the cottage, hoping to find someone at the Sales office who might have the keys.  There wasn't - but there was a black bear who seemed particularly unperturbed by our presence.  That put the kaibosh on going for an exploratory walk so, instead, we drove down to the Marina.

There we were met by Mike Pospychalla, the manager, who gave us the keys to the boat.  Prozac looked very clean and we looked at the additional equipment that had been fitted: the new chartplotter, inverter, radar reflector, etc. whilst Mike explained the work that he had done on the engine.

Del and Susie arrived in the early evening and we went out for something to eat, in my case an introduction to a Bayfield speciality, Whitefish livers, not to everyone's taste!  However, a most enjoyable evening and we all got on famously.

The next morning we got to work on the boat, fitting the bimini and dodger and raising both sails.  Del and Susie explained in detail the fittings on the boat and how everything worked.  In the afternoon we took Prozac out for a brief sail during which we discovered that the auto-pilot was not functioning and that the mainsail was sticking when dropped.  We pondered over these issues during dinner and decided that the autopilot had probably been disconnected when the chartplotter was being fitted and that we should sail the boat down to Pikes Bay Marina for Mark Lustig to take a look.

So we set off on Sunday on what proved to be a very enjoyable sail in good winds, the boat nudging 7 knots with just the genoa raised.  Mark confirmed our diagnosis and fixed the problem in a jiffy; and, on the way back, we stopped off in Bayfield for lunch and tinkered with the main, discovering that a combination of tightening the outhaul and the leech line was all that as needed.  Both problems solved!

The weather changed as we returned to Roy's Point from a hot, sunny day to a somewhat threatening one.  We managed to dock Prozac just before the winds picked up and the rain fell.  We bade farewell to Del and Susie, two exceptionally nice people.  I am sure that we will stay in contact; who knows, maybe we will go on a sailing vacation together one day.

The next morning Jane and I returned to Montreal to attend to a few things, including our younger son's graduation from university and for some final packing before my departure with Theyre to start the voyage.  It is all about to happen....!