She floats
October 23 2022 saw Pegaso in the water, for the first time in now 17 years. After a few days of testing systems that could only be tested in the water (generator, engine, sensors) the evening of October 28 was high tide, full moon, and incoming storm surge to get out of the shallow Herrington Harbour North. Three guys, Fred Probst, Rick Macomber, and I left the slip and ventured out into the pretty choppy darkness of Herrington Bay, on our way of a 3-4 hour ride to the Annapolis anchorage where I would wait for 2 weeks for the appointment of the mast step.
The trip was successful despite a couple of dishes not being secured enough and Rick had to run down to save the whiskey bottles. We had spray over the bow and pilot house heading into the wind. Dropping the anchor at the Annapolis anchorage was no problem. Remember, all of these things have not seen any water other than rainwater ever.
I dropped the guys off with the underinflated dinghy at the Eastport Yacht Club and my outboard promptly died, probably of old gas on the way back. I had to paddle back to the boat before I could spend my first night in the boat on the water. It was not much of a wholesome sleep since I frequently got up to check if the anchor dragged, there were no leaks, and all kinds of system diagrams were evaluated and re-evaluated to determine if all is ok.
I remember particularly that night wondering if I had wired the generator charger to recharge the starter battery because if I could not start the generator I would not be able to recharge the batteries which were down to about 50% by the morning because I had to run the spreader lights on the mizzen mast since my anchor light is on the main mast, which is not on the boat yet. The generator was wired up correctly and would recharge the batteries, but the rough ride here must have stirred up a bunch of tank sediment in the day tank because the filter bowl was basically black. Here starts the first maintenance task while on the boat with the things you have on the boat.
Fortunately, the weather was relatively mild and the 2 weeks on the water were not too complicated. At some time the folks from Annapolis Rigging showed up and we started preparations to step the main mast which required the enlargement of the stainless steel mast base and some corresponding fiberglass work. Eventually, the time came to move the boat the short stretch into Bert Yabins Yacht yard to get the main mast installed.
