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Charm - Great first couple of days, by Kent



The first day of sailing is what I came for! Heavy air sailing on a big performance catamaran is what I was looking for and we got it! I told Joe I wanted to see this thing do 25 knots, we hit 21 so we are getting close. We had many sustained runs in the 15-18 knot range. Such a fun boat to sail. We pushed the boat pretty hard all night and we know we were in a great position. The start was interesting, since Joe knows the boat better and where everything is, he had me drive the start. That is fine but I have to say a big cat does not handle like a Thistle or a J105. Thank goodness it has two engines to help get it through a tack when needed! Right after the start a bigger cat tried to roll over the top of us, yeah whatever, we did not let that happen. Anyone who sails with me can imagine that.... :)

Joe already wrote about where he "disappeared". I truly thought we had lost him and I was not sure when. I knew he went up on the foredeck but the next time I looked up there, he was gone. I had everybody looking for him and no one could locate him. I decided we were going to turn around and see if we can find him. On a monohull I know exactly what to do but I hesitated on Charm. I have heard to many stories of cats flipping over and we had a full main up and a jib out in some fairly heavy air, I wanted to get some sails down before just heading up into the wind as I just don't have the experience on a cat and did not know if I could do that. Right as we were preparing to take sails down and I was starting the engine, up pops Joe out of a hatch forward that I had checked and decided he was not in. Big relief. I had a talk with Joe later after I calmed down with a beer and now I have more confidence in what I can and can not do with the boat.

We are now sailing in some pretty light air but it is gorgeous out here. It looks like it will take a couple of extra more days but there have been whales, dolphins, sunshine, cold beer, and great friends. Everything is fantastic and we are having a great time.







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